レーアテの山小屋＆キャビン・トップ13

Good shelter in the rain.

There is a little sadness in the creation of this highlight. Because the vibrant meeting place not only, but especially for people who care about nature, has become a 'lost place'. The NaturFreundehaus Grafhorn has unfortunately fallen victim to the corona pandemic. All employees of the hotel and the restaurant have found new jobs outside of the catering industry. So there was no easy way back to becoming a destination with culinary supplies again. Grafhorn has remained a fixed stop for me on tours with and without different means of transport, but when visiting the buildings that are now accessible from the outside again and the seating is still available, all that remains are the memories of the excellent, home-made cakes, coffee specialties and other sometimes surprising gastronomic offerings, such as barbecue events that were still available before 2021. Even at the time when the wheel sizes of my childhood bikes reached dimensions that meant that a trip from Burgdorf would not have ended up as a weekend trip, I was very excited when it became clear that Grafhorn would be the destination. The surrounding area was very tempting to explore. Of course, the buildings were much more rustic and poorly equipped back then, but food such as ice cream (very important for children) and coffee + cake were already available. At that time, the kitchen door in the hallway was used as a hatch, with a folding board in the middle of the frame that prevented unauthorized entry and also served as a counter. The last tenant basically maintained this charm, a careful renovation of the 'guest room' preserved the furniture, a fresh coat of paint and new curtains got rid of the musty smell that was strongly reminiscent of my grandparents' allotment garden, but also encouraged people to head out when the weather wasn't necessarily inviting for sitting and eating outside. History: https://www.naturatrails-niedersachsen.de/NF_Haeuser/NFH_Grafhorn/NFH_1_Text.html Next to the 'real' hatch, which was now located directly in the wall between the guest room and the kitchen and opened after ringing a bell, there was an extensive library with literature on flora, fauna, the environment and nature in general. The reason for this was quite simple: the boss was, after all, a master of the Environment, Nature Conservation and Sustainability course (https://www.uni-hildesheim.de/neuigkeiten/experimentalarchaeologie-neue-erkenntnisse-zur-eisenverhuettung/; https://www.uni-hildesheim.de/fb4/institute/geographie/aktuelles/detailansicht/experimentalarchaeologie/) who is in the process of establishing the Naturfreundehaus as a training and educational facility. His master's thesis, in which he dealt with early iron smelting, certainly prompted him to place the Iron Age open-air museum (http://grafhorn.de/index.html) next to the existing buildings. According to my information, only the forest courses, e.g. on the subject of biodiversity, can still be booked with Christian Helmreich, who has now switched from being the 'manager' of the Naturfreundehaus Graforn to being the climate protection manager for the city of Lehrte. Perhaps the atmosphere of Grafhorn will be briefly revived for these explorations, which my children were able to experience for birthday parties and end-of-year events at school. However, I do not believe that these can be booked including an overnight stay, as was possible in the days when the 'Lost' could be replaced by a 'Living' version of the 'Place' and which my now adult children still talk about.

a great place for a break. The hut is quite open, but the roof is tight so you can enjoy your break in the dry or in the shade.

A nice and quiet place to rest. Unfortunately, the lake is pretty barren in January.

Good solid hut for a rest.

You wouldn't expect the big pond to be behind the Annastift.

The hut is unfortunately locked, would be nice in winter if you could go inside.

In earlier centuries, today's park area was a moist fen area, which was used to mine clay from the 17th century onwards. The former clay pit later filled with water. This resulted in the originally much smaller Annateich. From 1936 to 1939 the pond was greatly expanded for the park in the local recreation area. The lake consists of an eastern and a western part, which are separated by a dam that is broken in two places. The water is slightly cloudy, the water depth is in the range of 1-2 m. In the western part the water is slightly deeper than in the eastern part. Due to the separation into two parts with only minimal connecting points, the Annateichen are also colloquially spoken of in the plural in Hanover. Source: Wikipedia