The best traffic-free bike rides around Bilsen

https://ellerau.de/vereine-und-verbaende

The Karl Rautenberg Museum is a local history museum located in the annex of the Ellerau town hall, established in 1990. It displays living spaces from around 1900, farm implements, folk household and work tools, and tools from a shoemaker's, tailor's, blacksmith's, and carpenter's workshop, as well as from the bricklayer's and butcher's trades. It is open to the public on Saturday afternoons with free admission. It is named after the Quickborn druggist Karl Rautenberg, who offered his extensive collection to the former mayor of Ellerau after the municipality of Quickborn expressed no interest. The Ellerau Local History and Museum Association was founded in February 1988, and the museum opened two years later.

Peat cutting, i.e., the above-ground extraction of peat, is no longer economically viable today. Peat as a fuel has largely been replaced by other high-energy fossil fuels. Many large-scale peatlands suitable for industrial extraction have now been drained. New peat cutting areas are only permitted under strict conditions. Raised bogs have an important regulatory effect on the water balance due to the large amounts of precipitation they can absorb. The preservation of the original habitats serves landscape conservation and species protection, as most species of peatland flora and fauna are considered threatened or critically endangered. Bogs grow extremely slowly; an intact peat body increases in thickness by only one millimeter per year. It therefore takes a thousand years for a one-meter-high layer of peat to form. Thus, bog areas recover very slowly during restoration attempts.

The Himmelmoor, one of the most beautiful moors in the Hamburg metropolitan region, can be explored on a 3.8-kilometer-long moorland nature trail. Along the trail, there are interactive stations and information panels where you can learn fascinating facts about the moor's flora and fauna, as well as its history. From several viewing hills, visitors can enjoy impressive views of the expansive moorland landscape.

The reclamation of the Himmelmoor began around 1780. Its edges were divided into 1,000 to 5,000 square meter plots and transferred to farmers from neighboring villages for peat extraction. Industrial peat extraction began in the 1870s. Peat was now also extracted from the center of the moor using machines. Peat excavators extracted the black peat, compressed it, and divided it into sods. Turning the drying sods was increasingly done by machine, as was the collection of the dry peat. The low-energy fuel was packaged and loaded at the peat works.

Simply an experience!

From April to October, the exhibition is open every first and third Sunday and on public holidays in the old peat works at Himmelmoorchaussee 61 in Quickborn. It features pictures and old maps, presenting, among other things, the historical peat extraction process, the tools and machinery used, the climate impact of moors, and the diverse flora and fauna of the Himmelmoor Nature Reserve. Depending on the weather, short, spontaneous tours can be arranged. Admission is free, and donations for volunteer work are always welcome. https://www.hamburg-tourism.de/sehen-erleben/veranstaltungen/veranstaltungskalender/open-torfwerk-am-himmelmoor/

Cyclists should ALWAYS push their bikes, but there's no ban on cycling. It's a great path whether you're on or off the bike. In general, everyone should be considerate!