Germany Guide
Lower Saxony
The Lüneburg Heath
Between Celle and Lüneburg lie the open heathlands of the LÜNEBURG HEATH (Lüneburger Heide). Minimally populated with farming villages of Lower Saxony red-brick and beams, the area has been mostly drained of its original moorland to stand as an uncultivated rolling landscape area famed for the heather that lays a carpet of dusty purple blooms from mid-August, auguring in a month of village fêtes to crown a Heather Queen: the week-long Heather Blossom Festival at Amelinghausen from the middle Saturday in August is the largest. Being mixed with broom, gorse and juniper, the heather also produces excellent honey and adds flavour to the shaggy Heidschnucke lambs, which are grazed here year-round by shepherds with a weakness for traditional floppy hats and waistcoats. The favoured grazing ground is conservation area the Naturschutzpark Lüneburger Heide, centred on the Wilseder Berg, a hill that at 169m is easily the highest point in the park. Alongside sheep, you can spy from its summit a couple of the huge megaliths that dot the area, known locally as Hünengräber (giants' graves). The hill is accessed from pretty village Undeloh just off the A7 west of Lüneburg, but limited public transport makes visiting tricky without a bike or a car – tourist offices in Celle and Lüneburg are your best sources of information or, for pre-planning, area tourism website 
www.lueneburger-heide.de is useful, though there's not much in English.
Nowithstanding tracks that crisscross the heather, the most popular attraction of the area is Vogelpark Walsrode (daily: March– Oct 10am–5/7pm; Nov– Feb 10am–4pm; €14; www.vogelpark-walsrode.de ) – Europe's largest bird park stages free-flight displays to buttress attractions of its raised treewalk, penguin enclosure and rainforest house. It's at the western fringe of the heath, 2km from the Bahnhof at Walsrode; bus #51 goes direct from the station.