Lower Saxony · Self-guided walk
Buxtehude in one walk 6 sights, 15 minutes
A self-guided walking tour of the Buxtehude Old Town: 6 sights on one 0.8 km loop, about 15 minutes on foot, back where you started.
No two days to spare? Here is the short version: the big sights in one loop. I would take longer. I always take longer.
At a glance
The walk in numbers.
- Distance
- 0.8 km, a loop
- Time
- about 15 minutes of walking at 4 km/h, plus however long you stop
- Sights
- 6
- Start and finish
- St. Petri-Kirche
- Steps
- no streets with steps on the route
- Cost
- free: no guide, no booking, no tip
The route
Map of the Buxtehude walk: 6 stops, one loop.
The gold line is the walk. The numbers are the stops, in the order you reach them. The pale lines are every other street in the Old Town.
Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL).
The stops
6 sights in Buxtehude, in walking order.
Each stop says how far the next one is and which streets take you there.
1. St. Petri-Kirche
the start
You see its tower long before you find the door. Inside waits an organ from 1859 with 3,300 pipes, which I can only read as a great many straws. Then look all the way up, to the very top, and decide for yourself what is sitting there.
Next: Marschtorzwinger, 170 m, about 3 min, along Liebfrauenstraße, Fischerstraße, Westfleth.
2. Marschtorzwinger
about 3 minutes of walking from the start · inside open Tue–Fri 16:00–19:00, Sat–Sun 11:00–18:00, Mon closed
A piece of the town's old defences that never left. Its walls are up to 1.90 m thick, which to anyone else is protection and to me is a very long lunch. Count the narrow openings somebody once peered out of.
Next: Fleetenkieker, 140 m, about 2 min, along Westfleth.
3. Fleetenkieker
about 5 minutes of walking from the start
Someone stands by the old harbour and has not gone home in years. Same spot, every weather. I know the feeling: stones are good at that too. Spend a minute beside him and find out what he is keeping an eye on.
Next: Flethmühle Buxtehude, 140 m, about 2 min, along Ostfleth.
Lunch break
Café PomPom, Westfleth 23, about 30 m off the route, open Tue–Sat 09:00–17:00, Mon, Sun closed.
A colourful room on the Westfleth with a garden hidden behind it. More on what to eat in Buxtehude.
4. Flethmühle Buxtehude
about 7 minutes of walking from the start
A tall building at the end of the old harbour. For centuries it did one job: turning a river into flour. That is the most sensible use of a river I have ever heard of. What it does now, I am not telling you.
Next: Hase-und-Igel-Brunnen, 100 m, about 2 min, along Ritterstraße.
5. Hase-und-Igel-Brunnen
about 8 minutes of walking from the start
The town's most famous race, stopped mid-stride. One runner has long legs. The other has a plan. I have neither, only patience, which is slower than both and has never once lost. Come and see who is ahead.
Next: Rathaus Buxtehude, 160 m, about 2 min, along Lange Straße.
6. Rathaus Buxtehude
about 11 minutes of walking from the start
Built in 1913 by an architect who had trained at the building school in this very town. Homework, handed in a few years late. Take your time at the entrance: it is telling a joke, and it is a slow one. I like slow.
Back to the start: St. Petri-Kirche, 120 m, about 2 min, along Lange Straße, Kirchenstraße.
Every stop counts from the street; the hours are for going inside. Opening hours from OpenStreetMap, © OpenStreetMap contributors. Check before you go.
After the walk
The rest of Buxtehude.
This loop is 6 sights. The Old Town is 31 streets, and I have opinions about all of them. Every street of the Buxtehude Old Town, with what to eat and where.
Cobble Gobble is a walking game for iPhone: every street is a line of dots you collect by walking it, and the phone stays in your pocket. Your first city is free.