Giesen in Lower Saxony isn’t anywhere near the same as the Hessian town of Gießen. While that one little “S” makes a world of difference in regard to population (and stuff like that); this Giesen here doesn’t sacrifice on quality.
What I like best about Giesen are all the bicycling trails. There’s something really special about bicycling your way through Lower Saxony. One route is known as the Radweg zur Kunst, which is an art themed route. If you take the Radweg Hildesheim Ring, you’ll connect to some other routes that run through neighboring Hildesheim.
Before you go doing all that, cycle around Giesen’s five villages first. Groß Förste might be the smallest of Giesen’s villages with only about 870 residents, and it has the oldest church in town, built around 1236.
Groß Giesen and Klein Giesen (Large & Small Giesen) each have a beautiful church to see for artwork. But, Groß Giesen’s St. Vitus Church is the older one of the two, it is still more than 400 years younger than Groß Förste’s church.
You’ll also find two Local History Museums, called a Heimatmuseum in Germany — one in Giesen proper (Rathausstr. 42) and one in Ahrbergen at Krugstr. 4.
Emmerke has a couple of churches to see, the Catholic St. Martinus Church and the Lutheran St. Johanes Church. It also houses the town’s archives, in case you’re there to scope out anything historical.
Another place to see the historical side of town is within the Giesener Forest with more than 43 Bronze Age grave hills. That’s pretty cool, if you ask me!
I’m not sure what to think of the huge Potash pile, though, that can be seen from quite a distance. It’s been here for a VERY long time, back when Potash was mined here.
If you’d rather just walk along in a quiet, picturesque nature protected area, the village of Auenwald is where you’ll want to be. Wait! I forgot for a minute, it’s better to cycle around there since that IS the best way to see Lower Saxony. :-)
