Neuenhaus is enchanting, really. You get the feeling you’ve stepped into the pages of a fairy tale. You are surrounded by a landscape that has features you’ve only perhaps heard of.
When is the last time you saw a heath, or a ditch with clear water flowing serenely on, or vast stretches of meadows with blooms as far as you can see? Then there are the half-timbered buildings standing against aged trees silhouetted against the clearest of blue skies.
Well, you are in luck if you feel like exploring this mystical landscape for they have well laid out cycling paths that take you through the best of it all.
Neuenhaus is certainly full of surprises. Check out Oak Alley where you’ll find the old water mill and the manor house. The Old Town Hall might surprise you with its decidedly Dutch architecture, but that’s only till you realize the town literally borders Netherlands. You’ll find the Dutch influence pretty much everywhere.
Neuenhaus’ other delights include the St. John’s Lutheran Church. You’d never realize this is actually a church till someone points it out to you (like, um, I ;-). It’s strikingly different from any church you might have seen.
The rising steeple of the Catholic Church, however, will leave you in no such doubts. The immense pillars supporting the domed ceiling are simply magnificent and yes, this is certainly awe-inspiring in more ways than one.
Neuenhaus has this special way of molding everything around nature. Nothing stands outside of the natural beauty surrounding it. This is especially so in the case of the Mühlenkolk grain and sawmill. Surrounded by trenches and merging into the surrounding greenery this used to be a port connected to the Dinkel and Vecht rivers.
Veldhausen, one of the town’s neighborhoods, used to be an old village with its own share of attractions till it was merged with Neuenhaus to form one bigger town. But the merger did nothing to diminish the individuality of this feisty little district.
Well over a century old this part of town is where the true history enthusiast goes to pieces. Just check out the Evangelical Church with its 31-meter-tall tower and 17th century organ and the Millers House and you’ll see what I mean.
