Dear TR members,
We are slowly getting closer to the finish line for the Germany meeting in May 2026.
When you hold this issue of TR-Info in your hands or view the online edition on your screen, there will only be a few months left until you turn onto the driveway of the Hotel Park Soltau.
After what we hope will be a smooth and relaxed journey, we will give you a fitting welcome. After a quick bite to eat and once the formalities have been completed, you can check into your room from 3 p.m. onwards.
The organising team had made an internal bet on how many participants would register by 31 December 2025. We were way off the mark, because the magic 100 mark was broken within three days. We were delighted with this early response from home and abroad.
In addition to the tours, Soltau itself also has a lot to offer. If you plan to stroll through the town, you can visit the following museums:
felto – FILZWELT SOLTAU
Felt has been produced in Soltau for various purposes since 1851. The museum is located in a listed brick building in the middle of the pedestrian zone.
Marktstraße 19
Open daily from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Toy Museum in Soltau
At two locations, you can marvel at one of the best and most diverse toy collections in the world, covering 900 m². Historical and modern toys are on display there.
Poststr. 7
Open daily from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Printing Museum ‘Die Bleilaus’
The museum is in good company with the Toy Museum, the felto Felt Museum, the Soltau Museum and the Salt Museum. There are old typesetting machines and printing plates on display, as well as their products.
Kirchstr. 2
Open from 2 pm to 5 pm,
closed on Sundays
Museum Kunststätte
Bosssard in Jesteburg
This is not a museum in the traditional sense, but rather an expressionist Gesamtkunstwerk (total work of art) on a 3-hectare property.
Johann M. Bossard and his wife Jutta Bossard-Krull wanted to merge architecture, sculpture, painting, arts and crafts and garden art into a single entity. The ensemble was created between 1911 and 1950.
Bossardweg 95
Open from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Distance 20 km, 30 min
Designer Outlet Soltau
Just around the corner, this large outlet offers another opportunity to find the right outfit for the meeting in the brand stores, which feature 80 fashion and lifestyle brands.
Distance 9 km, 12 min
Open Saturday 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Other worthwhile destinations are also right on the doorstep and offer interesting insights or special experiences of all kinds, so there should be something for everyone.
First, there is Heidepark Soltau with its numerous attractions. For brave visitors, there is Europe’s highest and fastest wooden roller coaster and much more for thrills to suit every taste.
Distance 4 km, 5 min
Or how about:
Vogelpark Walsrode
With over 4,000 birds (650 species), this bird park is the largest in the world.
If the weather is not favourable, seven indoor attractions covering 5,000 square metres at Weltvogelpark Walsrode ensure an eventful visit.
Distance: 33 km, 35 min
For gin lovers, there is one important address:
Bosselmann Distillery
Here, both herbal schnapps and several types of gin are distilled and offered for sale in the shop. The owner describes himself as an alchemist and botanist, hunter and gatherer.
Visits are possible by appointment. So it’s best to call ahead at:
+49 (0) 1515 0620263
in Egestorf, Kuhlhof 7
Distance: 33 km, 48 min
Most of the following suggestions are outside this heathland landscape. They may be of interest to participants who want to spend more time in northern Germany.
The Tister Bauernmoor
570 hectares of nature reserve invite you to go hiking, ride the moor railway or enjoy coffee and cake. Peat has been extracted here for generations, whether as litter or fuel. In 2000, it was declared an EU bird sanctuary and in 2001 it was designated a nature reserve.
Adjacent to it is the 580-hectare Ekelmoor. Together with the Avensermoor and Everstorfer Moor to the east, both moors belong to the large Ekelmoor high moor complex.
Distance: 40.3 km, 44 min
Worpswede…
…is the quintessential North German artists‘ village. It is located on the edge of the Teufelsmoor (Devil’s Moor) just outside Bremen. At the end of the 19th century, a number of young painters came here. They sought a simple life in the moorland, away from the art academies. The special light over the moor is reflected in the unique atmosphere of many landscape paintings. The artists‘ colony was particularly influenced by Fritz Mackensen, Otto Modersohn, Heinrich Vogeler and Paula Modersohn-Becker. Rainer Maria Rilke shaped the literary reputation of the place.
Fritz Vogeler’s Barkenhof became the first centre of attraction for the artists. The works of artists from then and now can be admired in many museums. Worpswede is and remains connected to art.
Distance: 82 km, 1 hr 30 min
Ship lift in Scharnebek
It belongs to the northern of the two canal stages of the Elbe Side Canal federal waterway, connecting the Elbe near Artlenburg with the Mittelland Canal near Edesbüttel west of Wolfsburg.
The lift was built in 1974 as the world’s largest at the time. The first ship passed through the ship lift on 5 December 1975.
In three minutes, a height difference of max. 38 m is overcome. The adjoining museum or a guided tour can provide interesting insights into this structure.
Guided tours on Sundays
from 11 a.m.
Adendorfer Str. 44
21379 Scharnebeck
Distance: 47 km, 1 hr 10 min
www.schiffshebewerk-scharnebeck.de
Hösseringen Museum Village
A truly fascinating open-air museum with 30 historic buildings from the history of the heath. Much of the filming for the television series ‘Schwarzes Gold’ took place here.
Landtagsplatz 2
29556 Suderburg
Distance: 54 km, 1 hr 10 min
www.museumsdorf-hoesseringen.de
These are our suggestions in addition to the organised tours. It is a cross-section of the possibilities that the heath and more distant destinations have to offer. The information team will be happy to give you further interesting tips for excursions.
We look forward to seeing you!
Your organising team
Hamburg and Hanover
Room categories (at Hotel Park Soltau)
- Single room: €72.50
- Junior double room €120 (18 m², French bed, width 1.60 m)
- Double room €125.50 (single mattresses, width 1.80 m)
- Family rooms on request.
All categories have barrier-free rooms and are accessible by lift. Dogs are allowed in limited numbers and subject to a surcharge.
All rooms in the two reserve hotels are double rooms, some with twin beds (separate beds), mattresses 90/100 cm wide.
- They cost 135€.
Barrier-free rooms are available, dogs are only allowed in one of these hotels and subject to a surcharge.
The room prices for all three hotels include breakfast.
The tours
To help you decide which organised tours/visits you would like to book, here is a brief description.
- Residence town of Celle
- Guided tour of the residence town (duration of the tour 1.5 hours / duration of the journey approx. 1.5 hours)
For over 700 years, the town of Celle has been located directly on the River Aller, on the southern edge of the Lüneburg Heathlands. Tradition and modernity combine in the historic town centre to create a very special atmosphere.
In Celle, you will meet the ‘witches’ or the ‘night watchman’s wife’, who will take you on a guided tour of the old town. Afterwards, you can continue to explore the sights (e.g. the castle) on your own, indulge in some shopping, or simply relax in one of the numerous cafés and restaurants.
If you still haven’t seen enough, you can visit the Crude Oil Museum in Wietze, the Bergen-Belsen Memorial or the Wienhausen Monastery on your individual return journey to Soltau. - Start of the tour: Saturday, 23 May 2026, at 12 noon
- Cost: Guided tour in German/English €13 per person
(3 groups of 25 participants) - Parking fees will be charged as required.
- Guided tour of the residence town (duration of the tour 1.5 hours / duration of the journey approx. 1.5 hours)
- Lüneburg, the salt town
- Guided tour on the topic of salt
(Duration 1.5 hours) - Lüneburg is the salt city of the north. For over 1,000 years, salt shaped the life of the city. It made it rich and powerful. In 1980, the salt works, one of the oldest and largest industrial enterprises in Europe, closed its doors. Since then, the German Salt Museum/Industrial Monument Saline Lüneburg has commemorated its glorious past.
- Start of the tour: Saturday, 23 May and Sunday, 24 May, both at 2 p.m.
- Cost: Guided tour in German/English €13 per person
- Max. 25 people per tour
- Guided tour on the topic of salt
- Lüneburg city tour
- Guided tour of the historic city
(Duration: 1.5 hours) - You will be guided through medieval alleys and courtyards and feel the flair of the Hanseatic past with brick churches, patrician mansions and craftsmen’s houses.
As you stroll through the city centre, numerous individual shops and cafés are waiting to be discovered. An interesting city with many facets. - Start of the tour: Saturday 23 May and Sunday 24 May, in German at 12.30 pm and 2.30 pm, in English on both days at 2.30 pm only
- Cost: in German/English €13 per person, including parking fee
- Maximum 20 people per tour
- Guided tour of the historic city
- The Iserhatsche Bispingen curiosity
- Guided tour of Iserhatsche (Duration approx. 2 hours)
- The world’s largest beer and philumeny collection is on permanent display at Iserhatsche in the Heide-Kastell. You can look forward to the extraordinary Peter Broeker collection, the world’s largest collection of beer bottles, which was listed in the Guinness Book of Records for 19 years with over 24,000 original beer bottles from 192 countries and 4,100 different breweries. As well as the remarkable Lorenz collection with approx. 250,000 matchboxes (Phillumenie). 22,000 owls and almost 30,000 frogs, as well as over 50,000 miniature schnapps bottles. 4,500 figurine candles and 12,000 bottle openers made of wood weighing over 5 tonnes, etc. In total, Iserhatsche has around 150 different collections.
- Start of the tour: Saturday, 23 May at 12 noon
- Cost: Guided tour in German €13 per person
- Max. 30 people per tour
- (Dogs are not allowed)
- The eventful history of the Lüneburg Heath Lands (Tour duration until 4.30 p.m.)
- On this trip, we want to show you the different sides of the Lüneburg Heath.
First, we will visit the unique Tank Museum in Munster. It is a history and technology museum of the city of Munster and the German Armed Forces Tank Troop School. Multimedia guides in English and French can be loaned from the Tank Museum for a deposit (max. 60 people). - We then continue through heathland and forests to Müden/an der Örtze. There we have reserved the ‘Ole Müllern Schün’ café for you to enjoy coffee and cake. Refreshed, we continue to the neighbouring village of Faßberg to visit the Air Lift Museum. It was from this airfield that the ‘Berlin Airlift’ took off in 1948 to supply West Berlin, which was cut off from the outside world, with supplies from the Royal Air Force.
- Start of the tour: Saturday, 23 May at 10 a.m. (dogs are not allowed in the museums)
- Cost: €28 per person, including museum admission, coffee/tea (unlimited) and 1 piece of cake
- On this trip, we want to show you the different sides of the Lüneburg Heath.
- The church in the barn
- (Duration of the guided tour: 1 hour
- Duration of the tour: until 6 p.m.)
- We will travel south from Soltau along beautiful roads to Winsen/Aller, approximately 40 km away. There we will meet at the Kalandhof for coffee and cake or a snack (at your own expense).
Thus strengthened, we will head to neighbouring Wietze/Wieckenberg to visit the Stechinelli Chapel. The local pastor will give you an insight into the eventful history of this ‘camouflaged church’ during a 45-minute guided tour. Afterwards, we will return north to Neuenkirchen to the Schäferhof farm with its herd of Heidschnucken sheep. - Start of the tour: Sunday, 24 May at 12:30 p.m. (dogs are not allowed in the chapel)
- Donation: Church and Schäferhofverein €13 per person
- (Max. 50 participants)
- Nature and Heidschnucken sheep in the Lüneburg Heathlands
- (Duration of the guided tour: 1 hour
- Duration of the tour: until 6 p.m.)
- We will travel south from Soltau along beautiful roads to Winsen/Aller, approximately 40 km away. There we will meet at the Kalandhof for coffee and cake or a snack (at your own expense).
Thus strengthened, we will head to neighbouring Wietze/Wieckenberg to visit the Stechinelli Chapel. The local pastor will give you an insight into the eventful history of this ‘camouflaged church’ during a 45-minute guided tour. Afterwards, we will return north to Neuenkirchen to the Schäferhof farm with its herd of Heidschnucken sheep. - Start of the tour: Sunday, 24 May at 12:30 p.m. (dogs are not allowed in the chapel)
- Donation: Church and Schäferhofverein €13 per person
- (Max. 50 participants)
Flight simulator/Carrerabahn
As only a limited number of participants can take advantage of these offers on Saturday/Sunday, it is not possible to book them in advance, as with the tours. If you are interested, please tick the box.
We will organise everything else on site.
All the important details about the tours described, as well as further tour suggestions that you can do individually, will be presented on the TR Register Germany homepage in due time.
Do you have any questions? Your contact person is Rolf Mölder, who can be reached at the following email address:
soltau2026@tr-register.de
We look forward to seeing you!
Your organising team
Hamburg and Hanover