The Cheese Route ( KäseStraße) in Schleswig-Holstein this year is 10 years old. It has a length of more than 500 kilometres and on it you can travel around Schleswig-Holstein from one cheese dairy to the next.

In many cheese dairies you can buy cheese and many of them are also open to the public and you can learn about how to make cheese.

Especially this year there are many events to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Cheese Route.

On May 9, 2010 there will be a cheese market at the open-air museum Kiekeberg south of Hamburg.

On May 13, 2010 (Ascension Day) there will be a farmyard feast at the organic Dannwisch farmyard near Elmshorn.
From 22 through 24 May, 2010 (Whitsun) there will be a farmyard feast at Gut Behl near Plön. There will be lots of entertainment like a children’s zoo, bull-riding and guided tours of the farm. You can also see how chees is being made and learn about the local cattle breeding. About 20,000 visitors are expected.

From 16 through 18 July, 2010 there will be a cheese and wine feast in Kiel, the capital of Schleswig-Holstein. It is called “Käse trifft Wein” (cheese meets wine) and here you can not only buy but also taste cheese and wine. And of course Kiel is worth a visit too.

July 24, 2010 you can learn in the Ostenfelder Meierei, the Ostenfeld dairy farm how cheese is made. Ostenfeld is west of Husum.

And last but not least there will again be a farmyard feast at Dannwisch farmyard on September 11, 2010.

And the Cheese Route of course has more to offer than just cheese as the landscape of Schleswig-Holstein really is magnificent and you will not only see the Baltic Sea but also the Schlei Fjord and the North Sea. One of the cheese dairies is on the island of Föhr on the German coast of the North Sea.

Cheese©flickr/CoreForce

In the Zoologisches Museum in Kiel, Schleswig-Holstein you can visit a whale exhibition.

You can learn about the evolution and the physique of whales. Or did you know that a cow is closer related to a whale than to a horse? And that whales were animals, that once lived on land but went back into the sea.

In the exhibition you also get to know about the sounds whales make and about their hearing system.
Of course there are also fascinating skeletons of different whales to be seen.

Whale © kohane/flickr.com

Schleswig-Holstein

Flensburg:

Phänomenta
Here you may touch things you see and do little experiments yourself. You will learn a lot about technical and natural scientific things. www.phaenomenta-flensburg.de

Husum:

Schiffahrtsmuseum
Ship models, about how to build ships, shipyards, fishery and whaling, and the history oft he sailors and their families is shown here. www.schiffahrtsmuseum-nf.de

Kappeln:

Historisches Sägewerk

In 1900 work started in the old saw mill which now is a working museum. The saws are powered by a windmill.www.kappeln.de/workingmuseum.html

Kiel:

Kieler Schifffahrtsmuseum

Here you can see ship models of all times, learn about the maritime history of Kiel, and you can even see a model of the first German submarine. www.kiel.de/kulur/museen