German Fairy-Tale Tour, Thursday 15

Today we visited Sleeping Beauty's castle and Rapunzel's Tower.

Both are now posh hotels, the former in Sababurg, and the latter in Trendelburg, a few kilometres along the route.  Disney has done Sleeping Beauty no favours by imagining her castle to be like Neuschwanstein; this one is far older, with a squat little tower. It would have cost us €4 to wander round the hotel grounds, so we didn't, but took photos from the front. 

At Trendelburg, the tower and hotel are right at the top of a hill, and we thought of having lunch at the hotel, but they didn't put a menu up outside and we reckoned that, given the locality, it would probably have been horrendously expensive. So we came away and drove to the next town on the route, Oberweser, and had lunch there, but what looked like a normal pub turned out to be a Greek restaurant. Delicious, but rather more than we wanted to eat at that time of day.  And they produced glasses of something aniseedy and alcoholic at the end of the meal, so I drank the SW's as well as my own, which wiped me out for most of the rest of the afternoon!

We continued along the Weser to here, which is a town called Bodenwerder, where the Wohnmobilstellplatz is practically in the town centre. The SW went for a walk, but it was still very hot. It has cooled down now, and we hope the front is moving in.

German Fairy-tale Tour, Wednesday 14

Today was a rest day, and Hann. Münden a very lovely town in which to spend it. We have done very little, apart from walking round the Old Town in the morning, and a load of washing this evening. Also deciding that we want to stay on the FTR until we get to Bremen, so not going to Braunschweig tomorrow but to another town that is on the route, whose name escapes me, but where I gather we can park right in the town centre, and to which we can get to via various noteworthy sights.

It is still very hot, but the forecast tells us the weather will break tomorrow night. 

German Fairy-Tale Tour, Tuesday 13

My parents' 64th wedding anniversary - they are on a cruise on the Rhone, and Mum says it is very hot there, too.

After breakfast we went for a walk in Fritzlar, which was just as lovely by day, and visited the Cathedral and the tourist office, where I found a map of the Fairy-tale route.

So we wandered along it to Hann. Munden, calling at all sorts of pretty little towns en route, and wonderful countryside in between.

Then we arrived in Hann. Munden, where the plan is to stay for two nights. The campsite isn't very nice, and at first we thought it was going to be awful, but realised they'd misunderstood what we wanted and put us in the motor-home side, which was foul. So we moved into the campsite proper, which is much nicer, although not brilliant.  I expect the one near Berlin will be worse, but the weather will have broken by then we won't mind so much.

The SW went for a walk, and I sat out and read, and we both sat out until it got too cold and midgey, and then came back into the van for supper. We have drunk rather more than was necessary, but not, I think, enough that we will regret it later. 

I am looking forward to visiting the town tomorrow, and getting some washing done.  And relaxing.

The German Fairy-Tale Tour, Monday 12

Oh, it's hot!  Unbearably hot. Even now, when it's been dark for a good hour, it's hot.  Forecast is for another two days of this, then the temperatures tumble before the weekend.

We went shopping this morning, and then drove to Marburg, which was nice, but a bit of a failure as we had parked a bit out of town, and although we found the Elisabethkirche

, which was lovely, we then decided to walk down a street called the Pilgrimsstein, which we thought would be nice but it wasn't - all modern, roadworks all the way along, and a horrendous concrete block for the university library. So we went back to the motor home and had lunch, and then drove to Schwalmstadt, but it was too hot and I couldn't cope with it so stayed in the van while the SW took a brief look.

Final stop of the day was Fritzlar, with a nice aire, and I'm looking forward to seeing more of the town in the morning, before it gets too hot. We had a bit of a wander this evening, and then a meal in a not-very-nice pizzeria, and so back to the van, which is horribly hot.  But the joy of this holiday is all the little German towns we didn't know existed.... So pretty, most of them.

The German Fairy-Tale Tour, Monday 12

Oh, it's hot!  Unbearably hot. Even now, when it's been dark for a good hour, it's hot.  Forecast is for another two days of this, then the temperatures tumble before the weekend.

We went shopping this morning, and then drove to Marburg, which was nice, but a bit of a failure as we had parked a bit out of town, and although we found the Elisabethkirche

, which was lovely, we then decided to walk down a street called the Pilgrimsstein, which we thought would be nice but it wasn't - all modern, roadworks all the way along, and a horrendous concrete block for the university library. So we went back to the motor home and had lunch, and then drove to Schwalmstadt, but it was too hot and I couldn't cope with it so stayed in the van while the SW took a brief look.

Final stop of the day was Fritzlar, with a nice aire, and I'm looking forward to seeing more of the town in the morning, before it gets too hot. We had a bit of a wander this evening, and then a meal in a not-very-nice pizzeria, and so back to the van, which is horribly hot.  But the joy of this holiday is all the little German towns we didn't know existed.... So pretty, most of them.

The German Fairy-tale Tour, Sunday 11

The Swan Whisperer went for a run this morning, so it was nearly 10 before we set off to find the Park'n'ride to take us into Hanau.  Bring a Sunday, the buses only ran once an hour, but there were two going into town from where we were, and we didn't have to wait very long to catch one.

Hanau itself isn't very beautiful - it's mostly modern, although the statue of the Brothers Grimm, which is what we had gone to see, is older.  Also the Rathaus, just behind it.  We took photos and wandered around a bit, and then caught the other bus back to the van.

Our first port of call was also in Hanau, the Philipperuh palace, now a museum and restaurant.

   We had a look at that, and then drive to the town of Steinau, also associated with the Brothers. There was some kind of festival going on there but we finally found somewhere to park and wandered about the town a bit until we got to hungry, whereupon we went back to the motor home and had lunch.

Then we had a lovely drive cross country, along the Fairy-tale route (even the Satnav knew it was that!) to this place, called Alsfeld, I think, where we are in a proper aire, and have been able to empty the loo, which was getting urgent!  We also have electricity, and can fill up with water in the morning before we head on.

Gernan Fairy Tale Tour, Saturday 10

I suppose we still haven't really started on the Fairy-tale route, but today was all about Aachen. We got up early and caught the 09:14 train, which was of course late, to Aachen. We would have liked to have caught a bus up to the Cathedral, but we weren't sure which one or which way, so in the end we walked - it wasn't far. We stopped en route at the spa, where there is a display of the archaeology found around the area, from Roman times onwards.  When we got to the Cathedral it was closed for worship until 10:45, so we went and had a cup of coffee while we waited.  Slight disaster as we had sat in the seats outside one café and when we asked for Eiskaffee, the waitress explained that this was the café next door!  Oops!  So we had hot coffee instead.

I didn't really like Aachen cathedral, if I'm honest. Too ornately Baroque, or do I mean too Baroquely ornate, for my taste.  And it was too hot - I like my cathedrals to strike chill when I go in!  We couldn't see Charlemagne's tomb as it is upstairs, which you could only go to with a guided tour, and there weren't any just then. So we came away, and the Swan Whisperer said he would like to visit the Treasury, which was fabulous and I saw the reliquary holding Charlemagne's arm, which is what I really wanted to see!

Then we looked for a bus back to the station but just missed one, so walked, and then there wasn't time to buy a sandwich before our train back to Düren. This, for once, was on time and was a double-decker!

Once back at Düren we went to Also to pick up supplies for the weekend, including a not very nice sandwich each. Then we had another three hour drive to Hanau, or rather, Steinheim, on the outskirts, where we have parked up for the night. Tomorrow we visit the Brothers Grimm memorial and the start of the fairy tale route proper.