22 December 2022
The days were getting even more shorter...and darker. We travelling further north and the year was drawing closer to Christmas...AND being 11days into living out of suitcases...travelling with teenagers..... You all must agree that leaving Valkenburg round 9:30am was a GREAT VICTORY!!! Do also take into account the we had to heave our 6 HUGE travel bags and all other parivinalia down the narrow stairs; squeezing it all into our car, while the heavens opend on us, paid our outstanding bills with cash...which had to be collected at the atm around the corner, a few (there are 4 girls) final bathroom stops...you get the picture!! In an ideal world we would have departed at 7:30am and savored the daylight, but....it's called 'holiday' and not 'bootcamp' for a reason!!
The brothers Jacob (1785 - 1863) and Wilhelm (1786 - 1859) lived in six cities during their lifetimes. They are all located along the German Fairy Tale Route. In Steinau you can relive how the Grimms lived as children. The GRIMM WORLD Kassel presents Jacob and Wilhelm as linguists who were networked worldwide.Here you can also view their personal copies of the "Tales of Children and the Home", part of the UNESCO "Memory of the World". The university town of Marburg takes you back to the time of romantic world, while in Göttingen the two brothers are mainly known as politically committed scholars.
Our map took us through the authentic Main Street (now tourist street, packed with coffee and book shops and souvenir grotto's. )
The cobbled streets, lined with wooden framed houses were just picture perfect. We could not resist loosing ourselves in on of the little side alley ways, going up sets and sets of moss-overgrown stone steps.
It keep on leading us even higher up, passing the Mirror on the Wall and one of Cinderella's shoes, perched on a cliff (not sure why the shoe was red, but it sparked the interest nevertheless!!
The Brothers Grimm studied in Marburg between 1802 and 1806.In letters, the Grimms raved about the "castle on the mountain", which was "gilded by the evening sun".
About the city itself, Jacob wrote, "I think there are more stairs in the streets than in the houses."
Taking a different street down, we stumbled upon our first German Christmas market, in the square outside the Rathause (City Chambers). I wished we could have lingered there a bit longer, but it was almost 3 pm then, and we still had a few stops to make.
There was so much more to see and experience in Marberg, but we had to explore some more in the few hours of the day that remained....
A short drive further, we found a parking place, almost inside the car-free centre of Alsfeld. Another stunning quaint litlle wooden-framed town.
While Nina, Philippa and myself went to visit the Fairytale Museum, Arno took the older sibbe for a coffee. The little German lady in the museum tried her utmost best to speak to us in....German...so we can understand her. Luckily my dusty school Deutsch helped, and we were off exploring the 3 story heigh museum. It was ok. A little bit old and dusty. I expected a bit more, since all the guidebooks were raving about it, but we did enjoy the historical dolls houses, some dating back to 1856!!
At this stage I realised that we will not be able to see all of the other places that I have hoped for. Dusk was setting over the rolling hills of the Red Riding Hood Country. We managed to catch a glimpse of Snow White and her 7 Dwarfs in the little hamlet of Bergfreiheit, but unfortunately their house was already locked up for the night.
Driving in the dark on unknown small country lanes, are never easy, but Arno did a super job. We missioned to Bad Wildingun's Altstad. What an eerie experience?? By now it was really dark. Little lights on buildings and Christmas trees everywhere created a fairytale ambiance, but the streets were ...empty...... NO people.... We were very unsure if this was to be expected...a few nights before Christmas. We got so used to the Christmas markets in all the little towns and villages, Bad Wildingun, was not even a little town.
It has a beautiful cathedral, which was duly explored by the family Theron... in the quiet dark evening!!! Well, obviously we were not where the action was, so we did a little walk in die cobbled Main Street, returned to our car and travelled the last few kilometers to Hotel Chassalla, in Kassel.
Luckily we stumbled upon the night-time cleaner, who opened the hotel front door for us. Travelling with restricted access to internet, we missed this last e-mail from the accommodation manager...the one with the instructions on how to get into our rooms. This was such a reminder, that even if we did not know that we needed God to open doors for us, He was already there!!!
On many occasions during this memorable day, I wished that we could have stayed in each little town longer.... The picture book houses, the German smells around the markets, the dampness of the European winter, Christmas decor in shop windows, tall steeples of churches and ruins of forgotten castles....the magic of expectation, the rolling countryside with promise of another stop inside a fairytale setting -
Well, as Arno and I have promised each other on so many previous occassions:
'When we come back, then we will stay longer!"
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