Germany Pt 2 in Travel Book

DAY 4 - MONDAY - KASSEL & THE GERMAN FAIRY TALE ROUTE

Monday morning, we woke up early and hit the road to Kassel. On the way, we stopped at an Aldi to pick up some picnic type food. NGL, I was excited to hit up an Aldi in its original country. Aldi in Germany is basically the same as they are here, but they have better stuff. Because Germany. We bought some fruits, sodas, bread, wine and snacks and headed back on our merry way.

We got to our first stop in Kassel, Bergpark Wilhelmshöhe, which is home to the Hercules Monument. We found a bench and had our picnic lunch which tasted so good after eating Ramen and Oatmeal for the past couple of days. After filling up our bellies, we packed up our things and headed farther into the park to see the sights and take 3,000 pictures.

We walked a good portion of the hike up to the Herkules Monument. Originally, we wanted to walk to the top, where the fountain starts, but with 2 small kids and a loaded down stroller and heavy bags, going all that way uphill was just not going to happen. Especially in the time-frame we had. So we took a few more pictures and made our way back down. We went on a day when the fountain was not running anyway. Had it been running, I might have been more eager to trudge the full way.

From Bergpark Wilhelmshöhe we drove to visit our first German castle. This adorable castle is called Sababurg and is said to have been the inspiration for the Grimm Brothers’ tale of Sleeping Beauty. I left a little piece of my soul here.


Sleeping Beauty and her Prince. How fucking cute is this??

Our 3rd and final stop of the day was Trendelberg, the inspiration for the Grimm Brothers’ tale of Rapunzel. This place was so quaint and precious! I especially loved the fake Rapunzel braid hanging from the tower.

The sun was starting to set and we were all getting a bit hungry, so we decided to head back to Winterberg and hoped to find a restaurant along the way. Rebekka drove on the way out, but I was itching to drive in a foreign country, so she agreed this time it was my turn to drive! I have never driven in a foreign country before, and I was honestly a little bit nervous at first, but really it’s not much different than driving here, as long as it’s on the same side of the road. Figuring out the road signs took a little getting used to, but after a while, it wasn’t so difficult. I think the scariest part was how fast everyone would whip past you if you were stuck behind a slow truck. Even on a small 2 lane, winding, mountain road. Sure, people do this in the states once in a while, but I don’t see it nearly as much, and definitely not on curvy small roads. Seems like here, when someone passes you on a two-lane road, it’s offensive. There it’s just normal. Everyone does it so nonchalantly. Just like you would on a highway. Also, I don’t think there are as many semi-trucks on the backroads here, you mostly see them on bigger roads and highways. In Germany, you would get stuck behind one every 5 minutes, no matter where you were. After a while of slowly dying behind a truck moving at a glacial pace, I decided it was necessary to do as the Germans do and I Fast and Furious’d my way around him. Rebekka applauded me and I was very proud of myself lol. (By the end of the week, this sort of became second nature for both of us and was no longer as terrifying.)

It kept getting darker and we were not finding any open restaurants in the few small towns we passed through, other than like one pizza place. We decided to see if there was anything in Winterberg as it’s a slightly bigger, more touristy town.

Our wacko GPS took us through some seriously questionable areas. We went through all kinds of weird construction zones where the road was all torn up, but we still drove on it… At one point, we were on a winding mountain road (IN THE DARK) where - I am not even joking you - the left side of the road was dug like 4-5 feet deep with no guard rail or construction barriers or anything blocking you from collapsing in if you swerved just a little too far left. It was so dark and there was nothing and no one nearby for miles and we just kept laughing at the fact that we were probably going to roll down the mountain and die and no one would ever find our bodies. Eventually, we made it back to a normal road and found our way back to Winterberg about 9:00pm. We stopped in the town and found a cute little restaurant where we promptly found out that they did not take credit cards.

I don’t know why we just didn’t get cash somewhere by this point, but… we just… didn’t. Because we are smart… lol I’m just so used to using my card everywhere.

Also, I mean like, how does a tourist town NOT accept cards. A waiter let us know where we could find an atm, but we decided just to head back to our Winterberg home to make some dinner and call it a night.

[More to come!]

Last updated November 07, 2017