Brothers Grimm

While here, we've been doing a lot of genealogy research, in the hopes that we could find some of our ancestors and see where they had been. Last year, we went to Serbia to find from whence my maiden name came. Max has only one German line, but last night, he was finally able to find the village from which that ancestor emigrated to America. He was actually drafted as a Hessian to fight for the British in the American Revolution. But, he was captured and decided to stay in America and fight for the Americans. He even married the sister of his captor.

The village from which he came, Knickhagen, is about 3 hours away, is very small, and has nothing to do. But, Max wanted to see it, a request I can understand. We weren't able to find any trace of my family in Serbia, but I'm glad we went, just the same. So, I looked around and found stuff to do, so we weren't just driving three hours each way for a couple of photos. I found that part of the German Fairy Tale Route goes up that way. The FTR is quite long, and would take a few days to drive the whole thing, but we could see parts of it.

The first leg of the trip took place on freeways - a 3 hour drive up to Dornröschenschloss, or Sleeping Beauty Castle. It used to have a large briar hedge at the bottom, and it now has rose bushes that climb the towers. Though, they were not in bloom in November. We parked and walked around the front of the castle. Some of it is in ruins, and some is now a hotel. So, we just looked from outside.

The one rose left right now

There are also statues of animals all around in the forest. I think maybe they mark the entrances to the property?

Dornröschenschloss is only a few minutes north of Knickhagen, so that was our next stop. There was no place to stop, but we got a few pictures.

Knickhagen is just north of Kassel (we started at the top and wound our way down through the day). The Brothers Grimm lived in Kassel for a number of years, and it was here that they wrote down and published the tales they collected. We wanted to go to their museum. We had a bit of difficulty finding exactly where we wanted to be. Brüder-Grimm-Platz is somehow parallel to and on both sides of a large street, which is also called Brüder-Grimm-Platz. And, it turns out that only the Grimm Library is there, the actual museum is elsewhere. But, I'm kind of glad we got mixed up, because we got to see their statue and the building where they lived, which we wouldn't have seen had we made it straight to the museum. 

We also got to see a great yarn bombing.

We found the museum without too much trouble and went it. Most of the explanations were in both German and English, so that was awesome.  

A letter from Wilhelm to a sister

Jacob's ledger

Pretty Hansel & Gretel

Though not all of them. I have no idea why this was there.

Across the street is the modern art museum, with this guy out front.

We freewayed it for a while more, got some lunch, and then started our main Fairy Tale Route part. We drove through some cute little towns. 

We drove past Schloss Eisenbach, and it looked so pretty that we had to turn off and see it. Em stayed in the car, but Max and I got out and walked around. The inside was closed to visitors, but we could look around the grounds. It was beautiful. 

I think Hansel & Gretel live here

Then, it was down to Steinau, where the Brothers Grimm spent a few years of their childhood. Steinau was a cut place, and clearly enamored with their Grimm association. Or, perhaps it's just marketing. Who knows? 

A pharmacy

Part of the original road from Berlin to Leipzig

Their house. Though, probably the refreshment stands weren't there before

The town fountain

Rapunzel's braid comes from the top

By now, it was later than we had expected to be at this point in the trip. The top part had gone so much faster than planned, so we had made more stops. Then, the second half took longer, and we didn't have as much time for our special evening activity. 

As you all know, Em loves zoos of all kinds. Well, there were several along the trip today, and while researching which one to visit, I saw that the one in Hanau had a Wolf Howl scheduled. I really didn't know what that was, but Em loves wolves, and it's the last one of the year, so that's the zoo I picked. The Wolf Howl started at 5. The zoo closed at 5, so we wouldn't be able to see any animals on the way out. So, I wanted to get there a little early, so we could see some animals. We didn't get there until 4:30, unfortunately, so the only animals we got to see were the ones on the way to the wolf enclosure. I wasn't sure what to expect, but there were lots of people still showing up when we got there, and they were all headed to the wolf enclosure, so we just followed. 

Tiny pony!

The wolf enclosure is really large, but apparently designed well enough that you can see the wolves, anyway. So often, it's hard to see wolves in zoos. Or it may just have been because of the show that they were out. Anyway, their "wolf mother" was in there with them.  She and 4 of the 6 wolves were up on a hill in the enclosure, near one of the fences. They were acting just like dogs with a beloved human- pushing up under her arm to be petted, standing on the stump to get her attention, nudging at her legs. It was adorable. 

Then, she howled, and they started howling, too. It lasted for a couple of minutes. She then talked for a long while about the wolves. It was in German, but Em & I were able to pick up some of it. We mostly just watched the wolves, though, as they trtooed around and played. She told us about the different kinds of sounds they make, and then she had all of us howl. We did. The wolves didn't howl with us. She told us we sucked (that was the gist, anyway), and that we needed to have more fun with it. At least that's what I'm guessing she meant. She kept saying, "Spass! Spass!" Spass means fun. We tried again. Again, no response. So, she howled again, and they joined in. 

She started talking again, but it sounded like it was about over, and people were starting to leave, so we headed back to the car. We didn't care to get stuck in a traffic jam on the way out. I'm glad that we saw what animals we could on the way in, because it was dark, dark, dark on the way out. Every once in a while, they had log torch things, which was nice, but it still didn't light most of the path. 

All in all, it was a good day.

Emma says - The Brothers Grimm part of it was pretty interesting, but we got to go to the wolf thing, and that was really, really, really awesome. I liked how the wolves acted like dogs to her. And the howling was actually a lot different than what you hear in movies.