Pretty Towns & Scary Military History

G'day to all my patient readers [grin], and a special thanks to Heather for hanging in there and being my one and only commenter this time. What...has everyone given up already? [laughs]

Heather, you and Mum must be having lots of fun with the furniture shopping - everything here is 'IKEA type' and designed to be put together on the spot, then chucked away after a time.

Anyway, I have a weekend to catch up on but I know some of you are curious about whether or not I have gotten around to doing some drawing like I said I would...well I have done some playing around and at left is a drawing I did last Friday night while Norbert was out...its the back of the apartment block where we are living. The landscapes are inspiring me...especially the half-timbered houses which are soooo quaint. :-) But more about them in a minute...

Executive Summary

Here is the 'quickie version' of what we did over the weekend. On Saturday we drove to Bad Sooden-Allendorf to meet up with Hartmut (Norbert's cousin) who has been at a 'Kur' for 3 weeks...a rehabilitiation clinic. Bad Sooden-Allendorf is an absolute sea of half-timbered houses and narrow cobbled streets which we would have missed entirely if we hadn't come to visit Hartmut. What luck! Wandered the pretty streets, drank coffee, climbed the tower to look out over the town, had lunch at the Rathaus....and still got home by 9pm to enjoy Schnapps before bed. :-)

On Sunday we stepped back into history again and visited Point Alpha, a key strategic point during the Cold War, right on the border of what was East and West Germany. This place was fully operational right up until about 20 years ago, and it was quite strange walking past the barbed wire fences and out into no-man's land right on the border, and realising that one would have been shot on sight such a short time ago. But now it is quite safe and a standing reminder that it should never go back to this again.

On the way back we visited the Fulda Animal Park and then had a lovely night out with a colleague of Norbert's and his wife, at a local Thai restaurant.

But read on for the full stories.....

The Break-Out...into a Sea of Half-Timbered Houses

Last posting I teased you with mention of getting Hartmut (Norbert's cousin) out on parole. No, he's not in jail. [cheeky grin] The explanation is that he has been having a lot of problems with his neck and spine since a bad fall last November, and has been sent to what is known in Germany as a 'Kur' for 3 weeks...in fact its a rehabilitiation clinic for intensive therapy, exercise, treatments, doctor examinations, physio etc etc. But last Saturday we drove to Bad Sooden-Allendorf to meet up with him and join him in an 'escape' for the day.

There were heaps of roadworks on the Autobahn and even a road-diversion which took us out of our way for quite a while, but we arrived in the morning only a little bit late...and our trusty GPS took us straight to the clinic. Bad Sooden-Allendorf is a 'twin town' (think Albury-Wodonga) and we would never have thought to go there if it wasn't for this visit, but boy am I glad we did!!! [spins in a circle] It is soooooo pretty!!!! An absolute sea of half-timbered houses and narrow cobbled streets.

Now, you know I hate to bore you with travelogue-type stuff, but this is really interesting so listen up [puts on her 'teacher face']. This town is built on a salt-spring, and like Rotorua in NZ it has a history of being a place where one goes to 'seek the waters' and get healthy. In the middle of the place is this...ummm....structure. Now, how can I describe it. [scratches her head] It must be about 300m long and about 20m high, and it is a wood structure which is packed really thickly with small branches. The briny water is pumped from the top and it slowly trickles down through the branches, some of it evaporating and thereby increasing its salinity. Above is a photo of me touching the salt-encrusted branch ends (and getting wet in the process). Norbert explained that it works like the pads in an evaporative air conditioner. People walk around it on a platform and breathe in the salt-laden air and the salt-laden water is used in the health spas. Fascinating stuff!!


We even visited the Salt Museum...yep, there's actually a salt museum which enlightens one all about the value of salt in the area, and how it has been part of their history. That's definitely one to add to the list of 'things to do before you die', don't you think?? [chuckles]


We did lots of stuff like climbing the tower to look over the town (see photo) and also had lunch in the Rathaus Keller ...which is a restaurant in the basement of the Town Hall. Every town has its 'Rathaus'....and no, it's not a 'Rat House' although when I tell you that it is usually full of government officials, politicians etc you may disagree with me! [grin] The restaurant was a 'theatre-type' restaurant and we were greeted by a smiling, costumed fellow who read us the 'rules' such as not sticking knives into tables, and that forks were a devil's implement and therefore not provided. To ensure we washed our hands before handling the food, he came out with a bowl of water and towel and washed our hands for us! It was such fun!! :-D

We finished the day with very delicious (but not very slimming) icecream sundaes under the umbrellas in a cobble-stoned town square. Just lovely!

On the Border

Sunday was cool and threatened rain, but now that we have a car it doesn't really make that much difference so we pointed the black Fiat toward the border of the state of Hessen (where we are), and headed for Point Alpha. Click on the link if you would like to know more about it but basically it was a key strategic point during the Cold War, right on the border of what was East and West Germany. The Americans were stationed at Point Alpha which is on a hill overlooking East Germany with the border only metres away. It would have been a very tense time!

Ever since I visited Berlin back in 2006 I have been absolutely fascinated by German history. Not sure why but it might be because it is comparatively recent and therefore I can relate to it more than some of the European history of 400 years or more ago. Or maybe its because I am of German heritage and therefore feel an 'affinity'. Whatever....I really enjoyed the visit although it was a pity it was soooo cold on the top of this hill! I especially enjoyed the hot 'Wurst und Pommes' that I had for lunch in the cafeteria. [grin]

After lunch we walked to Border House which is built on the vehicle tracks of the actual border, stopping to say hello to a guard dog on duty. OK...it was a fake dog and not a real guard dog, or I would probably have been torn apart!! You can see the American watch tower in the background and I was on what would have been 'no mans land' between East and West, and therefore in a VERY dangerous position! Definitely not smiling like I am in this photo! And this was only 20 or so years ago!

One comment...I reeeally enjoyed the Point Alpha displays as it was an American installation and therefore all the information had English translations. A short walk to Border House which is the East German part.....and everything's only in German again. [frowns] I'm not sure whether it is just a naive assumption of the German government that everyone can understand their language, but they are probably missing out on a lot of international tourism because of this issue. I'm lucky I have Norbert with me for some translating, but anyone else wouldn't understand a thing.

On the way back we visited Fulda Animal Park....and unfortunately it was not the most positive experience. It is an 'old-type' zoo with animals kept in less than ideal conditions in cages and behind wire fences, and they looked so sad. [sigh] I felt sorry for the grey wallabies in the Australian exhibit (wrongly labelled as Känguru).

Had a wonderful night out at a local Thai Restaurant though! Met up with Lothar (who Norbert works with) and his wife Agnes. Lothar has spent 2 years in Australia and is very obviously a fan of all things Aussie and speaks fairly good English. We had heaps of laughs over spicy Thai food and a couple of bottles of good wine, and invited them to stay with us when they next visit Australia.....which hopefully will be soon! :-)

This coming weekend is a 4 day long weekend here (and they say Australia is the Land of the Long Weekend!!) so we are poring over the internet and maps and a Fodor's book to decide where to go. At this stage it looks like we might pack a suitcase and go further afield, perhaps starting in Heidelberg. So stay tuned!!

Love to all,

Marlene