From Berlin to Koln 19 to 21 September 2014

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From Berlin to Koln 19 to 21 September 2014

Driving out of Berlin with showery rain we drove south on the A115 and then on a secondary road towards Lutherstadt Wittenberg, a UNESCO World Heritage town. Thus area was where Martin Luther joined the local monastery and contributed much towards developing the region in the 1400s such as starting a school for all children, building several churches, expanding the monastery ans generally improving the lives of others.

We later visited the town, Eisleben in which he was born and died. He traveled extensively throughout his adult life. His father was a copper miner.

As we walked around Lutherstadt Wittenberg, we noticed extensive renovation to many of the buildings, but the notable one was the Castle Church which was massive. We couldn't go in there as they only opened it twice a day when they have services. Some of the renovations had EU logos on the worksites, which you would expect, particularly with its UNESCO status.

We then drove onto Eisleben and looked through the Martin Luthers Museum which has been built onto his childhood home. The lady at the museum also told us the town was having its annual festival and gave us a map and pointed out where all the festivities were to be held. We walked down the street and it must be the longest street in the town. There were stalls, food outlets, sideshow alley and lots of show rides etc. There were 100s of people there. The stalls were selling clothes, cheese, fruit, all the different German sausages (we had the bratwurst) , beers, trinkets, 'antiques', household stuff etc. etc. We decided to stay there for dinner and had some beautiful fish and calamari.

It was about 7.00pm so we decided to drive out of town and found a spot to park over night. At this stage it really started to rain heavily for a couple of hours. It didn't inconvenience us as we had completed our look around the towns and we had everything we needed on board the motor home.

Where we parked was close to where we later saw lots of flashing lights - we thought it was an accident but the next morning we was that there were a couple of houses up the road and something had happened to one of the residents. As it was pouring with rain, we didn't go out but soon the ambulance and police were gone.

The next morning, we woke to a very thick fog. As the day advanced, it cleared to a lovely autumn day.

The day's drive on Saturday 20 September was beautiful. We literally meandered around the countryside of central Germany, particularly in the Erlebnis Region. We came across Hann Munden, and town which has over 700 half wooden framed houses. When Kerrie and Gemma were with us last year we visited a town in northern Italy which had half wooden framed houses. Well this town of Munden tops it all.

Hannoversch Munden is at the point where the rivers Werra and Fulda join to form the Weser River. It has therefore been a trading route for many centuries. I love these little towns. They are so attractive and have such a fantastic 'feel' about them. There were people enjoying the sunshine in outside cafes, along the river walks and generally taking the scenes of this lovely town in.

The Town Hall was ornate, built in the 13th century, and the Guelph Palace was comparatively plain. Hann. Munden is ranked as one of the best preserved medieval towns in Europe. We visited the old town walls and towers and saw the Weser Renaissance architecture as well as the interactive water fountain in the main square which is near the Town Hall and St Blasius Church.

The town also is famous for a Dr Eisenbart who did an excellent job at improving the health of the locals. The town continues to celebrate his successes through including him in theatre productions etc. He occasional 'turns up' in the streets and market place for time to time!!!!!

Several holiday routes, such as the Weser Renaissance Route, some important pilgrimage trails, the German Timber-Framed Trail, the German Fairytale Route and long distance walks all pass through Hann. Munden making it a very popular tourist destination. We had a lovely time in the town which also included a walk over the bridge and along one of the rivers.

We then hopped back into Mollie and drove on to Sababurg where there was the Dornroschen Castle which is partly in ruins but a lot of work has been done on the towers and walls. The gardens around this castle were lovely.

We then drove to Tierpark which was an animal park but decided we didn't have the time to 'do' justice to this very big park. It had a lot of domestic animals and lots for kids to do, so because we didn't have our little granddaughter with us, we continued our drive.

The next couple of hours drive was through the very 'back-roads' of the region. Our GPS decided to take us the shortest route. Roads were narrow, but surfaces were good, but the scenery was beautiful - rolling hills covered in green crops and forests, dotted with quaint little villages, cows grazing, cycling paths crossing. We loved it! At one stage, we had no idea where we were as our map wasn't detailed enough for the little villages we were going through, to be included. However, we were moving in a westerly direction so all was good.

At about 6.30pm we decided to find a spot for the night. We came across a little town called Bremke. We parked opposite a bakery where we got fresh bread from the morning. It was obviously the town square car park. It had a stone archway and a iron stick figure which was a baker who was baking his bread rolls - this was a main feature of the town.



That night it showered with rain a little but was clear by the morning, however, the closer we got to Koln, the wetter it became. Before getting to Koln, we drove through more beautiful rural countryside which was also spotted with little villages. We then hit the freeway so the scenery wasn't anything special from then until Koln. We arrived at our camp site, Campingplatz Stadt Koln which is about 4 kms from the city centre, right on the banks of the River Rhine.

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