I can't belive six weeks went by so quickly. My session in Marburg is over and I am now officially in Erfurt--my home for the next 10 months. The last few weeks of Marburg flew by with my trip home for Sara's wedding, our final test in the language course, and, naturlich (naturally), saying goodbye to all of my new friends. With only a few of us left the last weekend, we decided to take a trip to Kassel--where I was going to go a few weeks ago but was deterred by a sprained ankle. Kassel, a little over an hour from Marburg by train, is an interesting city to say the least. Our first stop was Wilhelmshöhe Palace which was built in in 1786 by landgrave Wilhelm IX of Hesse-Kassel. Wilhelm had sold Hessian soldiers to the British government to use in the fight against the rowdy Americans and then used that money to build himself a large Palace. So Wilhelm got his castle and we got our independence--too bad Britain! On the land surrounding Wilhelmshöhe Palace are a number of "Roman ruins." A previous landgrave had built fake Roman ruins throughout the park. Everything from an Acqueduct to a giant statue of Hercules can be found in the park. Although everything was "fake" it was still one of the most picturesque places I have ever been. Not content with one palace, Wilhelm went on to build another palace called Löwenburg or Lion's Castle. This castle was modeled after medieval castles complete with a hedge maze and sheep.
Wilhelmshöhe Palace
Löwenburg in the fog
Everything here was absolutely stunning--it looked like it could have been an impressionist painting.
Four of us on top of Devil's Bridge aka where my wedding photos will be taken :)
Hercules can be seen in the distance (under construction, but majestic nonetheless)
Löwenburg
In the city, there was another palace called Orangerie which was built built in 1710 as a summer residence for the landgraves.
After a long day of sight-seeing we head into to town where we found a festival complete with traditional German dancing--and Wurst! All in all, it was a Schönes Wochenende (beautiful weekend)!
Wilhelmshöhe Palace
Löwenburg in the fog
Everything here was absolutely stunning--it looked like it could have been an impressionist painting.
Four of us on top of Devil's Bridge aka where my wedding photos will be taken :)
Hercules can be seen in the distance (under construction, but majestic nonetheless)
3 comments:
Gorgeous! what a great day trip, glad you got to go there. The bridge does look like one of my impressionist prints!
keep up the great blogging!
I think Anime Convention in Kassel tops traditional German dancing : ) Missing you!!
Love hearing about your experiences and your pictures are great. Maybe Randy and I WILL have to take that trip to Germany that he keeps talking about. Hoping that you are safely home....even as I'm writing.
Post a Comment