Germany Trip Report, Days 13, 14 : Sleeping Beauty, Rapunzel castles

We had wanted to cover a small part of the fairy tale road seen above.

We got on the train from Eisenach to Kassel, transferring at Bebra.

Tried to buy a multi-day zone 6 ticket at the machine at the Kassel train station but could not find the options.

Came out and saw one taxi without meter. The guy asked for 6 euros to drop us at our hotel 1 ½ km away. It was fine with us and we reached the hotel, Days Inn.

Checked in and settled for the night.

Oct 10, 2015, Saturday:

In the morning, we checked out, kept our bags with the reception. We crossed the road and walked over to Rathaus Tram station, Kassel. Our hotel is on that side, after crossing the street; Can see our hotel sign across the road

kiosk opposite is where we bought our multiday zone 6 ticket.

RT3, 4 as well as Trams except 2 and 7 come here...very convenient...

We got on the train from Kassel to Hofgeismar

At Hofgeismar bus stop, we stood around for a few minutes; we had planned to catch the 9.05am bus but on Saturday, the 1st bus was only after 10am. The official website had given us the schedule of 9.05 am bus when we had put in the correct date but obviously it had been incorrect info.  The DB official told us the bus will come in by 10am and phoned in a taxi for us.

Our taxi had deposited us right at the doorstep of Sababurg castle, so we avoided the uphill climb for 15 min from the Tierpark bus stop of bus no 190

At Sababurg castle reception we bought our general entry tickets… yes there was the not too warm owner lady and the huge dog every reviewer had complained about.

We went on our tour

This was a huge disappointment… literally nothing to see in their garden tour and the English translation in their pamphlet made no sense. The steel statues were nothing to write home about. The ruins were hardly picturesque.

We walked back to the bus stop. The country side was picturesque.

Here’s the Sleeping beauty statue, Sababurg... why she's sitting is anybody's imagination

Fall colors in Sababurg as we walk to Tierpark from the Sleeping beauty castle

We sat at the bus station for a few minutes and we knew we had to go back to the train station and then catch the bus to Trendelburg.

Instead of waiting around we hailed a taxi that was passing by and took a taxi ride to Trendelburg... the lady driver spoke some English and with a little German from us we were OK.

We reached the castle.

The 700 year old, Rapunzel tower rises 40 m high ;  two 200 year old chestnut trees stand around inside the castle courtyard, and there are  half timbered structures galore.

 aahh..we caught sight of Rapunzel's hair hanging down the tower

we crossed the moat to reach the  castle entrance

Reception lobby in Trendelburg had lots of antiques; we bought our entry tickets as well as the one to climb the tower. They were hosting 2 wedding parties that day and told us to tour the cellar first as there will be a private party there in 30 minutes time ...

There are two stairways  - one made of stone goes to the cellar, the other wooden stairway leads up...

We went down the stone stairs to the cellar in Trendelburg

Then we came up and looked round the great hall

Reception lobby in Trendelburg...this is Prussian king Friedrich the great

We went up the wooden stairs to the rooms and restaurant

Way to restaurant, Trendelburg...this room is the former castle chapel

At the restaurant, Trendelburg...wood art work of former castle owner Mr. Adalbert von Stockhausen is displayed

Lovely antiques in every niche...

This antique voyage chest is used for their linen storage

Lovely meeting room...

.

Exclusive room up here...spa too

After paying for climbing the tower, we can open this rope and get in.. as said it’s a 700 year old tower and at each landing there were some interesting antiques

Climbing the Rapunzel tower

this was the old prison

a diorama

Sketches too with the diorama

Rapunzel's plaited hair... and the witch climbing up holding it

This is the final spiral staircase

Here’s a knight in shining armor on his horse; another knight in a niche

We were up on the tower

View from the Rapunzel tower was great... church in the top right corner...

we walked up there later

We then came down the tower, saw the Torture chamber

Altogether it was a nice experience visiting this authentic castle and imagining about the life on these premises in by gone days

The old town of Trendelburg has two parts - one is the small town on the hill and the other is the castle.
Having visited the castle, we walked through the old town Trendelburg

The witch who lived with Rapunzel is the lamp post here...

mugs, beakers, and breakfast stuff on this sculpture as well as Baguette, Croissant, pretzel...

This is the Trendelburg Protestant church..

500 year old tombstone (epitaph) with a knight made by a sculptor

This Old house adjoining Trendelburg church... 1363 says the plaque

We had our lunch in the scenic surroundings.

Another witch lamp and a lovely miniature house

Paint business sign post

There were Vintage cars waiting for 2 wedding parties; we got a pic courtesy of the nice guy who offered.

Frog prince waiting for his kiss...

We called up the same taxi driver who had dropped us here (she had given us her card)... there was a long delay. We meanwhile asked the castle reception guy to call us a taxi, but that didn’t come either.

Our driver came after 1/2 hour. We got dropped at Hofgeismar station and took the train back to Kassel Wilhelmshohe

We took tram 1 from Kassel Wilhelmshohe station and reached Wilhelmshohe BergPark station. We then walked up to the park and had to go uphill... it may have been easier to take tram 3 to Druseltal and then take a bus which would have put us in the upper part of the park near the Hercules monument. We did not want to wait for infrequent connections on the weekend. So we had taken tram 1 when it approached us at the station.

Bergpark Wilhelmshöhe is a unique landscape park in Kassel. The area of the park is 2.4 sq km (590 acres), making it the largest European hillside park, and second largest park on a mountain slope in the world

Construction of the Bergpark, or "mountain park", began in 1696 and took about 150 years.

This is Schloss Wilhelmshöhe, Bergpark palace... and yet another bride

There are lovely architectural features as well as water bodies and a forest of tall trees. It was a pleasure walking through the garden.

Here’s the Roman aqueduct and Hercules monument beyond

This is Teufelsbrücke: Devil's bridge

We could not reach the end of the park and see the Hercules monument up close as time was ticking by.

After enjoying the park, we took the tram back to Kassel and got down at the Rathaus

We had bought the 8.30 pm ICE tickets from Kassel to Frankfurt in advance at super saver prices . We collected our bags, had a meal in the lobby of the hotel, went to the tram stop nearby. Took the tram from Rathaus to Kassel Wilhelmshohe and then took the ICE train to  Frankfurt. Our Hotel Tourist, Frankfurt was 100 m from the station...

We had informed them earlier that we’ll be checking in around midnight … it’s always a good idea to do so , otherwise the hotel may think we are a no show and assign our room to some walk-ins.

We checked in at around 11 PM and slept off

Oct 11, 2015, Sunday:

We checked out at 6 am on, no time for the hotel breakfast... the muffins from the Penny market, Kassel and the remaining bananas sufficed

We went to the train station Frankfurt hbf and took SBahn train to the Flughafen (10 min). Boarded our 9.30 am flights back home...

This winds up our holiday in Germany.

Next is a report on our trip to Russia:
http://adventuretrav.blogspot.com/2016/11/russia-trip-report-day-1-moscow-red.html