Today’s outing was planned for Fulda and two additional small cities along the way to Fulda: Gelnhausen and Steinau an der Strasse. All these cities are on the German Fairy Tale Route and on what’s called “die Hohe Strasse” or the High Road, earlier called the Via Reggia during Holy Roman Empire time. This road was the historic trade route and had great economic significance for interregional trade and bartering (especially between Frankfurt and Leipzig). It is the oldest and longest road link between the East and the West of Europe, has existed for more than 2,000 years, and connects eight European countries across a distance of 4,500 km.
We spent half of the day just wandering through town, enjoying the charm of this place.
The real appeal of the city was just walking through the streets and squares, with the thin, meandering Kinzig River. We followed a nice walking path “Stadtspaziergang” prepared by the city and saw some interesting, enchanting sights. We saw parts of the city wall and various watch towers, including one which became later known as the Hexenturm because it was used to hold those women on trial during the witch-persecution period. A 1986 sculpture in recognition of these victims is quite moving. We saw historic homes of all shapes and sizes, usually in fachwerk, and used for various purposes. We saw the Rathaus whose roof was struck by lighting and caught fire in 1736. Immediately after the lighting, a hailstorm put out the fire and saved the building, a miracle celebrated every August 15th. We saw the 16th-century meeting place of the prince-electors of the Holy Roman Empire, now a hotel. We saw the birthplace of Hans Jakob Christoffel von Grimmelshausen (1621/22–1676), supposedly the most famous 17th-century German writer, now a hotel named after him.
Here are some of the things we saw:
John announced a new traditions he’s starting: Eating a pastry in every town we visit!
This it the little lamb, my Laemmlen family crest. I wonder why it’s here?
This is the witch’s Turm, or tower, where women were imprisoned and executed.
Between 1584 and 1633, these women were executed here:
Interested pavers:
Gelnhausen was an unexpected jewel for us and we could have wandered longer, but the day was passing quickly, so we found our way back to our car, parked on a quiet side street by the Kaiserpfalz in the two-hour free zone, and we headed for Steinau an der Strasse.
Our Frankfurt Germany Mission 