The reason I did not blog last night is because I did not get home until nearly 2 AM because of a roughly 12-hour commute by car from Marburg to Berlin. Normally, this trek by car is only a 5-hour ride; however, apparently some truck carrying beer or something had an accident on the Autobahn ahead of us (I guess the snow was to blame), and we moved about 20 miles in 4 hours at one point.
By the time I got home, I had been traveling so long I could've flown home to Washington in that time. So needless to say, I put off the blogging till tonight since I had to wake up around 8 AM for my day trip to Dresden with friends, which leads to the second half of this post. But, first, I will tell you about the Brothers Grimm.
On Wednesday, I headed back to Marburg for my monthly medical appointment. As I had arranged a few weeks ago, my doctor's secretary—a wonderful grandmother-type figure—planned out a day to show me around her hometown just north of Marburg. Back during my first appointment at the clinic in September, she had really helped me get all my medical needs taken care of, and her willingness to make sure that my concerns were completely met is a main reason I decided to return to Marburg for my appointments after my awful experience at the hospital in Berlin.
Since she told me about how she felt well-taken care of by folks in the U.S. when she visited the country, she has wanted to repay that kindness by showing me the same kind of warm welcome in Germany. So she offered to show me the region from where the Brothers Grimm drew much of their inspiration for writing their fairy tales.
The truth is, though, that they did not really come up with the stories on their own; rather, they collected stories that had been passed down by folks through the generations and eventually compiled them into a series of fairy tales. They were later illustrated by a famous artist also from the region—Otto Ubbelohde.
One of his more famous illustrations was Rapunzel's Tower, which was inspired by this tower in the Treysa region. A copy of his illustration is in the commemorative plaque nearby with the actual tower in the background. Awesome, eh?
After that, we headed to lunch before continuing our tour of the region. I had Jägerschnitzel, which is schnitzel with mushrooms on top (sometimes as a mushroom sauce). It was so good!
From there, we headed to another series of small villages that inspired many of the fairy tales such as Little Red Riding Hood. Apparently, Little Red Riding Hood has French origins as opposed to German roots as people often think. The Huguenots, who escaped religious persecution in 16th century France, are thought to be the ones who passed the story of Little Red Riding Hood to one of the three Grimm Brothers—Ludwig Emil. He was a painter and less famous than his two brothers—Jakob and Wilhelm—who wrote the fairy tales. Through Ludwig Emil though, Jakob and Wilhelm were able to learn the story and memorialized it in their fairy tales.
The small town that we visited had a museum with plenty of history that explains the "red caps" that inspired Otto Ubbelohde to illustrate Little Red Riding Hood. Part of the town's history is the role it played in the American War of Independence. Soldiers from the region were actually sent to help the American troops. As such, a statue of a soldier stands on the edge of the old fortress borders in their honor.
The fortress is no longer intact, but the moat around it is still visible.
We headed to the museum soon after, and there I saw many aspects of life in the Schwalm region. Normally, when people think of Germany, they might think of dirndls and lederhosen like at Oktoberfest. However, that style of dress is only in Bavaria. The rest of the country still has its own quirks and styles. One such style is the style of the Schwalm region, which is where the story of Little Red Riding Hood has its roots. From spinning wheels like from Rumpelstiltskin to the typical Schwälmere kitchen, the museum gave me a nice glimpse into life in the region.
After the museum, we headed to Treysa, where I saw statues of fairy tales from the Brothers Grimm.
After picking up some pastries, we went to my friendly tour guide's home, where we had pastries and coffee. I don't normally drink coffee, but it seemed like a really great chance to learn more about German culture. All around her house, she had these awesome little figurines, which I thought were entirely Christmas-like and festive.
I met her dog, Suzi, who ended up jumping on my lap and just chilling. Cute.
I had a great time learning more about Germany than I would have by staying in Berlin. So that was my experience exploring the region of the Brothers Grimm. Fascinating, really. The sad part of my journey was returning to Berlin the next day because it took, as I mentioned earlier, forever. But the second half of what I want to share in this blog post was equally exciting for me.
This morning, I joined Michelle, Brandon, Chris, and Melissa for a nice day-trip to Dresden. On weekends, as I've explained before, you can get a weekend ticket that can be split between 5 people. However, you can only take regional trains, so it's a slower ride. After a 45 minute delay this morning, we made it to Dresden and were greeted by some chilly but nice weather.
Dresden was firebombed by Allied Forces during World War II in 1945, and at least 80% of the city was destroyed. It was incredibly destructive (in terms of buildings and human lives lost) and erased many of the cities historical buildings. However, after much investment of time, money, and energy, many of the buildings have now been rebuilt in their original styles. Such as the Hofkirche, which is currently the largest Catholic church in the state of Saxony.
After checking out the Hofkirche, we continued strolling the area along the Elbe River. It was really quite chilly, but there were plenty of great spots to take pictures.
My main goal was to visit the Frauenkirche, which I had learned about in my second year of German class at the UW. I had once passed it on my way to Prague as well, but I was pumped to actually go in today.
Since it was also destroyed during the war, it took a while to rebuild. In fact, it was only very recently finished again in 2005. We strolled through the Christmas market and past some delicious smelling bratwursts (we would get to those later) to reach the church. Once inside, it just felt like Easter for some reason. Must've been the colors.
It was free to get into the church, but to climb the cupola, it would cost 5€ for students. It was definitely a worthy investment though, which Michelle, Brandon, and I decided to go for. The view from up top was amazing, and it wasn't a terrible climb. It was definitely freezing up there though.
I even got a panoramic shot, which is quite rare these days for me.
We met up with Chris and Melissa downstairs again and decided to go for some food in one of the nearby Christmas markets. The church looked stunning from outside as well, and it's quite impressive. You can see part of the original church on the left side, where the firebombs burned the bricks. Also, apparently, President Obama visited it in 2009.
I was in the mood for some good food, and although I was hoping for a bratwurst, I decided to try what seemed like a local delicacy—the Dresdner Handbrot. It's basically a chunk of warm bread baked with cheese and ham topped with some garnish. It was so good and filling!
In the end, I decided to get a Sächsiche Bratwurst anyway too. It was delicious!
After some Glühwein (which I guess I'm not a huge fan of anymore), we walked around, sat in a bookshop, and finally strolled back toward the train station. Dresden is also pretty in the dark.
We stopped by a Karstadt Department Store to use restrooms and saw this Lego replica of the Frauenkirche at a 1-to-30 scale. Pretty neat, huh?
We caught our train at 7 PM and made it back to Berlin by 10:30 PM. Thankfully, there were no delays on our return. It was definitely a trip well worth the 20€ total I spent.
Tomorrow, I will spend the day cleaning my room, doing laundry, and getting ready for the holidays. My family arrives in Munich on Monday, and I will fly down to meet them that morning as well. Can't wait! I am sure I will have plenty of good stuff for the blog in the next few weeks.
Until then,
Sam
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