The next destination was Thale, my hometown. Although it's small and rather boring, it can be quite pretty. It has lots of mountains. And most of the surrounding towns were built in the 13th or 14th century and are still full of the old beautiful houses.
On the first day we visited Quedlinburg, one of those medieval-looking towns.
During that time, the people built the houses with materials which were available. And when a balk was crooked, they used it anyway because they didn't have any tools to straighten it.
After Quedlinburg, we went up one of the mountains in Thale: the Roßtrappe (which translates as horse shoe print). The legend about this mountain is as follows: Princess Brunhilde was supposed to marry knight Bodo. But she didn't want to and took her horse and fled. Bodo followed her. Then she suddenly reached a precipice. But she decided to dare it and made her horse jump over to the next mountain. Brunhilde's horse was successful, but it used so much force that it left a print of its hoof. However, Bodo's horse failed and Bodo fell into the river where he was turned into a black dog. It is said that still today he is watching over the river Bode.
It looks like a ski lift, but it's not one because you can't ski in Thale. There are no slopes.
And it was very slippery up there!
The second day we went up to the Hexentanzplatz (witches dancing place). This legend is much shorter: Once a year the witches meet there and dance around a fire. But here the lift looks a little different; it's not open.
After that we went to Wernigerode, another medieval-looking town. But it's a bit fancier. At first we went up to the castle and then we had coffee in an expensive, but very nice cafe in front of the city hall.
On the third day we visited Burg Falkenstein (translates to Castle Stone of the Falcon). It was built in the 11th century and is one of my favorite castles.
On the fourth day we went to a hugh cave where we had to wear funny helmets and to a statue of Emperor Barbarossa (the monument is called Kyffhäuser) where my glasses broke, so I took the pictures pretty much blind! *lol* Unfortunately, pictures were not allowed in the cave because there were tons of bats around and they don't like the flash of cameras.
And on our last day (before we took the train back) we made a short trip to the Teufelsmauer (devil's wall) and an really old mill which was a location for a very funny German movie (1 1/2 Ritter = one and a half knights). By the way, there is also a wall about the Teufelsmauer: The devil made a bet with God that he can built a wall within one night before the cock crows. But during that specifil night, a farmer crashed with his wagon and woke the cock up way too early and the cock started to crow. Of course, the devil hadn't been finished yet and got so angry that he wasn't successful that he destroyed part of the wall himself.
Frauenkirche:
Königsplatz:
Residenz:
As you can see, it snowed quite a lot on that day. And of course, the winter service was on strike.
Of course, you were not allowed to take pictures inside the castle. So, I only have one picture from the inside which I took secretely.
Our third day we started with some grocery shopping on the Viktualienmarkt, the biggest food market in Germany.
Then we went to the Olympiapark which looks pretty amazing.
B had lots of fun playing in the snow and we saw some Jesus ducks (they could walk on water).
The Bavarian Parliament:
After that we went to Englischer Park to see the chinesischer Turm (Chinese Tower).
And the last thing we did on that day was going to a museum.
On the last day we searched for another monument and then went to a museum. Munich's museums really had a lot to offer.
