Hotel Wenzel

Rotenburg an der Fulda

by Nemorino

After two days in Bad Hersfeld I cycled 21 kilometers further downstream to Rotenburg an der Fulda (spelled without an h in the middle), which turns out to be a pleasant little town with attractive half-timbered houses, and not at all a tourist trap like the one with the h on the Tauber.

Again it was a cool, overcast day, which was fine for cycling but not so good for taking pictures. When I got to Rotenburg it started to rain, so I took the hint and took the next train to Fulda, where I changed onto a regional express for Frankfurt. Both of these trains had convenient bicycle sections with wide-enough doors, which at least in this part of Germany is now more or less standard for the regional and local trains.

Second photo: A poster advertising an open-air performance of the opera Nabucco by Giuseppe Verdi, to be held in the castle courtyard in Rotenburg an der Fulda on August 28, 2005. (That's the Rotenburg railroad station in the background, by the way.) The poster makes no mention of who will be performing this opera -- hopefully not the same folks who did it a year ago at the Konstabler Wache in Frankfurt!

Duden-Museum

by ettiewyn

The Duden Museum is very small, but still interesting. It was founded in 1999 right next to the Duden School.
The focus of the museum is of course Konrad Duden, and mainly his life and works, which are presented in great detail and many facts. You can see some school interior and memorabilie from around 1900 and there is also a collection of many Duden editions, from very old to contemporaty ones.

The museum is only open on sundays from 15.00 until 17.00.

As this museum is mainly about Duden's life and everything is presented in texts, I think it will not be that interesting for people who cannot speak German. Of course you can still go, but as the main activity is to READ, I just wanted to state that it might not be such a great experience for non-German speakers as there is not that much to see next to the reading.

Klausturm - tower from the 13th century

by ettiewyn

The Klausturm (Klaus Tower) is one of the remainings of the city walls dating back to the 13th century. It belonged to the Klaustor, a gate that is not existing anymore. From the gate, people used to defend their city in battles. Later, the tower was used as a prison. It was restaurated in 1988.

The tower is completely round and 12 m high. There are stairs that go up the tower, but the small gate was closed and it looks like it is usually not open. You can go through the tower base though, which will take you outside the town center.

Kurpark: Duden Memorial, Scent & Stone Gardens

by ettiewyn

One the first things you will meet when you enter the garden coming from the Kurhaus is the scent garden. It hosts many plants and herbs with beautiful scents - beautiful to wander through and indulge.
Next to it is a stone garden with many interesting in beautiful stones that are composed in a very artictic manner. In the middle of this you can find a memorial for Konrad Duden, the creator of the German dictionary. The memorial depicts a globe with Duden's name on it and thus showed that the world is made out of words and cannot exist without words - a tribute to Duden who contributed so much to the recording of the German language.

Minas Hersfeld...

by ettiewyn

The passionate Lord of the Rings reader will recognize that "Minas Hersfeld" is a perfect name for a Tolkien meeting held in a town called Bad Hersfeld... I had a fabulous weekend with great lectures by real Tolkien experts, awesome concerts by world famous Tolkien musicians, interesting work shops like knitting and embroidering, inspiring discussions and great food provided by the youth hostel Bad Hersfeld.

To show you something of the atmosphere, here are pictures of the best pieces of decoration, all embroided and knitted by members of the society. I really admire them, I could never do such things (too impatient and too untalented).

An appropriate greeting :-)

Beautiful emblems of Gondor and Rohan

The flag of Gondor...

Keep Mordor Tidy!

Aragorn is coming to town!

A dreamlike concert by Danish harper Kim Skovbye!

...and the most stunning concert by Caspar Reiff (not in the picture) and Peter Hall, founders of the world famous Tolkien Ensemle... The music was so beautiful I could hardly believe it was real.