Ostriches, cow tongues & rhubarb cake

Wasserschloss Wülmersen, Trendelburg

The Wasserschloss Wülmersen is a wonderful place and a good destination for an excursion in the middle between Trendelburg and Bad Karlshafen. The name is a little bit misleading as it is not really a castle – it is a farm that dates back to the 12th century CE. In the past it was partially surrounded by a moat, therefore it received the name water castle or Wasserschloss.

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Hurkutstein

Hurkutstein, Gleichen

The lower German verb ‘hurkuzen‘ meaning ‘to hide away‘ is very much unknown today – but it gave the name for a nice sandstone formation in the Reinhäuser Wald (Reinhausen forest) near Bremke belonging to Gleichen. Within the rock, you will find a man-made cave at a height of 3 meters in which you can climb via a wooden ladder. Hide for a while but afterwards don’t forget to explore the rest of the region.

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Inside the dragon’s lair

Drachenhöhle, Wolfhagen

What to do if you’ve got too much money and feel a little bit bored? Just build your own medieval castle! The former district administrator Ludwig von Buttlar ordered the reconstruction of the Wolfhagen castle on the Graner Berg (a mountain named after the former village called Gran) in 1910 – and he paid for it with money from his own pocket. Even today you can still visit the two towers standing next to an airfield for gliders.

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Bärenbergturm

View from Bärenbergturm, Zierenberg

There are different good reasons to visit the area around Zierenberg, Germany. Most people know the Hoher Dörnberg and the Helfensteine, the Alpenpfad and maybe the Schreckenbergturm and the blue stones underneath. A rather seldomly visited place is the 600 meters high Großer Bärenberg (‘bear mountain’). Maybe you just know it when you pass on motorway A44 from the Ruhr area to Kassel – as there is a rest area named after the mountain.

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Weinbergterrassen

Weinbergterrassen, Kassel

The Weinberg is a special place in Kassel, Germany – it is a little bit aside from the city centre and you would not simply see it by accident. On the other hand, it should be on the list of every visitor because on top you’ll find the Grimmwelt museum and the Sepulkralkultur museum which are both highly recommended. The limestone mountain itself has a long a changeful history: as the place where the Huguenots settled when fleeing from France, as a place for growing wine and people drinking lots of beer outdoor, as the home of factory-owning family Henschel and as the mountain containing the Weinbergbunker in which a lot of people survived air-raids and later illegal techno parties happened.

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