The castle of Sanssouci is one of the best-known castles in Germany and located within the Park Sanssouci of Potsdam, Germany. It belonged to the house of Hohenzollern and the first buildings where created between 1745 and 1747 by the order of Frederick the Great in rococo style. It was extended in 1841 under Frederick William IV of Prussia and since 1990 the castle is a UNESCO world heritage site.
Continue reading “Schloß Sanssouci”Café Hurricane
If you’re coming to the Nordstadt auf Kassel, Germany you should plan a stop at the Café Hurricane north of the university and close to the Nordstadtpark. They’ve got seats in a winter garden and outside next to the street where you can watch the hustle and bustle. As I learned the Café Hurricane is well-known for two things: breakfast and börek.
Continue reading “Café Hurricane”Nordstadtpark
The Nordstadtpark is one of the smaller green areas at Kassel, Germany – but it is well-known and highly frequented because of its location next to the university and the university hospital. It offers a playground, a large meadow to relax and terraces to sit on next to river Ahne. The location also determines the atmosphere here: the visitors are younger and more international than in other parts of the city.
Continue reading “Nordstadtpark”Weinbergbunker
Because of its massive weaponry production the city of Kassel, Germany was a primary target for air raids in World War II. Therefore you can still today find different bunkers under the city and above ground. One of them is the vast Weinbergbunker within the Weinberg mountain (where once wine was planted) close to the city center. It was created in 1821 to store and cool beer – the temperature down there is always between 8 and 11 degrees celsius. In addition in winter times ice from the frozen river Fulda was brought there.
Continue reading “Weinbergbunker”No man’s land
In the forest between Landwehrhagen, Staufenberg and Heiligenrode, Niestetal you can observe a special border situation: as both, the kingdom of Hannover and the landgraviate of Hesse-Kassel wanted to use a path through the forest they found an easy solution. The border stones are simply placed on the left and the right side of the path creating a ‘Niemandsland‘ (no man’s land) not belonging to one of these two parties. When you’re standing in between you’re neither in the kingdom nor in the landgraviate.
Continue reading “No man’s land”Ickelsbach
The Ickelsbach is just a tiny flow beginning at Lutterberg, passing Landwehrhagen (both belonging to Staufenberg) and ending at the river Fulda close to Wahnhausen, Fuldatal (which is located on the other side of the river). Unfortunately you cannot walk near the riverbed but on paths close to the river. It is a nice walk from Landwehrhagen down to river Fulda where you can decide to continue via the watergate to Wahnhausen or along the Fulda to Speele.
Continue reading “Ickelsbach”Kragenhof
The city of Kassel, Germany has two exclaves – or better said property outside of the boundaries of the city: the Lenoir mausoleum at Hessisch Lichtenau and the Gut Kragenhof at Staufenberg. The Kragenhof is a farm within a sinuosity of river Fulda. Since 1901 it belongs to Kassel but it is only accessible via Staufenberg and also has its postcode and area code.
Continue reading “Kragenhof”Volkssternwarte
When you’re passing through the cities Espenau or Fuldatal north of Kassel, Germany you might see a strangely shaped tower on a hill – the Häuschensberg. It is the Volkssternwarte Rothwesten, an observatory above the village Rothwesten belonging to Fuldatal. It was finished in 1963 and offers the possibility to look at the stars – free of charge. At its location there was since 1912 a look-out tower that collapsed and was never repaired.
Continue reading “Volkssternwarte”Druselturm
One of the necessities of a medieval city is to have water – for the inhabitants and to clean the city. At Kassel, Germany water from the small flow Drusel (also called ‘Kleine Fulda‘) was directed into the city and distributed via small channels (‘Druseln‘) to clean the surface of the streets. For being able to do so the strong fortifications of the city had to be weakened at one point to allow the water to enter the city. As this would be the ideal target for an attacker the 44 meters high Druselturm was built in the year 1415 CE.
Continue reading “Druselturm”Between clouds
The Fernsehturm (TV tower) of Stuttgart, Germany is an iconic building and symbol of German engineering art. It was opened in 1956 and was the first tower built with ferroconcrete and the architecture received different awards over time. The building is 216 meters high and stands on mountain Hoher Bopser (quite a funny name).
Continue reading “Between clouds”