Brothers Grimm

Guten Tag!

This last weekend Eric went to Copenhagen. He was invited to give a talk at a workshop and gladly accepted. It really did not make much sense for me to go along; it is a 9 hour train trip from Marburg and Eric needed to spend most of his 4 days away doing work stuff so I stayed home. With a weekend all to myself I selflessly ignored my well-being and spent half a Saturday collecting material for you dear readers! Even though it is pretty sunny in the pictures, it was very cold.

In a previous post I mentioned the 'amazing' Marburg Brother Grimm tributes. I have collected them for you and without further ado present them to you in all their grandeur.

I began my epic journey with a stop at the Marburg tourist office. This was the first time I went, and I was very pleased to find out that they had a map with all the BG locations on it! This was very exciting because earlier I had tried to track this information down on the internet without success. I was aware of a few of the BG items but was surprised to find out there are 15 of them! I left the office and eagerly set out for stop #1.

1 - Der Hase und Der Igel

Was a total bust!!! This is the map I was given, everything in German of course. Number one is the topmost dot.

I circled this corner for a very long time and could not find anything. It would have helped if I knew what a hase or igel was. I eventually gave up and went inside a bookstore that was on the corner. Someone that works at the dot would know! The guy didn't really seem to know anything about the tour (not a good sign) but he did tell me that it is 'the hare and the hedgehog' (Tortoise and the Hare). The German description says that along the street in a shop window there is a picture of a hedehog and rabbit. Here is the street I am suppose to find 'the shop'.

I know the map doesn't do a very good job of showing scale but that is a really long way to look for 'a picture in a shop window' that I am doubtful even exists. I reluctantly gave up and went on to number two. Hopefully I will run across it eventually.

2 - Der Wolf und Die 7 Jungen Geisslein

Looks familiar! I put this in an earlier post. Needless to say this was much more successful than number one which made me feel a little better. I have since researched this story of 'The Wolf and the 7 Young Goats'; wolf gets goats to let him in house, wolf eats goats, mom goat cuts him open and rescues baby goats, etc.

3 - Der Froschkönig

The frog prince. I also had the benefit of knowing where this one was.

4 - Krieger'sche Leihbibliothek

I never really figured out why this was important. The landmark is the university bookstore. Presumably the Grimm brothers bought their books here when they were students??? 

5 - Die Sterntaler

Larger than life tables and chairs with metal books. It would make sense if the books had Grimm fairy tales on them...but they don't!

Here is an excerpt from the Hobbit in German and English...

6 - Das Tapfere Schneiderlein

Couldn't figure out what fairy tale this was refrencing. 7 giant flies...

7 - Grimm Wohnhaus

The Grimm bros lived in this house for not very long. Naturally it is a VERY IMPORTANT landmark for Marburg. It gets its own sign and QR code!

8 - Historischer Stadtplan

Another flimsy destination. A sign in German that talks about the BG.

9 - Hansel und Gretel

When I reached number 9 I was excited. I just had 2 lame destinations in a row and I confidently knew what I was searching for- a gingerbread house! I even found this friend and picturesque door along the way.

Too bad the destination was disappointing. This is someone's actual house. I was expecting something more like you have in the fairy tale. The house is very quaint and German but to make it an actual tourist destination feels a little desperate.

Later on I passed this house and thought it would have been a much better witch's house. 

A house worth making a trek to.

On my way to number ten I passed this cool back door to a church.

I was walking up this street (still on my way to ten) and I heard what I thought was quacking. This was an unusual place to find a duck so I stopped to investigate.

I found the duck spying on me from above!

I took my pictures and continued on my way; as luck would have it the road wound up around the corner so I got to look down into the duck's garden.

I then got to spy on the spying duck.

This garden was great. There were also some HUGE rabbits. The picture doesn't really show 

how big they were. Way bigger than a cat.

I was enjoying the rabbits when a cat shows up and starts scratching this tree!

The cat then climbs the tree like a pro right up to the wall.

He then jumped down onto the wall. I only got 3 pets in before he ran off up the street. 

A nice interlude from 'site' seeing. 

10 - Wohnhaus Des Friedrich Carl Von Savigny

BG tour picks up right where it left off. This is the house of a professor that taught the BGs. 

I am already missing my duck friend...

11 - Zitat

My weak German rescued me here. The map told me I was looking for 'treppe'.

 Luckily I knew this word- stairs!! I still can't figure out what 'zitat' is, or why these 

stairs are a BG landmark.

12 - Aschenputtel

The description on the map says 'roter pumps' (Red Pump). 

Definitely a new interpretation of Cinderella.

Nice door and path on my way to  13.

13 - Schneewittchen

Snow white! Here are the 7 dwarfs.

 

14 - Das Blaue Licht

Here we are at my least favorite of the stops. I literally walked around for an hour trying to find this one. The map is inaccurate which was part of the confusion. Also, the map makes you climb up to the shoe, down to the dwarfs, and then up again to the 'blue light'. Number 14 is just the view of Marburg where there is suppose to be blue light over the tourist office or something. This is all I found.

Also, I looked up the 'blue light' Grimm tale. It is the most random fairy tale that makes less sense than normal. Adding to the sting of my difficult search. Click Here to read it for yourself.

15 - Von Dem Fischer und Seiner Frau

The fisherman and his wife. All that is here is the Weidenhausen bridge.

I did find some pigeons roosting on it.

View from the bridge.

Overall the BG tour was good. I now know the old town really well (lots of backtracking and criss crossing) and got to find some fun side streets. Plus some new animal friends.

Auf Wiedersehen!

Marburg Grab Bag

Guten Tag!

Eric and I stayed in Marburg again over the weekend. Eric had a looming paper deadline so we spent most of our time at the apartment. We ventured out to do a little grocery shopping but like last week nothing too exciting. I have titled this post 'Marburg Grab Bag' because it encompasses a variety of random Marburg experiences.

Riding Lessons

I have been taking western riding lessons in Corvallis (and Washington) for several years now. Very few people ride western in Germany (and Europe for that matter) so I knew I was going to have to switch to Dressage. Luckily I was able find a barn very close to Marburg. I have been taking lessons there for several weeks now but have been slow to take some pictures until recently. The barn in large and very similar to barns in the US.

This is Rasputin waiting for our group lesson to start; he is one of the horses I ride.

This is the covered arena where the lesson magic happens.

 This is the end of a group lesson. (I am not in the photo).

This is Marduk waiting for me in the covered tacking area. There are a couple different horses I ride but I have been riding Marduk a lot lately. He is kind of difficult...

 Us before the lesson.

My vest and pants were part of my Christmas present from my parents. 

Here they are, pristine and without horse hair.

Marduk and I after the lesson.

One of the best things about the barn are the 2 barn kittens! Although this one doesn't look much like a kitten anymore. He's trying to warm up a horse blanket in the barn aisle.

 Brush Shop!

Eric decided he wanted a brush for cleaning potatoes. He used one at our friend's house and was smitten. Where does one get a potato brush? At the brush shop of course! I posted a picture of the front of the shop in one of my first posts. Here it is again;

Here is Eric being excited for our big purchase. After talking with some German friends it was revealed that the brush shop is a unique entity to Marburg.

So many brushes!

There are even brushes for brushes!

Many different veggie brushes to choose from; Eric making careful considerations.

Success! Plus a bonus mushroom brush!

Grocery Store

The grocery stores have taken some time to get used to. They are much smaller, have limited hours, and of course everything is in German. However I did find this really embarrassing 'American Section'. There are exotic imports like maple syrup and marshmallows.

Note how an off brand box of macaroni and cheese is 3 euros! Not to mention the disgusting array of cheese sauces next to it...

Something that is cheper in Europe than the states is Nutella! It is everywhere and comes in huge jars. This is the 800 gram holiday snowman jar. We have the smallest jar of Nutella I could find (still rather large.) Eric always comments on my Nutella eating habits although he has eaten much more of the jar than I have!

Old Botanical Garden

Near downtown is the old botanical garden. I was walking by so I stopped to take some pictures. It is quite pleasant but definitely has that air of neglect. Maybe because it is the fall; might be a different story in the spring.

Auf Wiedersehen!