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!
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