Day 40 (June 11) Steinau

It was very nice to not have to get up to make the breakfast time as we did at the Altenburg hotel.  We had provisioned up the night before so we made our own continental breakfast at our leisure before heading off on the motorcycle to Hanau where we secured the same spot in the center of town to park (free of course).  We returned to the Bros. Grimm house and museum where we toured them.  There was a temporary exhibition of space items because of Werner von Braun's connection to the area plus lots of Grimm Bros. related items. Unfortunately no photos were permitted in either museum.  As we were leaving the area, we met some Americans who were visiting the area as their grandfather had come here.  We later met them for a very enjoyable lunch after we walked around the town in search of historical items (not really hard to find!).

Lunch was wonderful and we discussed travelling, language, jobs (some former) and many other topics.  We parted ways with them so we could visit the tourist information office and attend a Puss 'n Boots performance at the Marionette Theatre.  After the performance we wanted to tour the city, but it started raining. So we ducked into the Steinau castle and did a self-guided tour which included a wonderful Bros. Grimm section.  Our tour also included a guided kitchen tour plus a self guided climb up the 146 steps of the two towers.  The view at the top was spectacular!  By now the rain had abated, so we continued our walk around the old part of town following a city map.  A high point was finding a store front with colored Grimm Bros. Fairy Tale characters.  

This completed our visit to Steinau. It was definitely one of the richest Bros. Grimm cities on the Deutche Märchen Strasse.  And it would be our last city on this portion of our trip. I probably learned more about the Bros. Grimm than Angela as she knew more from the start.  The big takeaway for me was their contribution and enfluence on the codification of the German language.  I had originally thought fairy tales were their major contribution.

We rode back to our lodging for a light supper and skipped eating out as our lunch meal was so large.

Now it was time to turn another corner on our trip.  We chatted about what we might do next and settled on a continued ride on German backroads.  Only this time it would be in search of castles, not that they are hard to find with some 25,000 remaining in Germany. 

There is a route called 'die bergenstrasse' (the castle road) which leads the traveller on a backroads route to 70 historic castles between Mannheim and Prague which is pretty much just east of where we are now. We can't do all of them, but we'll intercept them about a third of the way from the start and do as many as we can in our remaining time. It'll be more history to learn and absorb.  The astute reader will see the comparison of this route with the fairy tale route and many of the rides I do in the states (Dam Tour, Tour of Honor, Oregon Airport Tour, BMR, and more).

So, Monday we will head out on the new adventure for a little over a week before starting  our final adventure which will take us to the Baltic and choral music.