The next day we drove around Edersee
to Waldeck, the main resort on the lake, and took the quaint 50 year
old
cable car up to the schloss set on the hilltop. We didn't
find any other access points as we continued around the lake, and
ended up driving through the beech forests of the
Kellerwald-Edersee National Park to Bad Wildungen, and another popular
stellplatz by the railway station. The next morning was warm and sunny,
so we walked through the timber framed old town, and the pleasant tree
lined Brunnenallee, passing several smart spa hotels and kliniks, and
several sculptures with a chair theme. We
returned to the van and drove to Marburg which, according to the guide
books, had an interesting altstadt. It turned out to be a much larger
town than expected and we ended up in the steep and busy streets with
nowhere to park, so we gave up and drove on to the small spa town of
Bad
Laasphe for the night, with more interesting sculptures in the park.
Wood sculpture at Bad Laasphe
The next morning, we skirted the large university and industrial
city of Siegen and headed for Freudenberg, a town of black
and white houses, built in a grid after a fire in 1666. After wandering
around the streets, where we spotted many knitted sleeves on the lamp
posts, and failing to find the tourist office, we eventually
found the viewpoint for taking the best photographs of the distinctive
layout.
Barge on the Rhine near Drachenfels
Driving west, we reached the Rhine in the afternoon
at the pretty village of Unkel, and found the free stellplatz, luckily
some
distance from the busy railway line that runs along the river. There
was a pleasant riverside walk with the Drachenfels castle ruins in the
distance, so we watched the many barges and pleasure steamers. We had
an interesting chat to a Dutch lady at the stellplatz, who had been
brought up on a
barge - it didn't sound as romantic as it looked, with a very
interrupted schooling. We were then treated to an unexpected fireworks
display at 11pm.
Now on the last leg of our German trip we bypassed Bonn, not too busy
on a Sunday morning, and headed for the Unesco listed Augustusburg
Palace at Brühl, which was undergoing renovations, but were able to visit the nearby
rococo style Falkenlust hunting lodge,
and enjoyed a walk through the park and gardens. Joining the autobahn
we continued west to Jülich, where we stayed at the stellplatz in the
large car park of the Brückenkopf Gardens and play park. After a
peaceful night, we drove on minor roads to the Dutch border at Roermond,
and diverted to the small town of Thorn, where nearly all the
buildings have whitewashed walls and many interesting decorations, before reaching an ACSI campsite
near Venlo to visit the Floriade Garden Expo, which takes place once
every ten years at different locations in the Netherlands.
Thorn - house decorations