Ahh, Hesse, the land of the Brothers Grimm. How many of your fanciful tales have been made into movies? How many small German villages like Aarbergen pay you homage?
Right now I don’t care about them, I’m only thinking about Aarbergen at the moment. ;-)
In all fairness, it isn’t all about the Grimm brothers here — but this town does have “Reading Festivals” for the kids about the Brothers Grimm Fairytales.
What a nice way to start off, don’t you think?
Kids at heart like that kind of thing, but if you don’t — don’t worry, here’s something for you. Like a whole bunch of other festivals. The Apfelweinfest (Appel Wine Festival) is a good one every August, followed by the Community Festival.
July’s got the Street Festival, and June’s the month for the König-Ludig-Tanz-Festival. Oops, that’s the King Ludig Dance Festival.
The cooler months are a real hopping good time here in Aarbergen. Get this (deep breath), the Harvest Festival’s in September, the historical Rückershäuser Markt (an Oktoberfest of sorts) in October, another Harvest Festival in October, the official start of the Carnival Season in November, followed by two Christmas Markets (there are six districts, after all), and quite a number of Christmas concerts.
Yikes, I forgot to add in the various traditional Kerb Festivals (Church Festivals) in the Fall, each district with its own.
A year in the life of Aarbergen in two breaths. ;-)
Please, as if you got time now to go see the 17th century half-timbered church in Daisbach, or the Dorfkirche in Rückershausen built in 1326. Michelbach’s got this totally cool medieval fortress church that’s pushing like 900 years old.
Making the 450 year old tree over at the local cemetery seem downright young, huh? But the old church still isn’t as old as the Altschloss, an old castle (what’s left of it anyway) from around the 8th century.
Don’t fret if you get a bit achy after doing all that partying and sightseeing — just head to the Sauerbrunnen, a fountain’s that been said to help with all kinds of ailments.
Can it make me 10 years younger — I still got a whole lot more of Germany to cover! ;-)
