It’s back to Hesse for me, this time to the town of Wehretal. What’s great about this place, is even though you’re just 50km southeast of the city of Kassel, you’ll feel a million kilometers away from all that hustle and bustle of a big city. And that’s a good thing.
The five villages (or districts, if you so will) are full of rolling hills and well-marked hiking trails. The wooded areas are perfect for a well deserved rest after hiking the day away.
And if that’s not strenuous enough for you, you can even try mountain biking. There are some 23 different bike routes through the Wehretal region, comprising some 780km of trails (that’s NOT a misprint). Just be sure to stop along the way to read all the information boards about the area, and there are plenty of rest stops along the way if you get tired.
Wehretal’s routes aren’t limited to just local trails, either. Did you know the Pilgerweg, Elisabethpfad, Jakobsweg, and Barbarossaweg all come through here? No, I didn’t either until today.
What I did know was there are some pretty churches to be found here. One of the oldest is found in the village of Reichensachsen, whose pretty Protestant Church has been here since the Middle Ages. Ok, so what if it had some major renovation work done to it through the years — it’s still a Romanesque church at heart.
Reichensachsen isn’t just famous for its medieval church. Come the third weekend of June, there’s a huge five day festival (Heimat und Wichtelfest) that ends with everyone coming for an early morning brunch on the last day. Oh yeah, five days of music, drinking, and eating… why hasn’t the whole world heard of this? Maybe if everyone reads this, they will. ;-)
You couldn’t ask for a better place to party, or to get away from it all in Hesse.
