Monday, August 2, 2010

Werra from Hilgershausen to Kassel

To get from Hilgershausen back to Kassel, we chose a slightly longer route that followed the Werra River to Hann. Munden to where the Werra empties into the Fulda. This turned out to be a fantasy route. It was so amazing we couldn't stop to take pictures. And, since Ray had been to Hilgershausen the day before, we had packed all our stuff in his car to take back with him. We had as little stuff as we've had all trip. After a short climb out of Hilgershausen, we found ourselves in a national forest of beach wood trees. It was dark, cool, and damp. The road soon started to descend, plunging us down, down, and still further down past awesome glens, interrupted only by a small village (just a farm really) with a few fields. Down until we reached the Werra. We've come to appreciate the river routes in Germany, especially if we are travelling in the direction the river is following. The Werra route twisted and turned us upside down a few times as we sped through corn and wheat fields. All the way to Hann. Munden we blissed out. Our only regret was not eating a big lunch in Hann. Munden because the pickings were slim as we heading back to Kassel along the Fulda.


This part of the day was super cool too. It was raining a little and the path took us through fields of flowers and as we got closer to Kassel, the trail got narrower and closer to the river until finally the water was mere meters from the path and the trail was a single track through dense trees, flowers, black berry brambles, and (inevitably) stinging nettles. And there was a lot of bike traffic! Families, tour groups, soloists - everyone was on the bike path, smiling and checking each other out. Ramona and I were like huge lorries running everyone down with our blazing (comparatively) speed. Cool as. We sang ourselves all the way to Kassel in record time.


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