Hessenpark

Today we visited Hessenpark, an open-air museum that has been on our must-see list for a while. Founded in the 1970s, Hessenpark was built to show how life was hundreds of years ago in Hessen, with people demonstrating all sorts of crafts and skills, such as farming, spinning wool, basket weaving, tending animals, beer brewing, bread baking and blacksmithing.

That was what we were expecting. Instead, we chose a time where many exhibits were closed and the majority of the buildings were covered in scaffolding as they were undergoing renovation.

The windmill wasn't scheduled to run during our visit.

Petting this donkey was the highlight of our time here, until it roughly but probably playfully headbutted Emilie in the gut. The hysterical tears are not pictured.

This basket weaver's fingers moved like lightening. He was the only person at the whole park we saw demonstrating a skill or craft.

A window on the building displaying some puppets.



On the way home, we stopped by Saalburg, the remains of a Roman fortification. We got out of the car and the temperature seemed to have dropped by 20 degrees and the fog was thick, too foggy for pictures. I found the photo below on-line.

The kids were bored and miserable and did not feel like traipsing around anymore, even if the fort was an almost 2,000 year-old authentic site this time.

Well, it wasn't. The fortification was a 19th century reconstruction. This was not the day we were hoping for. After staring at the wall and front entrance for a few minutes, shivering the whole time, we all got back into the car and drove home.

David said that the whole day made him feel like Clark Griswold from National Lampoon's Vacation movies. He tried to keep up the enthusiasm, but it just didn't work.