Roughly speaking, Germany is equivalent to Montana in terms of square mileage. Despite its tiny size, Germany has more “themed” travel routes than any other country in the world: The Romantic, Road, The Wine Road, The German Clock Road, The Castle Road, and of course…The Fairy Tale Road. No matter your pleasure, Germany has a “road” for you! If you aren’t pleased with at least one of the 61 themed route options (I’m not kidding, there’s 61 of them)…then there is no hope for you.

Kassel is actually the fourth town we hit on The Fairy Tale Road, but only Hamelin was planned for that exact purpose. I mean, if the Grimm Brothers pulled over with their horse-drawn carriage one day to take a leak, the closest town threw up a monument and declared itself part of the Fairy Tale Road. You’d have to work hard to NOT be on the path of the infamous brothers in this part of the country.

Despite Kassel’s history with the Grimm brothers, we came here to enjoy Bergpark Wilhelmshöhe. At 590 acres, it covers the hills which used to form the border between East and West Germany. 12km of surface and subterranean channels create the park’s famous Wasserspiele (fountain shows). Despite the water already being turned off for the season, and an extensive amount of scaffolding, the park was a fall-foliage lover’s dream.

So, that wraps up the road trip. It all went pretty swimmingly! After 2,300 miles and 50+ hours in the car, we managed to accomplish everything we wanted to…plus three extra towns, one dog catastrophe, and one broken toe!

Nicht so schlecht!