Two weeks after our Copenhagen trip (posts are in the making) it got a little bit boring again and we decided to make the best of one of the last summer weekends of the year by making a day trip to Southern Hesse.
The plan: Seeing Michelstadt, Schloss Auerbach (Auerbach Castle) and the Felsenmeer in the Odenwald (‚Rocket Sea‘). Not in this order, but who cares.
Maybe we’ll delete this post sooner or later. I just noticed we haven’t done a general Hesse post summarizing the awesomeness of this little German federal state. But we’ll see. We like overviews ourselves. Fort he inspiration, you know!
Schloss Auerbach (Auerbach Castle)
These ruins of a castle are under a preservation order and as you can see in the picture, this place is also used as a wedding location. Personally, we think it’s a cool idea. We’d love to be invited.
The view over the surrounding from the top of the ruins is amazing. There’s also a restaurant up here if you’re feeling hungry.
What might also interest you: Schloss Auerbach is near Bensheim, a little town known for being a half-timbered houses dream. In Auerbach itself, there’s also the Fürstenlager, which they say is worth seeing aswell.
Dorfmühle in Auerbach
This is a cute beer garden offering good food and we think it’s worth mentioning. We were familiar with the little bit rough, but friendly welcome of the staff from our home in Bavaria. Therefore, it couldn’t put us off the delicious, heavy meal.
The beer garden itself is really beautiful. Even on sunny days, you can enjoy the calmness of this little town.
Felsenmeer in Odenwald (‚Rocket Sea‘)
Sometimes Mother Nature is in a good mood and makes some beautiful surprising magic for us people. For example the Felsenmeer in the Odenwald. It’s all boulderer’s dream.
But everyone else will love this place aswell. There’s definitely not a lack of visitors here which surprised us a lot. During our five years in Frankfurt now, this place got never mentioned anywhere in our surrounding.
Anyway. The Felsenmeer is really impressive and the walk through the forest a benefit for our city lungs.
Michelstadt
Between Darmstadt and Heidelberg there’s a little beautiful town called Michelstadt. A small town with half-timbered houses and my personal highlight: the historical town hall built on stilts. It’s attention and camera seeking and we came to do the favor. It was built in 1484 and is basically the star of the town.
There are a few more things to see in Michelstadt. For example the city wall and (not far from the town hall) the thief tower, which was once used as a prison.
Which we couldn’t see due to time reasons was Schloss Fürstenau with the Schmucktorbogen (a castle with a beautiful arch at its entrance).
Hafentreppe in Offenbach (Staircase at the harbor)
At the end of our trip, we wanted to see the sunset from the Hafentreppe in Offenbach. This city is actually not known to be the prettiest. Nevertheless, the investment at the harbor area was a good one as you can see.
Next, to the stairs, there’s a Pizzeria which also offers take away. So we added Pizza to the beautiful sunset and the romance was real. We liked this place a lot and you should definitely pay it a visit.