You could, of course, stay at home, as it is always nice at home. Or you plan a weekend trip to somewhere. No sooner said than done. This time we visited a part of Germany, which hasn’t been visited by us yet.
We drove from Frankfurt to southern North Rhine-Westphalia, where at least the following gems are waiting for you! By the way, we spent one night at Hotel Burgblick, a very nice family owned hotel with great breakfast.
Cherry Blossoms in Bonn – Heerstraße in its full glory!
It happened last year when we saw the cherry blossom pics of Heerstraße, Bonn for the first time. Of course, we were again hooked by Instagram, the devil! But whether making the effort or not to go there depended on two things: the weather and the blossom.
Therefore this was a quite spontaneous trip. We booked the hotel and rented the car in advance but made sure to be able to cancel spontaneously.
Lucky us, this was all unnecessary and everything worked out well.
Heerstraße with its Cherry Blossoms showed its best behaviour. Sure we weren’t the only ones attracted to it. People from all over the planet came here to see this natural spectacle. And as this was not enough, there was also a flea market there on that Saturday.
There was really lots of hustle and bustle here and many residents don’t really like the fuss. But well. Everyone has to live with it. They’ll survive those few weeks a year.
We came a second time the next day hoping to not meet the masses. There were a lot less people there than the day before, but you’ll probably never find it without people. Especially not with the perfect weather we had.
All in all in was amazing and the trip here was totally worth it!
Drachenburg Castle and the Siebengebirge
Southeast of Bonn there’s the idyllic and (to us) unknown Siebengebirge. There are more than 40 mountains in the nature park, but it owes its name to the seven highest. It’s a dream for wanderers.
One of the seven mountains is called Drachenfels (dragon stone). Between 1882 to 1884 they built a castle on that mountain and called it – guess what – Schloss Drachenburg (dragon castle). Walt Disney couldn’t have imagined a better one.
We were extremely impressed. There are few castles as beautiful as Drachenburg. Afterwards, we can say, this trip would have been worth it only for this castle, regardless of the Cherry Blossom in Bonn.
Alter Flecken in Freudenberg
This place might be known to people living in the region. But not everyone in Germany (or internationally) has this place on his radar. Somewhere in Southern Westphalia (near Siegen) there’s a small town called Freudenberg with the most gorgeous Old Town imaginable. It’s called ‚Alter Flecken‘ and it’s photogenic to death. Seriously.
The view over the Old Town from the Kurpark hill is absolutely fantastic. You might even ask yourself if they’re serious with this. I mean in a positive way because it looks unreal. And above all: Why is this place not even more famous?
Walking through the alleys of Alter Flecken is also a good way to spend your time here.
After our first trip, we’re really in awe of North Rhine-Westphalia. We’re more than motivated to come back here and see more of the region. Chapeau, Rheinland!