1. A beautiful town
2. Seeing remnants of the 'iron curtain' that divided the former West and East Germany
Leaving the Ruhr behind us, we travelled east towards the Mohne dam (Mohnesee) which we visited in September 2011 after attending the annual Motorhome Show in Dusseldorf, where our choice of motorhome was made. We spent the night at a campsite near the dam and also drove past it the next day to reminisce about that life changing decision. Stopping at a motorway services, we hauled out the map of Germany and decided to cover at least 200 kilometres of our journey towards Berlin, our next major stop.
It was by pure chance that we ended up here at Bad Sooden-Allendorf in the state of Hesse, on our way to Berlin. Perusing the map I noticed the inscription 'Border Museum' at Allendorf and realised this must pertain to the old West/East divide of Germany. So Snoopy was programmed and off we went!
It turned out to be a beautiful town of old style German architecture and seemed to have been undamaged by the war. The 'stellplatze' (non fancy campsite in Germany) was a large area of park-as-you-please gravel and grass.
The view through our windscreen of Allendorf
View from town towards our site - Fifi far side 2nd left
Market square in Allendorf
The river Werda next to town
Something we have often noticed during our travels is the penchant of putting something decorative and/or ornamental in windows. I often get the impression that those living on the continent also care about the impression their homes leave to outsiders passing by. See the example below.
Window display in Allendorf
I also experienced something what can be called 'the kindness of strangers' when as I was doing the BBQ that evening, the next door motorhome offered me their purpose built table for putting the disposable BBQ on. No bending down said the German guy, please use my table. Herzlich Dank mein Herr!
We also experienced for the first time the lovely service of the local bakery sending someone in a little van selling fresh buns and pastries for breakfast. Slightly more expensive, but how wonderful is that!
Next - our visit to the Schifflersgrund Border Museum and our night spent inside the former East Germany on that very border that divided the two Germany's.
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