.: tann:rhön ... grenzenlos schön :.

Taking advantage of the early spring (or very late arrival of winter), we took a little trip to the northern reaches of the Rhön and explored the village of Tann. The town at nearly the geographic centre of Germany (at the Landerdreieck of Bavaria, Hessen and Thuringia, and whose town motto, with the reunification, is in reference to that) was founded by itinerant monks from present-day Northern Ireland and called the tributary of the Werra river running through the landscape here the Ulster because it reminded them of home.
The village was dominated by the tall spires of an impressive neo-Gothic church, which really over-shadowed the old town. There was also an ensemble of connected palaces, known as the Blue, Yellow and Red Schloßer, that were still the residences of the descendents of the barons of Tann. The water-shed area that fell under their fiefdom was once an important source of potash (Kalisalz) for the production of potassium-rich fertilizers. 
Wanting to keep control of this natural resource was in part responsible for keeping the traditional borders of Bavarian where Tann forms a penninsula into Thuringia. H inspected the Elf-Apostel-Haus (House of the Eleven Apostles) built in the year 1500 that was currently up for sale on the market square.
Afterwards, we passed a little settlement called Rhönhauschen (Little House in the Rhön) that is basically the municipal incorporation of a guesthouse—one sees a lot of this, where out-of-the-way restaurants have their own city-limits, and had a little coffee and what's called a Windbeutel, sort of like a strawberry short-cake.