.: ausflugziel kassel :.

A short while ago, H and I had the chance to explore the northern Hessian city of Kassel and the region. After driving for a few hours through the rolling hills of the Wetterau agricultural region, our first stop brought us to the Palace of Wihelmsthal about ten kilometers northwest of the city.
This summer residence was build at the end of the Baroque era for Count Wilhelm XIII and previsioned many Rococo design elements and was a really fantastic little vacation cottage, built with the help of the architects that designed the Palace Sanssouci in Potsdam.
The expansive park contained a lot of pedigreed landscaping and canals, ponds and fountains as well as some architectural follies that turned into a really nice way to preview what we were about to experience next. Just having recently gained status as an UNESCO World Heritage Site, I believe the Bergpark Wilhelmshöhe is yet bracing itself for more throngs of tourists—not that the four and a half kilometer long garden populated with artificial ruins, grottoes, temples and even a medieval castle in miniature was anything to disappoint or crowded—as it was a little hard to imagine how full and bustling the park would be when the water-show was switched on.
The spectacle only happens on Wed- nesdays, Sundays and holidays in the afternoons and I wager it is really unbelievable, as water cascades some seventy meters down a causeway with a colossal of Hercules surveying the whole park and with a look back to the Palace Wilhelmshöhe, stately but itself only originally a little hunting-lodge. It was pretty cool that the royals had all these toy forts and tree-houses built and installed in such a fine playground.
We spent several hours there but one could easily spend a whole day and not see everything.
 Next, we went to the town itself and explored the inner-city and stopped at the Orangerie (a Renaissance era structure that originally used as a hot-house for growing exotic plants) for drinks in the Karlsaue gardens along the river Fulda. It was very pleasant there and filled with people enjoying the afternoon sun.
Later, we went a little further a long the river to the point were it converged with the Werra, just across the border into the state of Niedersachsen and set up camp on the little islet of the medieval town of Hannoversch Münden—now abbreviated Hann. Münden because of its historical ties to the city and kingdom of Hannover and to avoid confusion. It was a very pleasant end to long day's journey and we took a walk among the half-timbered houses and along the river in the evening.