Friday, May 05, 2006

Fairy Tale Road - Observation #3

For those cities where the connection to a Grimms’ fairy tale was rather loose, various towns have “adopted” a story as their own. Sure, Bremen has the Bremen Town Musicians and Hameln has the Pied Piper. Then, there are those towns whose primary connection to the Brothers Grimm is solely based on a birthplace (Hanau), childhood home (Steinau), or a university town where the duo taught (Marburg or Gottingen). What happens the rest of those quaint little German towns that find themselves peppered along this route?

Answer: you adopt a fairy tale and put up a monument that references this fairy tale. (Reminds me of the Texas walnut bowl factory, snake farm, giant ball of twine, or candle factory). Still, thumbs up to the marketing gurus who conceived the notion and put the tourist route together. After all, I am proof porsitive that the marketing worked….

The tale of the “little boy who lost his sock” and monument in Lauterbach.

FT Road - Lauterbach 004

Pied Piper in Hameln, although this tale is legitimately connected to this town.

FT Road - Hameln 010

The “little girl and the goose” story and her monument in Gottingen.

FT Road - Gottingen 001

While technically not a fairy tale, Bodenwerder, home of Baron von Munchhausen, the teller of great whoppers. This monument tells of one of this stories…the horse that was cut in two.

FT Road - Bodenwerder 004

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Holly,

I LOVE reading your blog and the pictures and commentary take me right to whatever location you are speaking of--thanks for taking so many of us along on the adventure!

Sarah Pruitt

Hachie Gal said...

Sarah - many thanks...check back...

WildSeaKitten said...

can you tell me where the Walnut Bowl Factory used to be located at in TExas? I remember going there as a child, but dont' remember much about the place. Thanks.