NCE
UPON A TIME, there was a
girl called Sarah. One day her
editor gave her a quest:“You must drive the
Brothers Grimm Fairy Tale Route in three
days and return to tell the world about it.”
At 600km, it sounded like a very long way
to drive, but Sarah wasn’t too worried. She
knew that in fairy tales the characters often
see tough times, face great peril, even fall asleep for 100 years, but it
all ends happily ever after... Doesn’t it?
It’s been 200 years since Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm published
their
Children’s and Household Tales
,
and their stories are as popular
now as ever. But who were the brothers and how did they come to
publish these stories? If the answers are anywhere, then surely the
Märchenstrasse
(
Fairy Tale Route;
deutsche-maerchenstrasse.com
),
which encompasses about 60 towns and villages connected with the
brothers, is the place to find them. The road – just one of Germany’s
many tourist driving routes – begins at their birthplace, Hanau, a
two-hour drive from Cologne, and ends 600km north in Bremen.
Along the way there’s the opportunity to stay in Sleeping Beauty’s
Castle, visit the Pied Piper’s town of Hamelin and – according to auto-
tourism experts Frommer’s – enjoy “gnarled forests and half-
timbered cottages, plus some of the prettiest medieval villages in the
country”. Pre-trip heebie-jeebies aside (it’s a very long drive), the
chance to visit the world of fairy tales seems too good to pass up. I
make a note to look out for kissable frogs and set off.
Cars and Germans go together like
wurst
and
sauerkraut
,
and part
of the pleasure of driving here is the very open road – Teutonic
autobahns are famous for having no speed limit. As I leave the safety
of the car rental garage though, this doesn’t sound like much of an
upside. This traveller isn’t built for speed, and a freak blizzard has
started to fall. Teeth clenched and muttering calming mantras, I get
through by singing along loudly to
Dire Straits
on the local radio.
The brothers’ childhood home in Hanau was destroyed in World
War II, so it’s just a brief pause to ogle the official start of the route
–
a statue of the pensive-looking duo at the Neustadt marketplace –
before heading on to Marburg, where the brothers spent their
0 5 2
