4 weeks DE, 11 UNESCO WHS, 3000 km DB (spring 2017)
Above: Foggy dawn over Lake Constance, 23 Sep 2017 (HL).
For over fifteen years, I’ve traveled with German Rail throughout the the country. I was always passing through the centre of the country; thanks to InterCity Express trains on journeys between Frankfurt and Berlin, I’d seen stops with names “Kassel-Wilhelmshöhe”, “Hildesheim”, and “Hannover”; and I’d wondered what there was to see in these places. I finally decided to stop and find out for myself.
I wrote about my return to Germany to explore the country’s central corridor from Lake Constance to Hannover. I covered about 3000 kilometres by train with a German Rail Pass. Over 4 weeks from mid-September to mid-October, I visited for the first time 11 of the country’s UNESCO World Heritage Sites (WHS):
- Alfeld, Fagus factory
- Berlin Modernism Housing Estates, Gartenstadt Falkenberg
- Blaubeuren, Ice Age caves
- Goslar, Rammelsberg ore mines
- Hildesheim, St. Mary’s & St. Michael’s
- Höxter, Corvey Abbey
- Kassel, Bergpark Wilhelmshöhe
- Lorsch Abbey
- Reichenau Island
- Unteruhldingen, Prehistoric Pile Dwellings
- Würzburg Residence.