One of the things that have drawn me to traveling is finding the unexpected around the corner. I love just getting out and exploring, not having to go to all the popular places. Don’t get me wrong, the popular places are something you need to see, but it is the journey to get there that I actually seem to enjoy the most. By journey, I mean wandering through the city to get to my destination instead of just making a beeline there.
I find that by walking around, I notice more things that I would not have noticed if I went straight to my destination. For example, in Marburg, Germany, people may be interested in visiting the famous Landgrafen castle. If they were to drive or take a bus to their destination, they get straight to the top of the hill where the castle is located. This involves using the back road to get to the top of the hill. They get to see lots of trees, a forest, and happy green plants. Relaxing, but not much different than other forests.
However, if you walk up to the castle the front way (walking path only), you get to see some interesting sculptures. These include a red shoe, a frog prince, 7 dwarfs, and more. If you find out more information, you learn that the Brothers Grimm studied in Marburg, the ones that wrote down folk fairy tales and compiled them into several books. Most of the famous fairy tales existing today have backgrounds in the books from the Brothers Grimm. There is actually a route to walk on to see all the sculptures called Märchenstraße. And to think, you would have missed this little cultural tidbit if you wouldn’t have walked to the castle!
The red slipper in front of the Landgrafen castle in Marburg
So here are some of the things that I have found by not going the traditional way to my destinations (I highly advise this method of traveling). I have been able to see many different things, such as signs of the brothers Grimm, but this week, I am going to be talking about unique bridges.
Lucas and I have started biking more (we are setting our foundation for future triathlon training), and this involves biking on a lot of bike trails. Lots of these trails are around small rivers and streams, and we end up seeing some interesting bridges.
For example, a few weeks ago, we went on a trail near Gelsenkirchen, Germany and ended up crossing over this unique bridge (which is only supported by one pole and a bunch of cables).
The Grimberger Sichel bridge in Gelsenkirchen
Another bridge we recently found is a beautiful red bridge in Gladbeck, Germany. This bridge was located on the outside of a park, which we later explored. It was really cool to see a brightly colored bridge. We later explored the sculpture park after crossing the bridge.
Here is the Double Arch bridge or Doppelbogenbrücke in Gelsenkirchen
Another bridge that I saw with my mom was in Rothenburg ob der Tauber (Means Rothenburg on the Tauber, and the Tauber is a river. This town is definitely a must-see). This bridge was unique in that it was a double decker bridge. She had seen it many years earlier when visiting Rothenburg. She had said that someday she wanted to walk across the bridge. Like many dreams we have in life, I thought, “yeah, that’s a cool inspiration”, and I was skeptical that it would ever happen.
Funny thing is, we ended up coming back to Rothenburg ob der Tauber with my aunt and cousins two years later. We went out to the outskirts of the town to look around, we saw the double decker bridge again. Mom said that she wanted to go and see it. This is where the adventuring began.
We did not have a map or phones with GPS, so we decided to navigate our way using intuition. We ended up walking down a mountainside of growing grape vines, past a small church and river, and then we saw the bridge in front of us. We were so happy that we got up close to the bridge, and we wanted to go further to get up on the bridge. We had to climb up a road to get to the top, but we did it! My mom’s dream came true, and I was happy to have explored with her and help her reach her dreams.
Sitting on top of the Tauberbrücke or Tauber river bridge.
Lesson: Take the road less traveled. Explore your surroundings. Blaze new trails. You never know what you will find! Also, there are some cool bridges in Germany!
One of the bridges I really want to get to see is the Bastei Bridge near Dresden, Germany. It is built into and supported by the natural cliffs of the region. But we will see if we get there!
Even Brexa likes exploring new bridges!
“EXPLORATION IS A WONDERFUL WAY TO OPEN OUR EYES TO THE WORLD, AND TO TRULY SEE THAT IMPOSSIBLE IS JUST A WORD.” – RICHARD BRANSON