Captivated by Alsfeld

Saturday 24 – Thursday 29 June 2017

My five night stay in the little town of Alsfeld was a chance to relax in quiet, unrushed surroundings.  I pre-booked accommodation at Hotel Klingelhoffer.

The room I had was comfortable, clean (serviced daily), had good internet access and was actually located in a building across the road from the hotel.  Included in the accommodation cost was breakfast.  This included a good selection of cereals, breads and yoghurt, boiled eggs, scrambled eggs, salami and other cold meats, coffee, a selection of tea and juices.

I had a meal in the hotel restaurant on my first night there.  I chose what I thought was a fish dish.  It turned out to be a 2 course meal and the main meal was a stunner.

A large single bed !  A view from my accommodation across to the hotel and then looking up the street towards the medieval part of Alsfeld.

On the corner just up the road is a cycle shop, however it always looks to be closed.  The cobble patterns are amazing and the colours seem to differentiate between footpath, gutter, road etc.  I wouldn’t risk wearing high heels on them!  Outside one house I spotted a set of old scales.  I wonder what their use was primarily for.  Hersfelder Street is what my hotel is on.

The Old Town is packed full of old timber-framed homes and stores — over 400 of them to be precise!  Some of these buildings are like none you have seen before! There are tiny houses, wonky houses, overly tall houses and enormous and ornate houses. There are even some buildings that get wider and wider the higher they get — seeming to defy gravity!  In Alsfeld you can also find architecture from all the major periods in history covering the past 700 years. 

I love how the buildings look “wonky”, as described above.  Many walls do not look straight.  The timber beams aren’t “perfect”.   Such a variety of materials are used with the wooden beams.

Some buildings located on corners had interesting colourful carvings.  I am not sure of their purpose.  The pot plant was novel 🙂  as was the letterbox.  No need to be able to read German to understand the meaning of the road sign !

24 Hersfelder Gasse (Alley)

A few of the buildings have inscriptions on them.  I will need to check with my German friends to discover the significance of these.

The stone Walpurgis Church behind the main square has its beginnings in the 14th century. It has collapsed, been rebuilt and been extended over the following 600 years to its present form! It also a resounding bell collection — 7 in total — and the music from its tower is a delight at any time of day.

The Walpurgis Church is open between 1.30 & 3.30pm.  I took these images on my cell.

The Bein House was at one stage used for preserving skeletons from the surrounding cemetery as the cemetery was too small to cope with the numbers of deaths in the 30 Year War and the various plagues.  Later the chapel was misused for “profane” purposes.

Lunch on one day was a kebab for 5 Euro.  Great value and very filling.

These were taken around the Marktplaz.

Someone’s private home garden framed by the enormous gate in the wall.

I love how different materials (textures and colours) are used in the buildings, resulting in them looking so individual.

Café Rahn makes a variety of delicious cakes and the tea is good too.  Inside the beams are slightly “rugged” looking and are not just for show.  I love how they are pieced together to provide a solid wall foundation.

The Wine House, next to the Town Hall, in the Marktplaz.

The Town Hall in the Marktplaz.

The outer wall of each level of the building is wider than the level below it in most cases.  Whether that is a design effect or something structural, I have no idea.  I tried to take a photo looking up underneath !

Some of the buildings that had narrow walkways between them nearly touched each other at rooftop height !

Leonhard’s Tower is the last remaining tower of the city fortress .  It is 27 metres high.  Entrance was from the city wall, through a doorway half way up the tower.  At the base was the dungeon.  I could see the stork’s nest, but there was no sign of the stork !

This looked to be like part of the town wall perhaps.  I couldn’t locate any information in the vicinity.

This was taken outside the main town area.  In the distance near the light strip of land is the autobahn.

Walking around the block, I discovered a supermarket which enabled me to restock my tea bag supply.  I was interested to see the word “Haka” on the wall on the corner wall.  Not far from my hotel, stacks of cardboard were being loaded onto a truck.  The mini crane had claws which pick up the stacks and the “crane/truck driver” loaded them onto the back of the truck.

When I went to get an evening meal at the hotel on Sunday night, I discovered their restaurant is closed that night.  So I wandered about 100m down the road to the Italian restaurant.  What a magic discovery that was.  I subsequently had 3 nights evening meals there and take out pizza on another night.  Their seafood risotto was my choice and it cost 7.50 Euro.  On the last night I tried their Tiramisu.  I didn’t expect it to be so large!  It melted in your mouth, but half the size would have been plenty.  They also had “black” beer which was just the ticket.

It was near impossible to find a few kilometres of flat area to run on.  It took until my last couple of days before my legs got some oomph to go up the slightest elevation .  Humidity was over 90% and after each run the sweat just poured off me.  On one run I came across an empty pond.  I wonder if it was drained purposely or suffering drought?  It didn’t look flash.  There were lots of trails, albeit short ones, to run on and some of them were alongside streams.  In the distance I could often hear cars on the autobahn and trains.

A late evening view looking from the bottom of the street up to my hotel.