Today we had our planned rest day in Kassel. We had arranged to meet Ester in Kassel, so that she can join us on the next part of our tour.

We slept late and then explored the city a little. Kassel lost 90% of its buildings through bombing in the war and most of the rebuilding has been in the style of the 1950’s (so no cute old town centre). It is known as the town where the Grimm brothers wrote most of their stories. It is also a centre for fine arts, with international festivals every few years. Below is a picture in front of the Rathaus.

We went to see the main attraction of the city, the Bergpark Wilhelmshohe, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It is a huge park on a hillside, with baroque water features. The main feature is a statue of Hercules that overlooks the city with fountains running down from it.

Unfortunately the water fountains only flow on weekends and Wednesdays, and Hercules was partly covered in scaffolding, so we didn’t find it that impressive.

It was hard work riding up the hill to the statue on our rest day – much of it through forested parkland. Here is a photo of Kris asking where the Hercules is.

There was also this strange castle, built in the late 18^th century to look like a ruined fortified castle at that time. It became an actual ruin after being bombed in WWII and is now being restored again.

Esther arrived late after having some trouble with the trains (not a good day for her, but at least she got there). Kris went to the station to try to meet her but they missed each other and arrived back at the hotel separately.