Steinau

After Hanau, Heinrich continued up the Fairy Tale Road to a town named Steinau. This is the city that the Grimm family moved to when the brothers were young. As teenagers they grew up in this town. When Heinrich got to the town he found one of the very helpful items that many towns in Europe have – a map board that displays the layout of the town.

 

The town map displays many different pieces of information. There is a map of the larger local area that shows the countryside that surrounds the town.

There is a very accurate map the shows all of the streets with a small index to help find specific roads.

 

Along the edge is a section of advertisements of different shops and stores in the town. It helps you find the services available in the town.

On another board Heinrich found a map that showed the tourist spots in the village. It is more of a picture map with the streets and images of the different buildings in a picture that was very easy to understand.

Below the map was a description of each of the various sites shown on the map. It was a little tricky for Heinrich since the descriptions were all written in German, but he is getting better at understanding more German words.

Markets

The same square that has the statue of the Grimm brothers is the place of the outdoor market. These markets are very popular in Europe and there are some good buys and some very interesting people and things to see.

 

The people will set up their little stalls in long rows and you can walk along and see the things to buy.

They are usually farmers who have brought their food to sell. The day Heinrich was there it was raining and most of the stalls had canopies or tents over them.

Besides fruits and vegetables most of the markets also have flower stands. The plants are always beautiful and people use the flowers as decorations in their homes and at their tables.

Heinrich bought some asparagus and apples. The asparagus is white which is very popular. It turns white because the farmers cover it while it grows so the sun doesn't shine it . That way it doesn't turn green. He was a little nervous about the apples. After all this was the Fairy Tale road and you know about Poison apples don't you?

 

Hanau

Living in Germany has given Heinrich lots of chances to visit interesting places and see new and exciting things. The other day he was reading about the Marchenstrasse or Fairy Tale Road. Germany is the birth place of two brothers whose last name was Grimm. The Brothers Grimm are famous for many popular Fairy Tales. Heinrich decided to travel up the Marchenstrasse and see what he could see.

He started in the city of Hanau.

 

This is the place where the two brothers were born. When Heinrich got to the city he noticed some banners along the river road. On the banners were pictures of the Grimm brothers.

Travelling through the city Heinrich found street signs that were named after the brothers.   He also found a Sign post that pointed him toward to the City Square.

 

Heinrich went to the Center of the town where there is the Rathaus or Town hall. In front of the town hall is a big statue dedicated to the two brothers.

 

On the ground in front of the statue is a plaque that marks the beginning of the Deutschen Marchenstrasse or German Fairy Tale Road. Heinrich knew he was on the right path.

Veteran's Day in Paris

After Heinrich finished his exploration of Verdun, he had the chance to travel to Paris. Paris is the capitol of France and has many famous sites and monuments. When Heinrich got to Paris he rode the Metro or subway system into the middle of Paris. He is able to see the Arch de Triomphe but is a long way up the famous road called the Champs Elysee.

When Heinrich gets to the station at the Arch de Triomphe it was very crowded. When he climbed up out of the Metro station he found himself in the middle of a large group of people. It seems that Heinrich was visiting Paris on November 11 just before 11:00. It was the eleventh hour on the eleventh day of the eleventh month. It is the time that French people celebrate Armistice Day the end of World War I. Heinrich was right in the middle of the the French Veteran's Day ceremonies.

There were police and soldiers lining the major road. The first in the procession were the Horse Guard accompanied by motorcycle Police and security.

Following the Horse guard is the Presidential Car. The President of France drove by and was waving out of the window. When he passed Heinrich he waved right at him. Heinrich was pretty impressed.

There was an impressive ceremony to celebrate the end of a war that had ended 84 year before. The President and several government officials laid wreaths at a World War I memorial.

After the ceremony was over, Heinrich had his picture taken at the Arch de Triomphe. The huge flag in the middle was very pretty and when the wind filled it it would wave through the entire center. Heinrich was very lucky to get to the center of the ceremony at exactly the perfect time.

International Memorials

The last thing that Heinrich saw at Verdun were some of the memorials. One of the monuments was for a French soldier. The memorial shows the famous soldier lying on a fancy bed.

There was also a monument in German for soldiers that was written in German.

Many soldiers from around the world had come to France to fight There is large wall with a monument for the Jewish soldiers that fought in the war.

 

A little further away is a memorial for Moslem soldiers. They came from Africa and the middle East to fight for the French Army.

Verdun Forts

Heinrich went up to see some of the forts that were on the hills above Verdun. 

The forts were huge and made out of thick concrete and are buried on the sides of hills. The have machine gun hoes and big strong doors. The soldiers would live and stay in the tunnels under ground. That would keep them safe when big bombs were shot at them.

On top of the fort were gun turrets. The turrets would go up and down. Some of them looked like Darth Vader helmets.

When Heinrich looked closely at the turrets he could see where some of the cannon shells had hit them and bounced off.

 

There was also a memorial called the Tranchee de bayonettes. These were the trenches that protected the soldiers when they were out of there forts. Bayonets were long knives on the end of rifles and sometimes the soldiers would have to fight each other with them. It was a very nasty place to be.

Cemeteries

When Heinrich got to Verdun he found that it was the site of several huge battles in the first World War. Thousands and thousands of people died in each battle. There were several monuments to teach people about the war and all the bad things that happened.

Heinrich found a plaque by a small German cemetery in France. The monument told about the German soldiers that had died in that area and were buried in the cemetery.

The German soldiers had small plain crosses to make there graves. It's not that the German had fewer deaths. Many of their wounded and dead soldiers were taken back to Germany. And since Germany did not win the war, the people there don't talk about it very much.

When Heinrich went to one of the French cemeteries it was very much different. There were lots and lots of white crosses. It was terrible how many people had died there. The crosses were white and nicely kept.

 

Voie Sacree

Heinrich decided he would find out more about some of the things that happened at this time. Damvillers is close to a famous city called Verdun.  Lots and lots of fighting took place around this city almost a hundred years ago.  As he drove toward Verdun, he kept passing the same kind of mile marker signs.  When he stopped to look at the mileposts Heinrich found the road was named the Voie Sacree or Sacred Road.

 

Along the road was a tall monument to mark the Voie Sacree. It showed lots of trucks on the memorial. The reason the road is famous is because of how important it was during the war. Most of the supplies and troops were brought in trucks on this road. And almost all of the wounded soldiers were taken back to hospitals using this road. Because of all these sacrifices, the road was called the Sacred Road

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Along the road were some cutout figures that looked like the soldiers and Generals and politicians from that time.

 
 Another monument marked the place where one of the first battles took place. A small group of French soldiers had stopped a major part of the German Army. Most of the French soldiers were killed or wounded. The monument has two crosses next to it. One says Respect and the other says Souvenir which means to Remember. It reminds people to remember and respect the sacrifice those who died.

Damvillers

Heinrich stayed that night in a quaint French Inn named the Croix Blanche. The name means the White Cross. The hotel was right in the middle of the little town. Across the street was the town chapel. It was hundreds of years old. A sign outside the church complained that almost a hundred years ago the Germans had stolen the bell from the church tower. There have been lots of wars in this part of Europe.

From the window in Heinrich room he could look out a see the old church. He tried to take a picture but the church was so close he couldn't get the whole thing in one picture. Heinrich did take a picture of the courtyard of the church from his window. It is really nice being able to be right in the middle of so much history.

Heinrich went down to see the memorial in the courtyard a little more closely. There were lots of French flags and a statue of a French soldier from World War I. This was a terrible war where lots of people died.

When Heinrich more closely at the statue, he noticed that there were many names written on the sides of the monument. All of the names on the left and some of the names on the right were the names of soldiers who had died from the village. The rest of the names on the right side were normal people, civilians from the village who had also died. All of these people from this little tiny town had been killed in just a couple of years. There were only about 40 or 50 homes in the whole town. Almost one person for each house.

LePage

 

Heinrich has had lots of opportunities to travel sine he has been in Germany, He even gets to travel to other countries. He recently had the chance to go to a village in the countryside in France. The name of the city he visited was called Damvillers. This little village is the home town of a famous French artist named Jules Bastien-LePage

 

The village is very proud of this painter. In the town park there is a memorial for LePage. The statue of him was made by an even more famous artist. His name is Rodin, Rodin is the sculptor that made the statue named “The Thinker”, the man sitting with his head on his hand that is very famous.

There is a plaque in the park that talks about the life of Jules LePage. It had a lot of interesting information but it was written in French which was a little tricky for Heinrich. The plaque told about a path leading through the town that had exhibits displaying pictures of some of LePage's paintings.

 

Heinrich went on a treasure hunt, trying to find each of the markers on the trail. The markers had copies of his pictures. Heinrich found one that showed portraits that LePage had painted of some of his family, including his mother and father. He had lots of nice pictures and it was fun trying to find them scattered around the paths in the city.