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2473 Kilometers in 80 Days - Euromaxx Reporter Michael Wigge's Blog

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Across Thuringia to the Fairy Tale Caves!

Hi everyone,

Hump day on my 80 days scooter challenge from Germany’s most northern to most southern point! I am in Behrungen right now, a town at the former inner German border. This is an interesting place since I have the chance to see the infamous former border strip with its watch towers and border posts for myself. Here are the half time facts: I have “scootered” 1374 kilometers out of the total 2573 kilometers in 40 days.. So I have managed to keep up my pace and hopefully will reach Germany’s most southern point after 80 days. 

At the beginning of my challenge I accomplished a distance of 30 to 40 kilometers a day. Now I can already manage to scooter 70-80 kilometers. I became so much more fit lately!

Anyway, my last stop in Thüringen was also very interesting. I visited the so-called Fairy Tale Cave. This cave actually has a serious historical past. Men worked hard to dig out this 65,000 square meter cave by hand in the 19th century in order to produce sand for wealthy land owners.

 

Standing inside the cave I had this weird feeling of how unbelievably hard their work must have been. Inside the cave I could watch an exhibition of figures and paintings of those hard working men from the old days.

But ironically the owner of the cave splits the tour in half. First he presents the serious and historical images inside the cave. Then you see figures and images from fairy stories like Hansel & Gretel. I think this mixture can confuse children who are visiting this place. What is fact and what is fiction?

Yours, Wigge

Date

May 22, 2013

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