Following our time in Wiesbaden, we headed on to DFDF for some relaxing music.  Here’s part 2 of our Continental Whirlwind Tour:

The next day, we were off to Bad Salzdetfurth via Hannover. We made it there just in time for the skies to open up and dump on us as we wandered clueless from the train station to the hotel.

We have no pictures of the town or of DFDF, I’m afraid. (So we could tell you anything outrageous about what was there and you would have no choice but to believe us. Bwahahaha!) Suffice it to say that it was a fantastic weekend — relaxing, beautiful music, and we met a whole pile of wonderful, friendly, welcoming people. Among the musicians there were:

• Ju and Katy (GoHs)
• Schattenweber
• geBorgt
• Playing Rapunzel
• Steve Macdonald
• Sib Machat
• Alexa (website unknown)

Some of these we knew from other gatherings and venues. But many were new to us. The point of DFDF is to feature German filk musicians, so a lot of the lyrics were in German and went by us. But the music was still beautiful and we just let it wash over us and through us. A good time was had by all.

On Monday morning, as everybody was leaving the con, Sib very generously took us out to the local castle, Schloss Marienburg:

Schloss Marienburg, outside Hildesheim, Germany. Looks like a fairy-tale, doesn't it? Wait'll you see the inside...

This is a Nineteenth century castle in the Gothic Revival style.  For a time it served as a local seat of power for the Guelph nobility in the Hannover region, and it was given as a present by George V of Hannover to his queen.  (I’ve never gotten a birthday present that cool!)  We took the tour, which, in addition to the beautiful art and architecture, featured an in-depth discussion of the royal family trees. Including details (that I have now lost) about how the British Monarchs are tied into the German royal family of that era.

We absolutely loved the spiral stairs in the castle. The best part was they didn't go anywhere! Totally decorative.

View of the courtyard of the castle.

Our host very kindly dropped us back at the train station at Hannover in the early afternoon. Now the real adventure began. We had a couple of days before our return flight and we had no reservations for anything nor specific plans. There was plenty left to see in Germany, of course, but we really had wanted to make it to one more European country while we were on this side of the pond. We discovered that we could still get a train to Amsterdam so we took the chance and went...

Next up: Hit and run Amsterdam!