Blick von der Edertalsperre

Around the Edersee

Posted by

This day-long sightseeing tour not only takes us to Lake Edersee, but also to the second-highest mountain in , the Kahler Asten in the . We visit Waldeck Castle and the Eder Dam and then continue to a place called Bergfreiheit, where we want to get to the bottom of the true story of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. In Marburg, we then head to the Kaiser Wilhelm Tower high above the city.

In principle, you can start this tour anywhere.
The start and arrival are described here from Allendorf (Eder) in northern .

Distance: 246 kilometers
Travel time: 4-8 hours, depending on length of stay
Route Kurviger.de: kurv.gr/7uicZ

Allendorf – Bad Berleburg

We start on the L3382 at Battenfeld, which is still in Hesse, and make the acquaintance of the Eder until shortly after Dodenau. Before Elsoff, we cross over into North Rhine-Westphalia. It’s a really winding climb into the Rothaargebirge and after a stretch through the forest, we reach one of the high points of the tour at Ljubljana at 663 meters.

After a good half hour, we reach Bad Berleburg (Waypoint 1).
Of course, we don’t stop here after the short run-up, although the beautiful old town and Berleburg Castle make a break seem well worthwhile. So if you have chosen a different starting point for this tour, you might like to stop off here.

Bad Berleburg – Kahler Asten

We continue to the highest point of our route, the Kahler Asten.
Once again, the route climbs in beautiful sweeps. However, we do not take the direct route via the B480, but make a detour via Oberkirchen.
At the junction onto the B236, we pass the main ridge of the Rothaargebirge at an altitude of 740 meters. A few hundred meters further on, the forest thins out and opens up a magnificent view of the slopes of the mountains all the way to the plain (waypoint 2).

In Oberkirchen, we turn right towards Westfeld (waypoint 3) and after 8 km we reach the sharp turn-off up to the summit plateau of the Kahler Asten (waypoint 4) at 842 meters above sea level.
You would imagine a summit to be rather steep and pointed, but after a few hundred meters we reach a high plateau with a huge parking area and plenty of space for the weather station, the branch tower and a restaurant with a terrace. Only the gusty, cool wind indicates the altitude we are at.
Of course, we have a hot coffee here first. And then we stretch our legs a little.

Kahler Asten with weather station
Kahler Asten (842m) with weather station

Waldeck Castle – Eder Dam

It’s not far from Asten to Winterberg. The many ski lifts, a ski jump and many sports stores signal that there is still a real winter here and suddenly the landscape feels really alpine. It’s downhill and uphill again on easy country roads, but they are well maintained.
After a refreshing 53 km via Medebach-Hillershausen, where we cross back into Hesse, and Sachsenberg (Waypoint 6) , we catch our first glimpse of the western Edersee in Herzhausen (Waypoint 7). However, as there is no lakeside road here, we leave the water in the valley and cycle via Sachsenhausen up to Waldeck and the castle of the same name.

Waldeck Castle (Waypoint 8) is to a certain extent the prototype of a medieval castle and absolutely worth seeing. But even more breathtaking is the view from the castle wall down into the valley a hundred meters below to the deep blue Edersee.
After the descent down to the castle parking lot, our machines are surrounded by big boys and those who want to be. And so I don’t leave the parking lot without hoisting half a dozen future motorcyclists into the saddle of the jacked-up Integra. Offspring!

It is only a stone’s throw down to the Eder dam. The number of parking spaces on the steep bank is rather limited, so it’s a great advantage to be on two wheels. We leave our bikes in a corner of the Terassenhotel parking lot (Waypoint 9), where there is no room for a car, and walk the half kilometer to the dam wall along the lake.
The sight of the dam is impressive, but even more impressive is its history. The information boards on the other side of the dam crest provide a little insight, and I decide to do some more research at home. So this tour will be extended further afterwards. Something that is just as important to me personally as driving through such a beautiful landscape.

Bergfreiheit – Marburg

After the short excursion to the top of the dam, we continue along the German Fairy Tale Route, past Bad Wildungen, up to a small village called Bergfreiheit (Waypoint 10).
There we immerse ourselves in the world of the Brothers Grimm. We learn that the seven dwarfs were probably children who had to squeeze into the narrow tunnels of the nearby mines. From this perspective, the fairy tale of Snow White takes on a whole new meaning, doesn’t it?
The name of the village refers to the freedom granted in the late Middle Ages to mine copper from the slopes of the Urff valley. And that is why the municipality claims the origin of the myth of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, based on the very mundane basis of child labor.
There is also a show mine on the subject.
However, given the late hour, we leave it at a brief inspection of the sculpture in the town center.

Until shortly before Marburg, the route leads steadily downhill through the Kellerwald forest to Gemünden (Waypoint 11), until we slowly but surely leave the mountainous regions and enter the somewhat flatter areas between Stadtallendorf and Marburg.

Marburg itself would be a day-filling program in itself, so we approach the city in a rather unconventional way: We don’t drive into the city center, but turn right behind the Botanical Garden at the height of the Lahn mountains, drive past the Philipps University campus on the street of the same name and turn left behind the famous Clinic for Gynaecology and Paediatrics before the large clinic parking lot into an inconspicuous street called Hermann-Bauer-Weg, which very soon feels like a dirt road in .
The road is dead straight and single-lane through the forest, which only thins out shortly before the steep edge of the Lahn valley.
The Kaiser Wilhelm Tower rises up behind a small parking lot, with the tower café inside and then a small square, from whose parapet you have a truly sensational view of the town and the Lahn Valley (Waypoint12).

Finish

By now our stomachs are growling. A coffee alone would not be enough. So we head back and take the panoramic road steeply downhill, where we find the Kaiserpalast Chinese restaurant in the Neues Forum at the junction with Neue Kasseler Straße.

After this truly lasting refreshment, we return to Battenberg, the starting point of our tour, via the B252.