Why take a family storybook vacation.
Where will you find this storybook vacation?
You’ll find in it Germany on the Brother Grimm’s Fairy Tale Road.
Get ready for a journey from Hanau to Bremen to the land of the Brother’s Grimm. In the early 19th 
century, Wilhelm and Jacob Grimm traveled throughout Germany from town to town where the people in these towns told their stories. The Brothers listened to their stories and then they wrote some of the best beloved fairy tales – Little Red Riding Hood, Rumplestiltskin, The Piped Piper of Hamelin, Hansel and Gretel. Younger kids will enjoy these towns and shady forests along the way. And before you go, you’ll want to read your favorite tales.
Why fairy tales?
For almost two centuries, the stories of magic and myth gathered by the Brothers Grimm have been part of the way children—and adults—learn about the vagaries of the real world.
Brothers Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm are ranked among the most famous Germans and their fairy tales are the best-known and most widespread literary work of German cultural history in the world next to the Bible. The Grimm’s fairy tales has been translated into 160 languages.
How do your children benefit from fairy tales?
“If you want your children to be intelligent,” Albert Einstein once remarked, “read them fairytales. If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales.”
If you interested in more reasons to have your children learn fairy tales, please visit Melissa Taylor’s post, “8 Reasons Why Fairy Tales Are Essential to Childhood”, in imaginationsoup.
What will you see?
The German Fairy Tale Road connects the towns and landscapes that were the inspiration for fairy tales such as, Rapunzel, Little Red Riding Hood, Sleeping Beauty, and many more. The journey will take you through medieval villages with narrow cobblestone streets and half-timbered houses, romantic castles, and dense woods where you may find princes and dwarfs.
You can follow the Fairy-Tale Road, a 595km (370-mile) route from Hanau, near Frankfurt, where the Brothers Grimm were born, to Bremen, where the “Bremen Town Musicians” lived.
The first day, starts in Hanau.
Your first travel destination along the Fairy-tale Route is Hanau in the state of Hesse. It’s about 18 miles distance east of Frankfurt am Main. As the birthplace of the Brothers Grimm, Jacob in 1785 and Wilhelm in 1786, you’ll see a national monument on the market square that commemorates these famous brothers.
Start your visit in the town center to the Brother Grimm’s statue.
After you visit the Brother Grimm’s statue, here are some other places to visit:
The solid bulk of Hanau’s 18th-century Rathaus stands behind the Grimm 
brothers statue. Every day at noon its bells play tribute to another of the city’s famous sons, the composer Paul Hindemith (1895–1963), by chiming out one of his canons.
The Philippsruhe Castle is well worth a visit 
with its historical museum, There is Brothers Grimm section, and the paper-theater museum.
Hessisches Puppenmuseum (Hessen Doll Museum) Explore the history of European dolls from 
antique time to the 21th century. The museum is a dream for everyone interested in dolls and toys.
How to get to Hanau and how to find things in Hanau
GETTING HERE
Less than a 50-minute S-bahn (Line No. 9) journey from Frankfurt Airport, Hanau is also reachable by high-speed ICE trains from Berlin and Munich, or a combination of ICE and regional trains from Hannover, Bremen, and Hamburg.
ESSENTIALS VISITOR INFORMATION
For details on museums, fairs, festivals, tours and city guides, please visit: Tourist-Information Hanau (Am Markt 14–18, Hanau, 63450.06181/295–950. www.hanau.de.)
GETTING AROUND THE CITY
For helpful tips on getting around Hanau, please check out inyourpocket .
The Journey continues
Come back soon for more Fairy Tale road details and cities
