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Normally, at this time of year, there is a covering of snow on the ground.
But this winter has been exceptionally mild.
To compensate, the Rhön gave us one of its specialities: fog.
The Rhön is what Germans call “Mittelgebirge”:
too high to be called “hills”; not high enough to qualify as “mountains”.
Most of it is a UNESCO biosphere reserve
which occupies parts of Bavaria, Hesse and Thuringia.
We were heading for its highest peak,
which is also the highest point of the province of Hesse:
the Wasserkuppe.
Today, the Wasserkuppe is a tourist destination
complete with an airfield and a flying school.
The German Meteorological Service has a station here,
and there are information centres, restaurants and a Museum of Unpowered Flight.
But the style of some of its buildings hints at its history:
during the Nazi era, this was a military flying school.
But this place’s connection with flying goes back even further:
in 1910, students from the University of Darmstadt
made their first attempts at unpowered flight here.
It’s a short walk to the actual summit,
which is 950 metres, or 3,116 feet, above sea level.
And because Thuringia was part of East Germany,
the Wasserkuppe was only a few miles from the Iron Curtain:
the perfect place a build a radar station.
As part of NATO’s early warning system, there were originally five radomes.
With the Cold War over, only one remains:
and even that is decommissioned,
open to the public as a viewing platform.
Not that you actually need to go up to the platform for a commanding view of the Rhön,
including the fog we drove through to get here.
A little way from the summit is a monument to the field pilots
who lost their lives in the First World War.
Life in the Rhön was always harsh,
but it did — and still does — produce stone from its quarries.
The Nazis did have grand plans to improve agriculture in the area,
but they had to be shelved when war broke out.
We decided the visit the little town of Bischofsheim.
The road we took climbs steadily,
before dropping back down,
crossing the border into Bavaria,
and past the Rhönhaus, once a customs station and now an inn.
The first documented evidence of Bischofsheim dates from the 13th century,
but it’s possible the town was already 500 years old at the time.
It’s not proven, but it could be that St Boniface,
who regularly travelled between Fulda and the Salz Imperial Estate,
founded Bischofsheim as a place to rest.
In the days when such things were fashionable,
the Rhön’s many spas attracted visitors and settlers from the east,
which is why the area has a surprisingly large Russian community.
For one euro per person,
tourists can go into Bischofsheim’s little Russian Orthodox church
to marvel at the priceless icons inside.
The Rhön is very close to the centre of Germany,
has a wild and romantic beauty about it,
and some unique wildlife.
But it does sometimes get foggy.