The Hessentag got underway in Oberursel this morning. But before the grand opening one part of the festival was opened separately. It is called “Der Natur auf der Spur”.
Roughly translated, that means “Nature Trail”, and the area is located at the Maasgrund – an area just outside the old part of the town where many people go for walks.
For the Hessentag the usually green fields have been covered with wood chippings and an assortment of stalls, tents and tractors have appeared to exhibit the latest countryside trends.
Lucia Puttrich opens the nature trail, in the background are the Hessentagspaar, the Hesse milk and honey queens, mayor Hans-Georg Brum, Landrat Ulrich Krebs and Detlef Stys
The area was opened by Lucia Puttrich, Hesse’s minister for the environment and the countryside. With her were the Hessentagspaar, the chief administrator (Landrat) of Hesse – Ulrich Krebs, and Detlef Stys of “Hessen Forst”. They were greeting by a group of Jagdhorn (post horn) players from Bad Homburg and Usingen.
The 20,000 m2 nature area has taken two years of planning and is intended to be one of the highlights of the Hessentag. 300,000 of the one million visitors are expected to go to see it, among them 60 school classes.
The panda in the tropical zone
As a present from the county of Hesse to the town of Oberursel, a wooden tower will remain on the site after the trail has closed next week.
Among the exhibits are parrots, a trail to do with bare feet, a cookery area, tractors, chain saws, and even the chance to sample Oberursel’s tap water.
This may have not been the opening to the main event, but is clearly an important part of the first day. Charmaine Weisenbach, one of the Hessentagspaar, said she felt that we were entering the “fifth season” of the year, a term normally used to refer to the carnival season.
Part of the barefoot path
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