Darmstadt, Germany

We decided on a recent day trip to stop by Darmstadt, Germany. I really couldn’t find a whole lot about it in the ‘tourist’ books but did managed to find a few things online to go check out. It’s probably not a really ‘touristy’ town but we were in the area visiting Burg Frankenstein so we decided to check it out.

During my internet search I found a few interesting things to check out on Darmstadt. We only made it to two of the three but last one was the Gesamtkunstwerk Mathildenhoehe museum and we were not going to go in it anyways so I just skipped driving by to take a pic, we did see it in the distance though.

We did go check out The Forest Spiral by Hundertwasser. This unique housing complex is certainly not something that you see everyday! It was built from 1998 to 2001 and none of the windows are identical. It’s also said that a playground and lazy river are part of the inside garden. I wish I had a spot to stand where I could’ve took a picture of the whole building but the sidewalk was so close to the building and there wasn’t any place else to go. Also there was a crazy man walking around and it was a bit awkward.

A closer look of all the unique windows covering the building

The other thing we check out was Luis Square and the Ludwigsmonument. It’s a walkplatz so we parked along the street just before the parking garage. The parking garage goes under the walkplatz. We didn’t realize it was there but it only cost us €1 for the street parking. And it helped us to discover a tasty treat!

The walkplatz was so busy! People, trams, buses, all in the square! And it was on a Friday afternoon…I guess they all got off work early? LOL It would’ve been a great place to ‘people watch’ if you like to do so. We took pics of the monument and I think you can go up it sometimes but it was very windy the day we went and 3 of the 4 of us don’t like heights.

After taking the pics and we grabbed lunch from KFC. Yep, there are KFC’s in Germany! I thought it was funny since we don’t eat at KFC in the States but we did here in Germany. Then we walked around the walkplatz looking for dessert…you know us we just gotta have something 😉 We decided to go back to the little building we had found when we walked down to the walplatz.

We stopped at Tasty Dounuts & Coffee and spent a few minutes looking over all the types trying to decide which ones we wanted to try! They all had quite delicious names and were filled with a surprise inside. My favorite was the jelly filled one. The Caramel one was good too but way overpowering with sweetness.

Another one of the neat things about the city is that they had sidewalk walls along the street covered in some amazing graffiti! Not the ugly stuff you normally see but some talented artists, I’m not sure if the city is ok with it or it’s just gotten so out of hand they can’t keep up 😉 I wish I would’ve gotten a pic but the kids were hungry and we were trying to find a place to park.

So if you happen to be in the area it may be a neat little city to stop and check out. It’s not something that was on our ‘must see’ list but it was better than just driving back to Mainz and not seeing anything else. Plus we had to feed the kids at some point so I figured why not go see a few neat things while we’re at it.

Know Before You Go:

What:  Darmstadt, Germany.

How To Get There: Approximately 2 hours from Spangdahlem and 1 hour 10 minutes from Ramstein.

Parking: Can be found on the street using parking meters or in the parking garage under the walkplatz. Cost depends on length of stay.

Cost: Free to walk around the Walkplatz, take Euro for shopping & eating if desired.

Traveling with little kids: Strollers are ok here, there are some trolley tracks you’ll have to cross.

Dogs: Are allowed but please make sure you pick up after them! Not sure what stores/restaurants they are allowed in.

How long: Plan on at least 1 hour.

Where to find info: Above links