Today in the afternoon we have a meet with some friends planned but we have the morning to explore Darmstadt. As the restaurant at our hotel is super expensive for breakfast, if even open, we decide to go downtown to eat breakfast which is more difficult than we expected as only one restaurant seems to be open. But at least there is parking nearby or so we think. But the parking has signs that it is closed off so we have to drive quite a bit to find another one which is usable. And then we have to walk back and wonder at all the cars parked in the original parking lot, are they going to be towed or what is up with them?
Our restaurant is next to the Jugendstilbad Darmstadt a historic swimming pool with sauna built in the early 20th century. And it is very busy but luckily we find a place to seat ourselves. And then we find out that we cannot get iced coffee, or can we? Supposedly it is too hot for it but they can put ice cubes in coffee which is good enough for us.
Besides a cafe with a special name, the Chaos Cafe, it is also a Vending Machine museum and if you go inside you can see lots and lots of vending machines selling different objects. Including in the toilet which is an art work by itself.
We order a breakfast platter and it is quite good and filling and now it is time to explore the downtown area.
Darmstadt was the capital of a sovereign state, the Grand Duchy of Hesse and as such it had massive walls that were mostly demolished when they become obsolete. We however pass one of the few remains of the walls which look quite impressive before continuing towards the downtown area.
Somehow we have taken the best route to the main square as our path has a pedestrian bridge over the main road depositing us directly into the main square near the Market Fountain.
The square is huge and is anchored on one side by the Residential Palace, which is now the Darmstadt University, and also allows us to see the beautiful Old City Hall of Darmstadt.
The Residential Palace is the former residence of the landgraves of Hesse-Darmstadt but now it can be freely entered and explored as it is seat of the Technische Universitat Darmstadt. Which is what we do of course.
We explore the various corridors, look into the moat and simply just enjoy our time in this interesting palace.
We then exit on the opposite side and we really are curious to see this area which supposedly has many of the most special buildings in Darmstadt.
Interestingly the most interesting building is the Hessian State Archive while the gate behind us is also much more special from the other side.
We then continue passing by the Hessian State Museum, which we will visit some other time and then by an interesting statue of a lion killed by two spears called the Life Guards Infantry Regiment Monument. it is a memorial to World War 1 fallen and missing soldiers from the Grand Duchy’s regiment.
The Ludwig Monument also called Tall Louis monument is a 39m commemorative column standing in the center of Luisenplatz and it is our next goal for the day. There are no stores open so we make our way relatively fast to the Luisenplatz anchored by the monument in the middle and the Collegiate Building on the side which is now the headquarters of the Regional Council.
After exploring the Luisenplatz it is time for the last goal of today in Darmstadt, the Mathildenhöhe, the only Unesco World Heritage Site in Darmstadt.
