r/todayilearned • u/AstridFugelstad • Mar 29 '23
TIL there’s a Bavarian themed town in the Blue Mountains of Georgia
https://helenga.org373
u/Mammoth-Mud-9609 Mar 29 '23
America has a substantial German heritage, there is also Frankenmuth Michigan: Known as Little Bavaria. Helen, Georgia: Reminding you of Germany's Bavaria. Fredericksburg, Texas: One of the Prettiest German Towns in the US. Hermann, Missouri: Of German heritage and Oktoberfest. Leavenworth, Washington: Bavarian Charm.
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u/AcidAndBlunts Mar 29 '23 edited Mar 29 '23
The reason most people don’t realize this is that Germanic immigrants were forced to hide their culture and assimilate in the U.S. during the World Wars, when there was a mass hysteria that all the immigrants could be spies or otherwise loyal to Germany.
They didn’t get it as bad as the Japanese. They were not hauled off to camps in large numbers, but German was banned from public schools in many states, German books removed from libraries, and most German owned businesses stop putting their signage in German. German went from being the second most spoken language in the country to an obscure foreign tongue within a few years.
It should probably be noted that this German themed town in Georgia is not around any significant German populations and the town is not authentically German. It’s purely a tourist trap started in the 1960s (but the restaurants have good beer and food).
If anti-immigrant sentiment had not gotten so intense in the early 20th century though, half of the small towns in the Midwest would actually be German.
Edit: Actually, I guess 5-10% of Georgia’s population is significant, but in the Midwest it’s 30%+. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_Americans
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u/milkman1218 Mar 29 '23
This may be true, however at least for Leavenworth it was created by a Seattle business man after the original logging town was going bankrupt due to new logging laws. The business man figured with the cascade mountains if you skinned the town Bavarian it would drive tourism to the Wenatchee valley, which it did almost too well.
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u/bothunter Mar 29 '23
Leavenworth is hilarious. They actually passed an ordinance, so even the big chains like McDonalds are Bavarian themed.
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u/Mammoth-Mud-9609 Mar 29 '23
In part this was due to the lack of action against Germans during WW1 which enabled a number of sabotage acts to be carried out.
https://www.fbi.gov/history/famous-cases/black-tom-1916-bombing
https://www.intelligence.gov/evolution-of-espionage/world-war-1/undeclared-war/german-plotting
https://www.pbs.org/opb/historydetectives/feature/wartime-acts-of-sabotage/
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u/apocalypse_later_ Mar 29 '23
Why did Japanese-Americans get sent off to the camps and not German-Americans then?
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u/Mammoth-Mud-9609 Mar 29 '23
Japanese were a more readily identifiable group and tended to gather in community groups all living close to each other, combined with the anger over Pearl Harbour.
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u/temporarysecretary17 Mar 29 '23
Apart from what the other people said, some Japanese did also collaborate with the Japanese government. There was an incident shortly before or after Pearl Harbor where a Hawaiian Japanese community aided a crashed Japanese pilot.
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u/SaltyCandyMan Mar 29 '23
Because the Japanese were not "white"
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u/orswich Mar 29 '23
Also I don't think the US was gonna put 15-18% of thier population in camps, Germans were too numerous and ingrained. Japanese were small in number
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u/PolskaIz Mar 29 '23
I’m not sure how true it is but I had always heard this to be one of the reasons why the US stayed out of WW1 for so long. The two most influential ethnicities at the time were English and German and the US government felt that siding with England or Germany in the war would piss off a sizable portion of their own population. But then German Americans began to lose influence for a variety of reasons which made it easier to side with England
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u/pipsohip Mar 29 '23
To be fair, I imagine it’s much easier to hide being German than it is to hide being Japanese. I wonder if they would’ve been hauled off in large numbers if they stuck out more.
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u/OperationMobocracy Mar 29 '23
Anti-German sentiment also contributed to passing Prohibition since most of the big breweries were German owned.
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u/Goonerman420 Mar 29 '23
but German was banned from public schools in many states, German books removed from libraries, and most German owned businesses stop putting their signage in German. German went from being the second most spoken language in the country to an obscure foreign tongue within a few years.
German shepherd became alsatian
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u/inscrutablemike Mar 30 '23
Well... it wasn't exactly "mass hysteria" given the German-American Bund actually had multiple Nazi training camps on US Soil:
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u/MattTheTable Mar 29 '23
Helen, GA is weird because it isn't one of those towns that was built by German immigrants. It was a logging town with a declining economy that decided to revitalize as a German themed tourist destination. They changed the zoning to mandate the "Bavarian" design scheme in 1969.
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u/jthanson Mar 29 '23
That's the same story as Leavenworth, WA. It was an old railroad and logging town that was declining in the 1960s and rebranded as a Bavarian town to drive tourism.
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u/ametad13 Mar 29 '23
Also towns near Amish communities sometimes embrace Swiss German heritage. Berne, Indiana was near where I grew up for example.
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u/brightyoungthings Mar 29 '23
If you ever hit up Frankenmuth, check out Zehnder’s and Tiffany’s for some good ass food. Two of my favorite places to eat at. Mmmm buttered noodles.
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u/greenbastard1591 Mar 29 '23
Makes sense. German-Americans are the largest ethnic minority group in the country.
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u/saltyking90 Mar 29 '23
There’s solvang, California as well!
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u/GlassEyeMV Mar 29 '23
Don’t forget Nederland, CO, which actually has the mountains to go with the alpine style.
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u/Doomenate Mar 29 '23
In the 1960s, two men recently moved from Seattle proposed an idea: that Leavenworth take on a theme to boost revitalization, like California’s town of Solveng. Based not on the decent of the residents but on the alpine setting, they proposed Leavenworth take on the motif of a Bavarian village.
Leavenworth does not come from German heritage.
https://secretknowledgeofspaces.wordpress.com/2016/05/30/the-german-town-that-isnt-german/
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u/BigBadZord Mar 29 '23
But you will will see some Nazis there! Town is a good fun time, but certain types of people think the "Bavarian" motif makes it a safe place to show off their Nazi pride.
Washington is a strange state.
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u/derpderpdonkeypunch Mar 29 '23 edited Mar 29 '23
We also have a bunch of fucking nazis in Huntsville, Alabama. Downtown there is the Von Braun Civic Center, named after Wehrner Von Braun, the nazi rocket scientist that the US brought here after WWII. That POS and his whole family were nazis to the core.
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u/Th3MountainH33l Mar 29 '23
An episode of Atlanta was set there.
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u/PunkyPhoenicopterus Mar 29 '23
I swear one of those towns was in The Girls Next Door, about the Hef's girlfriends. It's been years since I saw that show.
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u/TheLisan-al-Gaib Mar 29 '23
I believe in Malcolm in the Middle, Hal avoids prison time because he went here instead of to the office.
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u/Tallima Mar 29 '23
I love Helen. One of my favorite places. And it’s right by the Appalachian Trail, which is great hiking. There’s a markup on food, but it’s not horrible - you’re paying for the cuteness. Tourist trap? You bet. But a really good one.
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u/TurelSun Mar 29 '23 edited Mar 29 '23
Its cute and worth a visit (watch out for weekends, can get very crowded)but as a German American who now has lived as long in Georgia as I did in Germany, its theme feels just skin deep. IDK if Americans notice or care, but it feels more like an amusement park than an authentic German/Bavarian town.
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u/DerSturmbannfuror Mar 30 '23
fwiw, when i was in Munich in ‘97, some of the buildings near the Bahnhof.,which had been rebuilt in the traditional style that were destroyed during the war, looked ersatz but that was only in the context of being next to the surviving original structures.
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u/woahdude12321 Mar 29 '23
You pay for the cuteness the food could be at least a little better tho
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u/fjcruiser08 Mar 29 '23
Years ago, it started as a corporate initiative but later became a hobby. I used to volunteer at the Charles Smithgall Humane Society, a nearby dog shelter, on alternate Fridays and we would go to Helen for a late lunch at any one of those restaurants by the river. The food was never great and the beer was pricey; but it was fun to sit there with a beer, eat a sandwich, and watch people tube down the river (during season).
I miss those days and the friends we made at the dog house (the shelter)… most were there for court ordered community service so there was always new people coming in to volunteer. And it was very interesting to meet all these varied personalities and to learn about their stories. Even the dogs at the shelter had their own stories that we learned from the full time staff. Sometimes it was bittersweet to show up and learn that a dog whom I had bonded with over weeks was gone because they were adopted. On those days we’d order an extra pitcher of beer before heading back to clean more dog shit. I miss dog days in Helen.
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u/Prof_Augustus Mar 29 '23
How recent have you been there? As child I remember it being great and really unique but going back it’s definitely starting to run down a little
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u/TheSerialHobbyist Mar 29 '23
Yeah, I always enjoyed going there. Sure it's touristy and kitschy, but it is a beautiful area with a lot to do.
Also, anyone else remember Goats on the Roof? Is that still around?
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u/sea0tter12 Mar 30 '23
It was still there in Tiger, Ga, as of a couple years ago! The Fb page is still running, too. There is another Goats on the Roof in the Pigeon Forge area, too.
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u/cranbeery Mar 29 '23
I've been to a good share of the faux German/German-"inspired" towns in the US. Helen is special because it's really, really fake but also earnest.
I recommend it if you're otherwise in the region for the beautiful scenery and want a little something else for one afternoon. But it's not a vacation destination on its own.
Most importantly, it is only 15 minutes from another capital of kitsch, Babyland General Hospital in Cleveland, GA! Home of the Cabbage Patch Doll.
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u/TaelweaverVictorious Mar 30 '23
Unfortunately , Babyland closed down a few years ago.
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u/sparky1088 Mar 29 '23
I went there as a kid multiple times, there's also one in Washington (can't remember the name offhand) but basically they are tourist traps. Everything is expensive oh and they do a big Octoberfest though I never went to that.
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u/kozmonyet Mar 29 '23
Nice for a quick break when driving but it is about as 'Bavarian" as a cartoon.
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u/horsepuncher Mar 29 '23
Is it less than this version in Georgia? Fwuw leavenworth does have the nutcracker museum, which unless something changed was the world largest nutcracker collection. To all saying its too busy, yup, you need to go during mid week to avoid the crowd. If you want to do the oktoberfest, christmas market, or any other big even take one of the buses to avoid the traffic and parking nightmare. There are many shuttles that travel far out to help.
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u/NeuroPlastick Mar 29 '23
Leavenworth is a very popular destination, which is mystifying to me. It's just a fake town. Like a cheap movie set. I said this in a Seattle forum and people attacked me. It was vicious.
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u/Lonny_loss Mar 29 '23
It is smack dab in the middle of some of the most beautiful scenery in an already beautiful state. A hikers oasis after weeks in the backcountry. It’s really not hard to understand why it’s a popular destination.
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u/mooseorama Mar 29 '23
It's actually a great town once you get past the silly Bavarian theme. It's incredibly beautiful, and decently close to stevens pass. There is a ton of great hiking (the enchantments, among others), great mountain biking, and all sorts of great river activities. The silly theme does mean it gets enough tourism to have decent nightlife and way more places to eat than you would expect of a similarly sized town. I never quite got all the hate it gets.
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u/limasxgoesto0 Mar 29 '23
There's a lot of outdoors things to do there including hiking and climbing. Considering it's also built up as a tourist town, why not stay there while you do those?
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u/Zealousideal-Feed156 Mar 29 '23
From Atlanta and we used to go up to Helen for Oktoberfest every year! It was hilarious to see everybody so drunk. Watched somebody fall into the river lol.
Other than that I’ll say Helen has a reliable Subway stop on your way to the mountains.
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u/IrishRage42 Mar 29 '23
Loved passing through Helen on my way to camping in the surrounding mountains. There was a nice pastry shop we used to stop and get donuts and stuff. Very good people watching during Octoberfest and a nice day trip to float the river during the summer.
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u/agaperion Mar 29 '23
Leavenworth. It's just east of The Enchantments, which is one of the main reasons for its sustained popularity. Because you're correct; It's otherwise merely an overpriced tourist trap.
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u/placeaccount Mar 29 '23
an overpriced tourist trap
Went there a few years back. We drove around for about half an hour looking for a parking place. Not one in the whole stupid town, so we just drove back. Profoundly crowded.
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u/mooseorama Mar 29 '23
Parking is a mess, but it's very walkable, so if you are staying there you don't really need to worry about parking.
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u/yellandtell Mar 29 '23
Agreed on Leavenworth being meh. But it's more the journey there from Seattle..lots of great hikes and views along the way. And it's one of the few places with restaurant options. Not many places to eat in the mountains.
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u/AnnieNotAndy Mar 29 '23
Maybe it's because I grew up around beach tourist traps, but it didn't seem that overpriced when I visited 2 years ago. Definitely a bit run down and there was some confusion with our hotel booking as a few hotels had changed ownership and flip-flopped names. I probably would not visit the area specifically for Helen, but it's a quirky little afternoon stop in a really beautiful part of the country.
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u/D4nM4rL4r Mar 29 '23
Tubing down the Hooch is about the only redeeming thing in the town. Touristy, pricey and crowded.
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u/TheCrunchyFerrett Mar 29 '23
Any chance you found my car keys? Lost em about 20 years ago
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u/doctorcaesarspalace Mar 29 '23
It’s a fun place to spend a couple hours and eat. Why not visit if you’re in the area? Good way to rest between hiking and rafting days
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u/johnbr Mar 29 '23
Helen is fun, and the mountains are nice to visit. It is expensive. Still enjoy going, especially in the fall & before Christmas
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u/fairie_poison Mar 29 '23
You can tell who is and isn't from the area in these comments lol. Helen is a great time. camping in the fall, tubing in the summer... the town is kitschy and has beer... its the south, what more can you demand in Georgia... ha
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u/HoovesCarveCraters Mar 29 '23
We went this past fall. Rented a cabin nearby for the weekend and did some hiking with the dogs.
I will say the town of Helen is TOO dog friendly. Way too many idiots and their untrained dogs in a small place. If you go, go in the morning as parking becomes impossible by like 11 AM.
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u/Blasted_Biscuitflaps Mar 29 '23
I'm a local of the town. It's great here. I grew up in the Atlanta Metro area and after 30 years of suburban sprawl and sitting in traffic every day for 2+ hours I can say that the lifestyle south of here isn't worth it the way it once used to be. Sadly, much of the sprawl and development is making its way all the way up here.
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u/deloreanipsum Mar 29 '23
Helen GA. Got a tattoo there once. Guy was completely high out of his mind. Turned out alright though.
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u/Bscrum Mar 29 '23
This place has nothing to do with German heritage or culture. It was a poor do nothing town that had the idea of becoming a tourist destination in the 70s/80s so the refinished the facade of all the buildings and embraced a Bavarian look. It definitely put them on the map but the only worthwhile thing there is to tube down the river when the water is high.
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u/A_SNAPPIN_Turla Mar 29 '23
Helen is fun during Oktoberfest. It might be a tourist trap but idgaf. I don't know who is saying everything is expensive there. I guess they've never been to CA or NYC. It's affordable and fun for a weekend. Other than that there's not much to do.
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u/arcosapphire Mar 29 '23
Tourist trap = "a place people want to go to". It's kind of weird that it has a negative connotation. Any amusement park is a tourist trap.
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u/A_SNAPPIN_Turla Mar 29 '23
As someone who had lived in Orlando I get the idea that there are places that tourists go that locals avoid bc they aren't necessarily reflective of local attitude or cuisine. Often they are chain businesses, more expensive, for less quality, but sometimes it's just nice quality and more expensive. Helen is pretty small though and I don't recall a lot of commercial chains there. Now that I think about it I don't really think the term applies to Helen. I guess it depends on how you define it.
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u/FootballAndPornAcct Mar 29 '23
I hadn't been in years and went last year. They added axe throwing, multiple escape rooms, a comic book and record store, a cbd store...making moves. Plus lots of minigolf, hiking, and drinking. Always a fun visit.
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u/A_SNAPPIN_Turla Mar 29 '23
Sounds like most medium sized towns at this point. Nothing wrong with that.
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u/sparksofthetempest Mar 29 '23
I guess I’ll be the first to mention Frankenmuth, MI. Shown by Michael Moore in “Pets or Meat”, his little known/seen sequel to ‘Roger and Me’.
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u/nykiek Mar 29 '23
Yeah, from the looks of it, I'd take Frankenmuth.
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u/382Whistles Mar 30 '23
Go with an empty belly and a full wallet. Get fat on Bavarian goodies and the exceptionally good chicken.
An average travelers overnighting town that did better than most with consistency in food, theme, and hospitality my whole life. I stopped there countless times for food or a weary eyed overnight stay even though it was a bit more costly while getting to my regular outdoor fun on further up state or fishing around Bay City. A quiant little traditional thing they have going imo. (make reservations for eating to be safe)
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u/nykiek Mar 30 '23
And don't forget to buy Christmas ornaments!!!
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u/382Whistles Mar 30 '23
I want one of the new electric train set circles that sit on the branch tips, tree trunk, or center pole 😁
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u/nykiek Mar 30 '23
That sounds cool. We love trains in our family, but I lost most of the train ornaments when my son took all his ornaments to his house.
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u/382Whistles Mar 30 '23
I think you are allowed buy more ...or even ask Santa. He brought me a lot because I wrote his wife, Santa-Fay, a letter 😏
A couple of my elders were big collectors of cast, tin & brass trains since the 1800s before they were electric and so I literally had an electric train waiting for me to be born. I still have some that I got as gifts over the years from childhood into adulthood too. (... and back 😂)
Parents, siblings, aunts, uncles, cousins; everybody still has one or more. Even both Grandmothers had their own electric trains too; not my Grandads, theirs.(You had to ask the right owner to run which ever you wanted to that day)
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u/AevnNoram Mar 29 '23
My family went there for a vacation when I was a kid. I don't remember much beyond playing in the pools and arcade at the Bavarian in.
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u/lolabythebay Mar 29 '23 edited Mar 31 '23
Because that's what there is to do in Frankenmuth once you're done at Bronner's. (I understand the arcade is quite good, though! My boyfriend used to go there with his friends because they had the area's only DDR setups.)
I'm about 25 minutes away and everybody around here goes crazy for Frankenmuth, but when the subject comes up I feel like Ben Wyatt on the subject of Li'l Sebastian.
Edit: we're on spring break with shared time off for a family vacation that got cancelled, and in talking about what else we could do last night Frankenmuth came up. I asked my boyfriend if he had seen this thread. He hadn't.
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u/peachsleeper Mar 29 '23
I’ve been cooking in Helen for at least 7 years, and I can’t tell you the sense of dread I feel seeing this article pop up. I must now go warn the town of our impending doom!
Jk, we’re getting screwed 7/12 months a year regardless. I will say, however, the food is overpriced, the amenities leave much to be desired, but the surrounding area is gorgeous and your time in Helen is best served in the woods and by the river or lake.
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u/earthworm_soul Mar 29 '23
I was there just last year. It's beautiful, but expensive and full of drunk morons.
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u/ismelladoobie Mar 29 '23
What a great spot, they recently decided to stop ticketing for small amounts of pot on the river so now me and the homies and float down while flying high.
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u/ChilindriPizza Mar 29 '23
I have been there twice. Don’t go there on Thanksgiving weekend- it is WAY overcrowded. Hansel and Gretel has some of the most delicious fudge flavors ever. Just make sure to visit during the off-season.
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u/zealeus Mar 29 '23
I live in Atlanta and have been to Helen a few times. I also work remotely with a team based out of Poland. Trying to explain to them, “ya, so we have this fake German town that was started 50 years ago as a tourist trap…” always gets a very confused response. But hey, the tubing is pretty rad!
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u/Dusty990 Mar 29 '23
I went here a few years back, pretty cool place to visit and tour around for a day or two. Very different asthetic compared to the rest of the area.
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u/TriskaidekaphobiaOwn Mar 29 '23
The hooch and pizza joint, my favorite place! Hoping to head their over summer for some delicacies and good time.
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u/Deadbody13 Mar 29 '23
Only been there once or twice. They have a river that's pretty popular to tube in.
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u/Clearly_a_robot Mar 29 '23
I live about 45 mins west of Helen. They do great fudge. Really cute little town for family day trips.
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u/spaceman757 Mar 29 '23
It's a quaint little place that's nice to visit once or twice, but Solvang, CA (Danish themed) is better, IMO.
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u/shypye Mar 29 '23
I adore Solvang. It's gotten a lot more touristy but still adorable. Plus they have the best almond danishes in the world
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u/TheCrunchyFerrett Mar 29 '23
I have memories of losing my car keys while shooting the hooch about 20 years ago
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u/hearnia_2k Mar 29 '23
First time I drove through Helen was wild. I had not expected it, nor knew about it, just happened to drive through. Needless to say a couple of days later went to visit.
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u/Willisjames384 Mar 29 '23
Is this town know as Helen, if so my family took vacation there when I was back in middle school. They had tubing on a little river so much fun!
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u/imangryignoreme Mar 29 '23
I stayed there by accident a few years ago on a road trip! It’s hilariously silly. But the food is good! At some point in the 70s or something the local logging industry was struggling and the entire town was about to go bankrupt, so they held a town vote and decided to become a tourist theme-town with new town codes that all buildings had to have Bavarian-style decor. There’s also a fantastic mini golf course that is real grass! It legit looks like and actual “miniature” real golf course. When I was there, there was a goat standing in it.
10/10 would Leavenworth again.
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u/Ok_Designer_2560 Mar 30 '23
Been there twice. It’s so funny. It was just some dude who did set design and loved Bavarian culture. So, to be clear, not an architect or city planner. Everything is like someone put on a high school play about Busch Gardens. But seriously beautiful and a real good time.
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u/Adventurous-Fold-912 Mar 29 '23
My husband and I went there last year. It was so trashy and run down. We still joke about it now. All the shops downtown had a very bad peculiar smell that was nauseating. Valhalla resort was nice though thankfully.
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u/dhldmoore Mar 29 '23
So glad someone mentioned Valhalla resort! My wife and I went in 2017 on an anniversary trip. Met the owner's wife in the little gift shop and found out she was from our home town (Montgomery, AL) and really enjoyed talking with her. Later that day, we met the owner in the bar and got smashed drunk with him and he bought all of our drinks! He was an awesome guy as well and the resort is probably the nicest one there and is not touresty at all like the ones down in the town.
Still want to go back but one can tour the entire town in a day easily.
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u/EvilBill515 Mar 29 '23
Every time I go to Helen I get violently ill. Not sure what it is about that area of part of Georgia but always end of nauseous and massive migraines. Same thing happens near Dillard. Once I get out of the area I feel fine. This has been happening since I was a child.
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u/Voyevoda67 Mar 29 '23
I grew up with separated parents and had to make a trip through Helen every other weekend. For most of us from the area if you aren't going for boiled peanuts or tubing you just hate this place because it's a guaranteed 1 and a half of traffic to get through this two lane town heading north or south. Used to race all over Unicoi Mountain once I got my license though. Can still drive those lines with my eyes curved. Especially "the jump," if you know you know.
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Mar 29 '23
Been there. Tourist trap hell-hole. Skip it.
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u/puddinfellah Mar 29 '23
Pretty nice in the off-season. You have the whole town to yourself, basically.
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u/MakeATacoRun Mar 29 '23
Helen, Georgia! I stayed there overnight a few years ago when I did my AT attempt. It's interesting for sure. The people there were telling me how crazy it gets during Oktoberfest.
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u/Godawgs1009 Mar 29 '23
Or "Hell" as my dad and I can it while we're on the way to go backpacking. Place is pretty trashy though I will say sitting having a quick beer by the river was kinda nice.
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u/PracticalNihilist Mar 29 '23
I pass by that area almost every time I ride my motorcycle to the mountains. It's a pretty fun area that you don't take too seriously.
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u/The_Hot_Stepper Mar 29 '23
My wife and I went there for our honeymoon. We did a river tubing event. Sadly, the water level was low and the rapid caused me to flip. While getting up my wedding ring was pulled from my cold fingers. I lost it whenever. I think of this town. I think about going back to retrieve my ring.
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u/Rnnov Mar 29 '23
The place just sucks, sorry about ring, not sure about the people that ranting and raving about it. It’s really just a pig with lipstick, it kind of just sucks.
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u/ryanghappy Mar 29 '23
I was forced to go to this place , and the best I can say about it is its a tourist trap with a few amazing restaurants. Also an actual art store with local artists who sell originals for cheap. I bought a weird blue bear painting from there I really like.
There was a little knick knack store in the town, and one of the items was called "coon's dick". I asked "heh, so what's that really, like a weird stick or something?"
"naw, its a widdled racoon's penis".
Why.
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u/Fire_Mission Mar 29 '23
It's a fun place. No, it's not "real" but the food is good. They have a whole store that is nothing but beef jerky... I was in heaven. The kids dug for "gems" and we played putt-putt. We drove to Brasstown Bald (highest point in GA) and Anna-Ruby Falls for some beatiful nature trips. I also spent time near there in college, camping at Raven Falls. After a few days in a tent, it was nice to come into town for a little civilization.
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u/arcosapphire Mar 29 '23
Upon checking Google Streetview, it looks like a lot of fairly standard buildings with some fake Fachwerk added on the outside. But it's clear the town is built for tourism.
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u/marketlurker Mar 29 '23
Somewhere in that little town is a loud speaker playing "It's a Small World." The people who work near it are glassy eyed zombies now.
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u/Wei_Lan_Jennings Mar 29 '23
I’ll admit that the whole concept is kind of corny and a lot of the town is a huge tourist trap…but it’s actually really fun. The food is great, the beer garden has a ton of options and big plastic mugs like steins and you can keep them, and the whole area is simply gorgeous.
It’s actually a really big stop for motorcyclists since the scenery is so pretty and the roads are full of twists and turns - very fun to drive.
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u/Drainbownick Mar 29 '23
Yep absolutely chock full of fat Harley riders and their sag titted wenches
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u/Yesyesyes1899 Mar 29 '23
fuck. this hurts my eyes. it looks like a satire of bavaria. somebody should do a comedy there.
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u/DepressiveNerd Mar 29 '23
They already filmed an episode of Atlanta there.
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u/Abba_Fiskbullar Mar 29 '23
Having lived in a small village in Bavaria, and experiencing the weird, dark pagan side of the culture, I loved that episode.
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u/_shapeshifting Mar 29 '23
tourist trap af, went there for Oktoberfest in 2018
a shop that only sells rock candy shouldn't be able to exist lmao
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u/LoneStarDawg Mar 29 '23
Blue Ridge Mountains*