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  • Writer's picturejohnff750

An amazing day.... The Devil and wooden towers.

Not every day you can combine the devils footprint with the world's largest phone tower made of wood with one of those drives you will remember forever. Left my hotel at 10 for the short drive to Füssen at the foothill of the alps. But thanks to Atlas Obscura I was directed to this amazing place in the middle of a landscape that pretty much has been untouched since the ice age. There I found a chapel. The story goes that a hole in the floor of this chapel is said to have been created by a footprint of the devil. It originated around the year 1250 during an argument between Haunshofen and Weilheim regarding the pasturage rights on the Hardt area. As the argument broke out, the quarrelling parties met at the place on which now Hardtkapelle Wielenbach stands in order to mediate this argument by judges. While the quarrelling parties swore at each other, suddenly the devil appeared out of the crowd, laid a stone on the ground and shouted: “So wahr ich trete in diesen Stein, ist dies Haunshofer G´mein“, which means in German, “when I kick into this stone, is it the community of Haunshofen.” Afterwards, the devil kicked its foot into the stone, whereby this footprint-like hole in the stone originated. After this incident, the argument between Haunshofen and Weilheim ended and as protection for this stone a chapel was built around it. Besides this, it is said that Hardtkapelle Wielenbach is haunted as there are reports of sudden nausea, dizzy turns and panic attacks by visitors of the chapel. There are also some claims of sightings of a mysterious white woman and a black dog at night. I thought that the day couldn't get better but I was then directed to a grid reference in the middle of an ancient forest. It was there I found the largest Cell phone tower constructed entirely of wood. Most of the wooden radio towers were destroyed at the end of World War II by retreating German troops and replaced during reconstruction by steel. It is the second tallest existing wooden construction in the world. I then drove through fields that looked like a film set for the Sound of Music, on roads that were perfect, to arrive in a town that also defies description - Füssen. I am staying in a great hotel in the old part of town which I intend to explore tomorrow. The drive today was sensational.



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