Once upon a time there was a prince who liked to travel and to garden. In the lovely landscape of Anhalt which is now part of the state Saxony-Anhalt in Germany, he installed an unrivalled garden kingdom with palaces, quiet lakes, little woods and gardens and it is open to the public.

One sunny fall morning we drove of to Wörlitz the little town that hosts most of the garden kingdom. It is cloce to the river Elbe and in the middle of green fields and meadows and woods. Prince Franz ruled Anhalt from 1758 until 1817. He had one son with his wife Luise and ten other children "around". He loved to travel and from a journey to Italy, England and France he brought so many great ideas that he startet to built the garden kingdom.

It is now part of the UNESCO World Heritage and dozens of gardeners and staff members maintain more than 150 square-kilometers cultural landscape including little palaces, sculptures, artificial caves and even a man-made volcano which erupts on special occasions -- and peaceful places like this pavillion.

We really like to walk here although on sunny days it is crowded by people as the entrance is free. The kids love the swans.

And we take a gondola ride on the lake and through the little canals that are crossed by little bridges -- each of a different kind. Charlotte is busy watching Mattis who is still too brave so close to the water.

Another great thing are the look-throughs that are planned by the prince. Some of them even have a political backround to show the wisdom of their builder. This is the "tolerance-view" -- from here you see the synagoge on the left for the Jewish religion and the Christian church on the right -- both should be equal in the eye of the visitor.

It is amazing to see the grown culture here. It must have been very different in the first days but the prince had this great look in the future although he knew he would never see the parc finished in his lifetime. There are also little mazes and climbing rocks and it is worth to stay close because the area is huge. I especially enjoy the water lilys.

You can rent bicycles and stay overnight in little parc houses -- it is really a little paradise, a planned one which makes it very German.