Odenwald - Frankfurt to Eberbach Route

Michelstadt lies at the intersection with the Nibelungenstrasse, which runs from Worms to Wertheim. In the Markt stands the picturesque Town Hall (1484), one of the oldest oak-beamed buildings in Germany. Behind it is the Late Gothic church (1561-1537), with the tombs of the Counts of Erbach (14th-17th c.).

On the southeast side of the old town, in the Kellerei, a relic of the old castle, are the Odenwald Museum and the Toy Museum.

South of Höchst can be found the thermal resort of Bad König (drinking and bathing cures; recommended for rheumatism and disorders of the metabolism).

On a plateau is Beerfelden, with the Mümlingquelle (the "Twelve-Spouted Fountain"). Some 600m/660yds from the town is a triple gallows.

From here the road crosses the watershed between the Main and the Neckar and descends to Eberbach in the Neckar valley.

Northeast of Höchst, off the main road, is Breuberg, over which looms the imposing Burg Breuberg (12th C.; fine interior).

Dieburg lies at a road junction where there was already a settlement in Roman times. Fine Baroque pilgrimage church (1701-20); museum, with finds from a Roman sanctuary of Mithras (second C.).

Erbach, the great center of ivory-carving in Germany, has a training college and an Ivory Museum (ivory-carving from the Middle Ages to the present day). The Schloss (16th-17th c.), with a round tower of 1200, has fine collections of art and weapons; in the Einhard Chapel is the stone sarcophagus of Einhard and his wife.

This town lies on the Odenwald foothills sloping down to the Rhine plain. The historic old-town center has Renaissance houses and the Heimatmuseum in the Gruberhof.

The Heppenheim-Erbach International Folk Festival takes place in late June and brings together folk dancers, musicians and singers from all over the world.

Höchst has a Gothic church of 1568. At Hummetroth, to the west, is the Haselburg, a relic of the Roman settlement which once stood here (second C.).

Some 3.5km/2mi beyond Gross-Umstadt, a side road branches off on the right to the Otzberg (368m/1,207ft), crowned by an old castle.