Sisi, unknown princess – royal traces in Leer

Just back from a short trip with my mother to Leer, Germany. Only one hour by train from the city of Groningen it is my favourite place to travel to in the weeks before Christmas. The Christmas market in the main shopping street is not really interesting to me or my mother, but the Altstadt (old city centre) is wonderful. Also the Christmas spirit in the streets and in the shops is much better than here in the Netherlands according to me.

But if you’re a royalty watcher like me, the royals are never far away. In the Heimatmuseum I discovered that Leer used to have a real castle in the past. Even some archeological findings were on display. The surprisingly interesting museum Haus Samson had portraits of an unknown East Frisian princess – East Frisia once was a principality – and a young nobleman, possibly one of the reigning princes. We booked two nights in an hotel this time, and near our place was a Sissi Café, where one can buy Sissi Torte. It looked delicious, but so did the cakes and sandwiches in other places. And there were a lot of places that had more visible Christmas decoration.

I discovered a brand new Sisi novel about the hairdresser of Empress Elisabeth of Austria, called Fanny. And at the railway station my mother’s eyes were immediately drawn to a magazine about the third Sissi-film, that turns out to be 65 years old this year. On the cover of course were Karl-Heinz Böhm and Romy Schneider, the stars of the film, that is still shown on TV each Christmas. I didn’t buy it by the way, because it was rather expensive, well over 10 Euro, although it looked pretty good. I however couldn’t resist to buy the November/December 2022 issue of Frau im Spiegel Royal.

One thought on “Sisi, unknown princess – royal traces in Leer

  1. We had wonderful days in Leer and I can recommend it specially in Christmas time.The Altstadt is lovely.

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