Colorful Bavarian- style buildings draw visitors who’ve helped revive the community of Helen, Ga.
Helen, Ga.
There aren’t a lot of places, at least not in the U.S., where polka music is pumped out into the streets, men wear lederhosen, and women sport plaited hair and colorful dirndls, but one of them is in the mountains of North Georgia. While you won’t necessarily be greeted with a hearty “guten Tag” in Helen, come winter this re-created Bavarian village is full of magical holiday lights and decor adorning the gingerbread turrets and red-roofed buildings as horse-drawn carriages ply the often snow-dusted streets alongside the slow-moving Chattahoochee River. This magical atmosphere draws visitors to Helen every holiday season. In the 1960s, Helen was a dried-up mining and logging town until local businessmen came together with the idea of turning the dying community into a Bavarian village to draw in
tourists. Today, it’s a storybook town where every building — even McDonald’s — is clad in Bavarian architecture. A must-see in Helen is Charlemagne’s King- dom, a model railroad village covering more than 2,400 square feet. Owner Willi Lindhorst, who came to the U.S. nearly 50 years ago from Oldenburg, Germany, created this miniature ver- sion of his homeland that shows the Old Country “from the North Sea to the Alps.” The landscape features the autobahn, a rural countryside, bus- tling cities with moving vehicles, hot air balloons, and carnival music all competing for the spectator’s eye — nevermind the 22-foot “Matterhorn” made with 300 gallons of plaster. Up the street from Char-
lemagne’s Kingdom, duck into Lindenhaus Imports, which is loaded with Ger- man and Scandinavian foods, beer steins, and dozens of ticking cuckoo clocks. For lunch, sample Bavarian fare at Hofer’s Bakery & Café. Easily the most popular place in town, it has a bakery loaded with German pastries. One hardly needs dessert, however, when entrees here consist of hot sliced turkey on a croissant topped with bacon bits buried in melted
Charlemagne’s King- dom is a model railroad village sporting hundreds of feet of track.
64 MILITARY OFFICER DECEMBER 2011 PHOTO: LEFT, COURTESY CHARLEMAGNE’S KINGDOM; ABOVE, SHUTTERSTOCK PHOTOS/IMAGES: TKTK
cheddar cheese or traditional spätzle Schwarzwald — German noodles with ham, green peppers, onion, to- mato, and Parmesan cheese. Just south of Helen, experience some German-inspired wines at Habersham Winery in Nacoochee Village. Habersham has a signature white Riesling that mimics the crisp and sweet fl avors of this vintage that has its origins in Germany’s Mosel Valley. Across the road, on the banks of the Chattahoochee River, is the Nora Mill Granary. The mill continues to operate just as it did a century ago, grinding fl our on 135-year-old millstones. Those looking for outdoor recre- ation can head into the mountains surrounding Helen for a blood- pumping waterfall hike. A few miles outside Helen are the twin falls of Anna Ruby, which together drop some 200 feet. Another great twin waterfall hike can be had north of town at Dukes Creek Falls, where a pair of cascades drop into frothy pools lined with frozen spray.
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