What a wonderful week it has been in Berlin, Ohio at the Scenic Hills RV Park! The park has a nice layout with a mixture of pull through and back in sites in 3 different sections. We are in site 39 which is close to the office. The wifi has been pretty good except the usual busy time of 6-8 pm. There is no cable, but full hookups other than that. The sites are packed gravel with some having grass between the sites. Ours had decorative rock and landscaping. Thanks so much to Julia and Eugene for telling us about this area and RV park!
The township of Berlin is very quaint but touristy. There is only one road through town so there are many big trucks going down Main Street. It would be nice if they had a bypass for them. There are a lot of Amish and Mennonites in the area with many of the ladies working in the shops. We had lunch at the historic Boyd and Wurthmann's Restaurant. Their website has an interesting story about their beginning. We had the pleasure of having a great waitress, Vicki, who was very attentive and personable. We didn't take pictures so I used their website pictures. Of course, we had to try their pies :-)
Another day we took a loop drive starting east on highway 39.
- Walnut Creek at Coblentz Chocolates which has a window to watch the chocolates being made. I love how you can buy them individually or prepackaged. We also drove through our first covered bridge there!
- The next stop was in Sugarcreek. What an adorable little town! Home of the largest cuckoo clock. After going through several of the shops we walked a couple of blocks off the main street to pick up our free 1/3 lb cheese from Swiss Village Foods and purchased some pepperoni to go with it. As we were leaving town I saw Bags Pub so we pulled in for a drink and to watch the local traffic. It is so interesting to watch people in different locales. We saw several families in horse drawn buggies and men driving tractors down Main Street. Next stop was Breitenbach Winery which was on a scenic little road just outside of Sugarcreek. Wine tasting .25 each so tried 4 of the wines. Decided on Roadhouse Red, which was a sweet red, and Blueberry. The barista was a very friendly girl that was interested in our travel lifestyle.
Sugarcreek's World's Largest Cuckcoo Clock - We had to backtrack to Sugarcreek to pick up 93 south then west on 557. The area is mostly Amish farms and most were pretty large and well kept. We encountered several horse and buggies along the route.
- Charm, Ohio was along the route but by the time we got there the stores were closed. Hope to go back there before we leave.
We took another day trip to The Warther Museum at the recommendation of our friend, Tom, who had been there before. His statement was "one of the best kept wonders of the world...you will thank me!" And he was right! "Mooney" was a master at whittling and carving. With only a second grade education, he created some masterpiece to scale train models. He had the opportunity to make a lot of money off his work but said it would no longer be a hobby but a job. When offered $50,000 up front and $5,000 a year until he died, he also turned it down, saying, my roof's not leaking and we aren't hungry. You could tour their modest home and her "button" house for free. Frieda did some amazing works with her button collection. His livelihood was from making knives, which he learned from working in the steel mill. The knives are still produced there.
