Frankenmuth and Birch Run

Frankenmuth and Birch Run are destinations that people from all over Michigan travel to visit, perhaps even people from outside of Michigan.  Rarely could you find someone who has not at least heard of Frankenmuth if they were born and raised in Michigan.  However, I was one of those people until recently when a couple of friends and I took a day to drive up to Frankenmuth and Birch Run and explore.  I must say it was quite unlike any place I had even been.  Though many people visit specifically for their famous chicken, I found that Frankenmuth and Birch Run had so much more to offer. 

Though I did not personally experience it, my friend told me that you can take a river boat tour to full enjoy the surroundings of this Bavarian town.  We walked around town instead, still taking in the atmosphere, looking at everything there was to see.  There were giant eggs throughout the lawns and other decorations like a life size nativity scene and bunnies.  Putting a twist on the Christmas theme, the eggs probably because it was Easter time, along with having Christmas trees decorated with Easter eggs. 

There were all different kinds of shops in Frankenmuth, and quite honestly I could not accurately give you all of the names of the unique shops.  So instead I will provide descriptions of my experiences within the shops.  There was one store that really caught my interest because I had never seen anything like it.  In this shop there were all sorts of item that, oringinally black and white, became colorful when put in the sunlight.  Awed but all of this, I could not help but purchase a shirt with a T-rex on it that did in fact change colors in the sunlight.  Maybe I am just easily amused, but I thought that this was a really cool store!  There were also various toys stores with retro kind of toys.  The merchandise available was more typical of generations in the past instead of being modern day toys. 

I really enjoyed the look created by these shops.  They were all different colored buildings but with a consistent renaissance type theme.  This makes it no surprise that there are renaissance festivals actually held at Frankenmuth.  In addition to the shops, there were bridges and other architecture that added to the renaissance aura. 

The Christmas store, Bronner’s Christmas Wonderland, was similar to Canterbury Village.  It was a child’s paradise with human size candy canes, Christmas trees, Christmas decorations, and of course, toys.  Due to the time of the year of our visit, they actually had the Easter Bunny instead of Santa Claus available to take pictures with.  Since this is our last blog, for the sake of humor there is a picture of us with the Easter Bunny in the picture below. 

Birch Run is adjacent to Frankenmuth and is an outlet type shopping center.  We went into the American Eagle and got a few things that were very inexpensive but we did not spend much time at Birch Run in general.  If going there again I would like to explore Birch Run more but we were so entranced by Frankenmuth that we simply did not find the time.  What we did see of Birch Run was very impressive though.