Germany’s beer paradise: Franconian Switzerland
'Something was going on'
"That's when we knew something was going on," recalls Sauer, who works at the nearby Erlangen-Nuremberg University. "When we placed the Christmas decorations, it must have encouraged other people, because the next time we came back, the area had turned into a regular elfin village, with some of the fairy nests containing furniture and everything."
The little houses have been decorated to attract fairies
At that point, with the village grown to about 20 elfin abodes, they hung a small sign designating the woodland "Elflingen." Sauer located the farmer who owned the land to tell him what was up, but she didn't have to; he said he already knew about the growing colony, and said he wouldn't dare disturb the development. For her part, she promised to collect the decorations and doll house furniture that might be left over, whenever that is.