display

After a rush of snow tourists at the weekend, the Eifel community of Hellenthal in North Rhine-Westphalia closed off the access to parking spaces at the excursion destinations with construction fences.

A spokesman for the city said on Monday about 1,300 cars were parked in a large parking lot alone.

For the first time, visitors also dodged the villages and hamlets of the 8,000-inhabitant community near the Belgian border.

"The visitors came in streams," said the spokesman.

Meadows and the side edges of a federal road had been parked up.

On Monday, employees from the administration were on site to enforce the parking bans.

In Winterberg, slopes and parking spaces have been closed since Sunday.

The ban on entering is intended to prevent day-trippers from storming the snow-covered toboggan and ski slopes like in the past few days.

Picture from the weekend: A police officer in Winterberg asks visitors to leave

display

In many places the parking lots were already overcrowded in the morning, there were long traffic jams, and cars kept breaking down.

Hundreds of ads for violations of corona measures

"We have chaos to the power of three, everything collapses," said a spokesman for the Goslar police station at the weekend.

On Monday morning it was initially largely quiet, said a city spokeswoman.

There were hundreds of reports nationwide in winter sports areas - mainly because of violations of corona measures such as mask requirements and contact restrictions.

There were also criminal charges for insulting police officers.

Another problem: Because of the lockdown, no public toilets were set up, restaurants and other facilities were not open.

Day trippers relieved themselves in nature or even on private property.

In the Rhön, many people were drawn to the Wasserkuppe, Hesse's highest mountain.

“It's full,” said a police spokesman in Fulda.

Road users parked in danger areas or got stuck on an icy road, it said about the location on the Hoher Meissner.

During a rescue operation, an emergency doctor had to be brought to the scene by helicopter.