Visiting the Forest

I did it! I managed to spend an entire day in the Black Forest of Germany and leave without purchasing a cuckoo clock. They really are very cute. But I just kept reminding myself that my home décor isn’t Bavarian.

The Black Forest, or Schwarzwald, is an amazingly beautiful area. In fact, it is undoubtedly one of the most beautiful drives we have ever taken. We followed narrow roads lined with yellow and purple flowers, drove past bicyclists, hikers, strawberry and asparagus stands, brown and white dairy cows munching grass right beside the roads, backereis and gasthofs. We saw old people and young people alike carrying walking sticks and hiking through the meadows that are thick with trees. So many trees. In fact, the fields are simply cut right into the trees, clearly in an effort to save as much of the forest as possible. And even though it was rainy, as it has been for much of our trip, the mist in the forest somehow made it even more beautiful.

We stopped in Furtwangen to visit the German clock museum. The museum featured literally hundreds of clocks made from the 1700s to current. One of the most interesting was a very large and elaborately carved wooden clock that depicted religious scenes. The clock’s most macabre feature was the crucifixion of Jesus every hour on the hour. The clock wasn’t working. That would have been an interesting one to observe.


We crossed the street and ate lunch at a café. After taking a look at the wonderful menu, I quickly forwent my decision to be a vegetarian (as I had promised I would following my recent unwise culinary decision). Instead I ordered the bratwurst with saurkraut and mashed potatoes. It was a very wise choice. Bill had schweinenschnitzel (breaded pork cutlet), which was also absolutely delicious. He had a beer and I had a glass of Reisling. I anticipated a very sweet wine, and was happy to taste a wonderfully dry and fruity wine instead. Bill couldn’t have been happier than when he saw the head on his beer.


We got back on the road and drove the rest of the day through the forest. Though we were both still full from our big and wonderful lunch, we knew it wouldn’t be prudent to leave the Black Forest without a piece of authentic Black Forest Cake. So we stopped in the town of Baden-Baden and found a café that served up the local specialty. We split a piece of cake and each had a cup of wonderful coffee. I thought it was the perfect ending to a great day.

But Bill had an even better surprise. The drive home was on an autobahn! It was his dream come true. I must say he was pretty tame. But even driving at 130 kilometers per hour or so (which, to be fair, is only about 78 or 80 mph, it was as though we were standing still. Cars going probably 100 mph or so (mostly, it seemed, Mercedes) would whip by us amazingly quickly. Bill would get into the passing lane to go around a car, and all of the sudden, someone was behind him wanting to get by.

We have decided to spend the next four nights in Salzburg, Austria. We will come back, either by car or train, to visit Munich, but Bill was eager to be able to unpack for an extended stay again, and I don’t blame him. He is the one who has to haul in the luggage. And this way we’ll be in Salzburg for Mass on Sunday. The music is purported to be lovely.

And of course, the Sound of Music…..

Alsace Region

I was a bit down and out last night and today, suffering from stomach problems that I’m pretty sure are related to that nasty stuff we ate for lunch yesterday. If anyone has the stomach for it, you can go to Wikipedia and see just what it is that we ate: look up andouillette, and be prepared to be nauseated. I think I’m going to become a vegetarian just to avoid the problem in the future.

But, I didn’t let it get me down, and we drove to Colmar, about 20 miles from where we’re staying. If I didn’t know that we were in France from looking at the map and listening to the people around me talk, I would swear we had passed into Germany. The buildings looked Tyrolean and the markets were filled with knachtwursts and German cheeses. The bars were serving up German beer (of which Bill gave a try).

After having our drink at the Biergarten, we got back into our car and took the wine road (Route du Vin) through the little villages that proudly grow the grapes and make the wines that are famous to this region: Gewurztraminer, Reisling, Muscat, Pinot Gris, and Pinot Noir. Most of the Alsatian wines are quite a bit sweeter than we have been used to, and nearly all are white. The countryside was amazingly beautiful, and Bill took pictures. But as is typical with panoramic shots, nothing came out looking nearly as pretty as it really was. But we did take a shot of one of the magnificent crucifixes that we saw all around the wine valley. It appears to us that each vintner has his own crucifix, but I don’t know the meaning of it all. Some were really pretty.

We didn’t stop at any of the wineries, but we did stop at a castle that is on the top of a mountain overlooking the valley. The castle was built back in the 1200s, and served as a guard post for the Alsace and Lorraine valleys. We went inside to look, and were impressed with its size. Looking out of the windows allowed us a magnificent view of the valleys below.

On the way home, we stopped and picked up some wonderful stinky French cheeses and some baguette, and that will be our supper tonight. We also bought a Pinot Gris, with a sweetness that pairs well with the sharp salty taste of the cheese. Yum. Our daughter and her partner gave Bill a wonderful picnic knife that we have with us, and we use it so often to slice bread and cheese. We were even able to help out a couple in Avignon the other day who was trying desperately to open a bottle of wine using a knife. We offered our all-purpose tool which also has a corkscrew, and they were very happy.

Tomorrow we will go to the Black Forest of Germany and look for Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf.

By the way, via the comments section of my blog, I have been made aware of some unexpected people reading about our adventures. That has been so much fun for us. So, if you are reading this blog and have not already done so, let me know via email or a comment! It’s fun to have folks “traveling” along with us.

On the Road Again

We took off early this morning in our little car, said goodbye to beautiful Arles and romantic Provence, and headed north. What we decided to do was to drive to the Alsace Lorraine region of France, which is very close to the German border. We decided to get a room in the French town of Mulhouse and spend about three days visiting Colmar in France, and then spend a couple of days visiting the Black Forest area of Germany. Towns such as Baden-Baden, Freiburg, and Staufen are only a few miles away from here.

In Lourdes, Arles, and now here, we have stayed in Hotel Premiere Classe, and I have to admit that this is one way to save some money. The hotels are very modern. We don’t even talk with a human to check in. We just insert our card and follow the instructions. The rooms are small and clean. They are generally not right in town, so that’s what you sacrifice, but the cost is incredibly low. That allows us to spend more on food and fun, and the walks into town, at least thus far, have been fine.

We haven’t been out to look at any restaurants yet, but apparently the cuisine is more German than French in this part of the country. Saurkraut and sausages! Yum. We are a bit tired from the long drive (about six hours) and will probably take it easy tonight.

Driving on the tollways in Europe (which, by the way, are ENORMOUSLY expensive) is about as exciting as taking a cross-country trip in the U.S. The only difference is that you might see an occasional castle along the side of the road. To kill time, we listened to French radio stations. We found an oldies station that alternated between English and French songs. Bill would sing along with the French songs making up his own English lyrics. I’m pretty sure his translations weren’t even close, but they made me laugh. We also challenged ourselves by trying to figure out what the road signs meant. The one that really perplexed us was a big yellow sign showing a car exploding. That could mean there are errant militant factions loose in France, or it could mean that French cars spontaneously combust. Luckily, we didn’t face either scenario.

We stopped at a truck stop for lunch and to fill up our car with diesel gasoline (whew, THAT is an eye-opening experience; between that and the tolls, we might have to find an even cheaper place to stay!). We split what we thought was a bratwurst. After all, we were approaching the Alsace region. We took a bite and were surprised to find it tasted quite awful. I looked at our bill and discovered that we had ordered the one thing that Rick Steves said never to order in France: andouillette. He never says what it is aside from saying it is organ meat. And I will say he is correct in recommending that you not make that menu choice.

A Peek at the Pope's Palace

Today we took a day trip to Avignon to see the Pope's Palace. But not before stopping for our morning goody and cafe au lait. The pastries lined up on the bakery shelves are so beautiful. Every morning I have a croissant and Bill has a pain au chocolate. Bacon and eggs will just never cover it again.

With stomachs full of flaky, buttery, chocolatey goodness, we got in our little car and headed out. It is only about a 30-minute drive from Arles to Avignon, but parking took considerably longer. Avignon is a walled city that I was particularly interested in seeing because in 1305 (and for about 100 years after that) the Pope was in Avignon instead of Rome. Rome had gotten too corrupt and dangerous. When the powers-that-be decided that Avignon was the place to be, they took an existing bishop’s house and over the next years, added on and fancied it up until it was a magnificent papal palace. Quite a fixer-upper, I must say.

We lunched at a little snack bar, and then headed back to Arles. Bill had his handy dandy global positioning system (GPS), but it took awhile to find the satellite. In the meantime, we got a bit lost. I won’t say much about the neighborhood we found ourselves driving through, but this photo will give you a sense of what it looked like (and why I thought Bill might be a victim of an armed robbery while he took this picture).

Tonight Bill and I stopped at the Aldi's that is right around the corner from our hotel (Bill's side of the family -- particularly his mother -- will get a kick out of knowing that we found an Aldi's in Arles, France.) We bought some paper products, some snacks for the road, and four bottles of wine (including a Chateauneuf-du-Pape, a wine my sisters will well remember), and paid a TOTAL of 17 euros.

It is 9:30 in the evening, and we take off tomorrow morning. Believe it or not, at this point we are still not sure where we are going. We are heading north towards Germany, but we aren’t sure yet if we will stay in France or cross the border into Deutschland. I will tell you tomorrow where we landed.

Laundry Day in Provence

After making do by washing out our clothes in the sink, Bill and I finally found a laundry (the sign said Laveria) and we did two loads of wash. We stopped at a little market (not easy to find on Sunday as all grocery stores are closed) and bought what we think is laundry soap (it’s called Skip and it has pictures of clothes on the box which seemed a good sign to us) for 2,80. Each load cost us 3,50, and the drying process cost about 3 euros. All told, it was a fairly expensive process – about 13 euros or $20, but what the heck. You can’t go around being stinky (well, at least not outside of France).

And Sunday apparently really is washing day in Arles. As we walked through the back streets of the old city, there were clothes hanging outside of windows on nearly every street we walked. Arles had a different feel to it today, with children riding on the carrousel, old men wearing berets sitting outside watching the people, and young and old alike carrying baguettes home for tonight’s dinner or tomorrow’s breakfast.

We had time to look at some of the historical sites in Arles. There are beautiful Roman ruins, including an amphitheatre that is being restored. The amphitheatre at one time held tens of thousands of people who watched very violent sporting events. The amphitheater is still used today for what they call bull games. These bull games are apparently a softer version of the very violent bullfights still held in Spain. The bull wears ribbons around his horns, and the matadors (in this case they are called razeteurs) try to grab the ribbon using some kind of a hook. I thought it might be fun to see one of these games, but unfortunately there was none being held this weekend.

The shops of Arles are filled with linens and pottery in the Provencal colors of red and blue and yellow and green. The linens hanging outside the stores lined the streets beside the amphitheatre, and I bought myself an apron because the colors were so pretty. Bill looks puzzled when I spend money on things I already have at home, but I just ignore him. He can go buy cigars!

We ended our day at a little café where I enjoyed a salad Nicoise and Bill had a panini. We realized that we didn’t have any wine at home and that markets were closed. Heaven forbid! But we found a grocery store that was literally one of those that is part of a gas station, just like in the US. Wouldn’t you know that they had a very fine wine selection. Only in France.

Goodbye Basque, Hello Provence

We seem to be destined to experience springtime Europe in the rain.

We left Lourdes about 10 this morning and got into Arles about 3. It was dreary when we left, but I think that is pretty typical of the Pyrenees area in the morning. It warmed up as we drove towards the Provence Region, and was nice and warm and sunny when we arrived in Arles. We checked into our hotel, and then set off on foot to the town center.

It is about a 15-minute walk into Arles from our hotel, but the walk is pleasant. We window shopped a bit and took a quick look-see at some of the historical sights. We will spend more time tomorrow doing an historical tour. Then we stopped at Café Le Nuit, which is the café that Vincent van Gogh painted in his painting entitled Café at Night. We ordered a couple of glasses of wine, and telephoned my son and daughter-in-law, because that particular van Gogh painting is one of her favorites. She was appropriately envious to know that we were sitting in that café enjoying some wine.

We also telephoned our daughter-in-law who just gave birth to our newest granddaughter, and she said everyone was fine. Our 21-month-old granddaughter (the new baby’s sister) is apparently not thrilled with the new addition to the family, particularly since Mom can’t pick her up since Baby Sister was born by C-Section. There is nothing quite as anticlimactic as being the third-born in a family of four children.

Back to the rain. When we got finished with our wine, we decided to go ahead and have dinner at that same cafe. We enjoyed our meal, and when we stepped outside around 8 o’clock, it was raining. We walked home in a nice gentle shower (unlike the downpour we experienced in Barcelona).

Tomorrow we need to track down a laundry as we are both running out of clothes!

New Granddaughter

On Friday, May 16, our son and daughter-in-law gave birth to our new granddaughter. Her name is Magnolia Faith McLain. She weighed 6 lbs. 12 oz. and is 20 inches long. She joins our crew of grandchildren: ages 13, 5, 3, 21 months, and one in the oven.

Mother, Dad, and siblings are apparently doing fine. It makes me very homesick. I can't believe I have to wait so long to hold that baby in my arms! Kiss her for Nana and Papa.