Day 3 takes us
from Frankfurt into the Black Forest (Schwarzwald). Note that the Black
Forest is huge, a huge section of the state of Baden-Württemberg. I
took several of these type of shots throughout the trip, just to remind
me where we were on a given day. The German word Schloss means "Castle",
so this is Heidelberg Castle.
Here is the moat area around the castle.
The outer courtyard of the castle.
The inner courtyard.
Here we are looking at the world's largest wine vat. You can take the
stairs up and over the dance floor that is built on top.
There's Kimberly and Darrloyn coming down the other side. Note that the
wine vat is storage of taxes collected as wine. That must be one really
bad meritage.
A look out the window onto the city of Heidelberg below.
Here's our foursome getting a picture from the castle down onto Heidelberg.
"No, back up. I can still see you too clearly."
The River Neckar through Heidelberg. See, right there is the house that
Hans used to live in. Yeah, the one with the tile roof.
A time measuring device on the side of one castle wall.
There seemed to be Apothekes (pharmacies) all over the place. In Castle
Heidelberg there is a pharmacology museum.
Here are all the lotions and potions we have to cure you.
Kimberly with her lion friend and a mortar and pestle.
On to Baden-Baden, where an oom-pah band is playing for the tourists.
And then to our hotel, a little chalet in the Black Forest.
This is the main building for the hotel: reception on the right, and
the restaurant on the left.
Looking to the left from the main building is the "glass factory"
where they make glassworks. The upper floor has guest rooms, and ours
is around the corner on the left end as you look at it.
Directly across from the main building is the clock factory. The upper
floor has a shop with cuckoo clocks and other wares, and the bottom floor
is a cafeteria-style restaurant.
For a Black Forest chalet, our room looks a lot like Swedish modern.
The windows have powered shutters for blocking out the light. We had to
leave them down most of the time, as our room faced right back out to
the main building.
Over in the clock factory, they have arranged a cuckoo clock history
lesson and demonstration. Of course you are given an opportunity to buy
the wares, but the sales are pretty low-pressure.
Us posing with the store mascot.
Behind the main building is an old railroad trestle, which we thought
was abandoned until we saw a train go by one morning.
Like many houses and businesses in the Black Forest, there are ducks
or geese, or in this case, goats in a pen.
That evening we head out toward the ski slopes. It's not late enough
for the slopes to be open, but an optional excursion takes us to a local
restaurant for our first authentic German food.
The restaurant is more about the atmosphere and the fun than the food,
which is served buffet-style.
Here's us with our new friend Bill from down under.
We are issued assorted hats for the group singalong.
Plus a cocophony of crazy instruments. Here's Hans playing the washboard.
My personal favorite instrument is the frying pan attached to the ski
(right).
And the owners pass out songbooks and everybody sings along.
Kimberly has had quite a bit to drink, and gives a kiss to the statuary
cow on the patio while we wait for the bus back to the hotel.
