So this will be my last bit about Germany! I meant to post this before I left England, but I was too busy, so I am posting this from back in the states!.
So I left off when Lennart, Beate, and I were driving into the Black Forest after leaving my relatives' home. Once again I fell asleep pretty quickly...those darn motion sickness pills. We headed for a campsite in a little village in the forest. Once we got there We had some difficulties setting up the tent. I was not very helpful, as I have not set up a tent in over ten years and spent a lot of the time standing there awkwardly while they figured it out. The village itself was quite beautiful. Maybe 40 houses in total, and several farms. There is a style of architecture that belongs to the Black Forest, and is designed so that the heavy snow that the region experiences in winter falls off the roof.
This was a pretty old looking barn that has the roof I am talking about. You can also see it on the house in the background. It thought it was rather beautiful, and really gave a character to the buildings.
After we set up camp, and changed our clothes, we headed off again to the city of Freiburg. It was a beautiful city, and we had a wonderful time there. The architecture was truly beautiful, and there were several unique spots I found while we were walking around.
These doors for example. No idea what they led to, and no idea why they were painted this way. But still, very fun and interesting!
This door also caught my eye. The colors and design were simply gorgeous. (I have a thing for doors). If I remember correctly it was the door that led into the office buildings of the cathedral in the city? Maybe. That could be wrong. Speaking of this cathedral, it was beautiful. Again, the sun was setting when we walking around, and the red stone of the cathedral was lit up. There was also a folk band performing in the square in front of the church. It is here I wrote a hasty postcard to my parents and sent it (fun fact for you mom and dad).
There was also this interesting statue. Supossedly it is famous for the city? At least that is what Beate said. It certainly looked iconic.
Also, like a lot of places in Europe, the buildings were COVERED in flowers and plants.
We decided we wanted to climb the hill in the center of the city to watch the sun set. We made it to a lookout point at the top and just relaxed for a bit. Well, as much as we could. There was an obnoxious couple up there with us smoking like chimneys. They did leave after a while and we started to goof off. Watching the sun set over the city was truly amazing. Everything glowed.
We were up there for a while, so at one point I decided to do a writing exercise where I described everything happening around me in my journal. Lennart and Beate found this fascinating, and the next day interrogated me about the process. Lennart also took my camera and snapped a few photos while I was doing this, something I did not realize until later when I was looking through the pictures from the day.
In the direction I was looking towards lay France, which is where we were headed the next day....
After sitting up there for an hour or so, we were getting pretty hungry so we headed down and looked for some food. Beate was craving Turkish food, so that is what we ended up getting. It was pretty delicious. By the time we finished eating it had gotten dark, so we steadily made our way back to the car. We made a pit stop at a book store that was literally covered floor to ceiling with books, and only a small walkway a foot wide going through. It was very cool, and I found this tiny poetry book I wanted to buy. However when I went to buy it I was informed it cost 35 euros!! That was a NOPE moment. Beate bought some books as well, also overpriced. I doubt the place is going to stay in business if they don't lower their prices....
Oh I almost forgot! We saw a car almost get hit by a trolley. The trolley was going through an intersection, and the cars all had red lights naturally. Well this one asshole sped in front of the trolley and the trolley man blared his horn and
barely missed hitting the car. Like he missed by inches. It was terrifying. The guy in the car then pulled over and went into a bank like 100m up the road, and then out of no where four cops come running by us and charge into the bank. We thought we were going to see someone get arrested, but then a few seconds later the cops came walking out without the guy. No idea what happened, but it was very exciting.
That night we slept in our tent, which was not as bad as it could have been. The next morning we got up early and headed out into the Black Forest. I got super car sick...again, but we eventually made it to our destination. None of us were feeling up to a huge hike, so we picked a fairly easy one. Just 3 kilometers up the mountain Belchen. It was COLD at higher altitude. We had a pleasant walk up. I told them all about weird little things involved in living in America, and how my process of journal-ing. They even made me narrate out loud what I would write if I was to write what we were doing at that moment. I felt silly but they got a kick out of it. Near the summit we stopped at a restaurant that was there (not exactly the most remote of locations) and we enjoyed some hot chocolate. There were tons of dogs there, and while we were there two dogs got in a fight, and in the effort to break them up a woman got bit on the hand. It was very dramatic.
What was also dramatic was the view. You could see for hundreds of miles in all directions, and the clouds were both dark and light.
The mountain had tons of flowers all around, and people were lounging around in them, soaking in the sun.
It was unbelievably gorgeous. On the way down, the views were equally as good. The way up we were entrenched in the forest, and couldn't see much, but the hike down we could see all into the valleys around us.
We had a lot of fun on this part of the walk. Beate is going to be a school teacher teaching children English, and asked me to teach her some songs I learned as a kid. The ones I managed to remember were "Row row row your boat", "Yankee Doodle", and a special one my mother taught me about eating worms. Lennart and Beate LOVED that one, and Beate even recorded me singing it so she could have the children listen to a native speaker pronouncing the words. Germans, I learned, have a hard time pronouncing the word "worm". It was a lot of fun. I am usually pretty shy about singing in front of other people because, well, frankly I suck. But in the middle of the woods with these two people I didn't mind so much.
After we finished the hike, we headed out of the Back Forest and drove for France! I...fell asleep again. But I did briefly wake up when we crossed the river into France. We headed for a campsite in the outskirts of a village called Kayserberg. Yea it sounds pretty German, but it is in France. It is absolutely gorgeous. Most of the town has retained it's original architecture, and it was so gorgeous we decided to extend our stay there so we could fully appreciate it! By the time we set up camp and got into town it was nighttime, and after we had dinner (sitting under the stuffed head of a boar) we explored a little bit before heading back.
The lights that lit up the town at night were spectacular. It was so beautiful, and we couldn't wait to see it during the day.
We walked back to our campsite and slept through the night. We got up super early (again) and drove into town this time. We had breakfast in a public playground, which was silly and fun. Everyone was staring at us. After that, our first stop was an old ruined chateau on the hill overlooking the village. We took the roundabout way through the vineyard, which resulted in us getting slightly lost and my ankle getting torn up on a thorn bush.
We eventually made it, and were treated to gorgeous vies of the valley and the village.
The light was perfect as the sun rose over us, and I got these stunning shots that I am rather pleased with.
Next up was the village again, this time in the daylight. The buildings were so charming and colorful.
There were bakeries EVERYWHERE, and every building was covered in flowers.
They were each a different color, and mos were painted in a very bright color like these.
There were also a lot of these cute metal signs outside the shops. It was very authentic and very French. This purple house below was one of my particular favorite houses.
There was also a particular theme of storks in this village. There were also on the a lot of postcards with the birds on them. We learned eventually that is was because storks would famously create their huge nests on the top of buildings in this village, and eventually we found one on top of an old guard tower.
Unfortunately, we had to leave. My flight was that same day 3 hours away in Stuttgart. We drove and drove through more gorgeous villages, and eventually back into Germany and to the airport. This trip was honestly the best of my life. I have never had so much fun, and been at so at ease in a foreign country. I could see myself living in Germany one day (maybe), but I would have to learn German first! I am eternally great full to everyone who made this trip so wonderful. Saying goodbye to Beate and Lennart at the airport was much harder than I thought it would be. They became such good friends, and I do not know if or when I will ever see them again. Goodbyes suck, but I hope that those "see you later" not "goodbye forever".
