Return To Germany.....Part 1
(click on any thumbnail to see the larger version......)
We arrived in Germany on the 30th, and spent the afternoon settling into the hotel (the Romerhof in Vaihingen). That evening we visited with our former neighbors, Gerhard and Ursula Bruckner, in Mohringen. It was an early night because we had been up most of the previous night flying.
Friday, I went into the office to work, and Lynn spent the day visiting with her friend from the Kelley Theater, Jennifer Vollmer. For the last two years we lived in Mohringen, Lynn was the costume mistress for the Kelley Theater Group, and Jennifer worked with her. Now Jennifer is the Costume Mistress! That evening, we attended a performance of Neil Simon's Rumors at the Kelley Theater......
 The Marquee outside the theater on Kelley Barracks in Mohringen |
 Panorama of the stage set for Rumors |
 The Kelley Theater Group's Trophy Case! |
 Lynn's last show as Costume Mistress was Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.... and guess who we found in the trophy case! |
All throughout our week driving around, we saw the remains of the devastation that a holiday windstorm (25-27 Dec 1999) caused. Winds in parts of Germany reached 124 mph, which was strong enough to rip up entire stands of pine trees by the roots, and then snapping in half any trees left standing. We saw entire hillsides leveled. It will take a hundred years for the forests to recover.
 This panorama of a section of wooded road in the Black Forest doesn't begin to show the devastation we saw all over the place. |
On Saturday we drove through the Black Forest (lots more tree devastation) with our neighbors Gerhard and Ursula. First stop was the town of Bad Wildbad, which has a river running through the middle of the town center, and a cog railway up the mountain from downtown......
 Bad Wildbad |
 Ursula, Lynn and Gerhard in Bad Wildbad |
 The zahnradbahn (literally: tooth-wheel-railroad), or cog railway, station |
Then we were off to a town called Glatt, where there is a wonderful cafe on the grounds of a moated castle. The cafe serves slices of cakes and desserts (kuchen) that are about three times the size of the normal German serving, for about the same price as a normal German serving! Gerhard and Ursula had taken me to this same cafe back in October 1999 when I visited by myself....
 The entrance to the castle grounds |
 The door of the cafe |
 Epiphany tradition (I don't know the details) of marking good houses with chalk |
 Inside the cafe |
 A piece of Schwartzwalder Kirchetorte (Black Forest Cherry Cake) |
 Lynn, Ursula, and Gerhard in the cafe |
 The view of the castle from the cafe |
 Gerhard and Lynn goofing around with the castle's cannon |
 An ancient horse watering trough - still working |
 Gerhard pretends to drink from a trough |
 Gerhard and Ursula Bruckner behind the watering trough in Glatt |
 A close-up of the trough |
 Walking off our dessert |
 An interesting old tree in Glatt |
 Strange pine needle formations |
 Half-timbered barn with a sunset behind it |
After Glatt, we drove to Haigerloch (another destination from my October trip). We strolled around the castle at the top of the hill, then walked down the hill halfway to the church, but it was closed. Then we walked back to the car and drove to the Römer Restaurant for a spectacular meal. the Römer (Roman) restaurant has an interesting motif, Roman helmets for lamps and chariots for booths.......
 The schlossbrau Brewery, as sen from the schloss (the castle) |
 View of Haigerloch from the castle |
 The wood on the door to the castle path was so worn, you could see cobblestones on the other side |
 The door to the castle path down to the church |
 The inside of a gnarly bush along the path |
 The church garden halfway down the path |
 The rest of the way down the walkway to the town center |
 Looking up the pathway back to the castle |
 Walking down the walkway |
 A little sitting area on the castle grounds |
 Lynn's dinner - a pork stew (Ursula had the same thing) |
|
 Gerhard's dinner - pork cutlet smothered in wild mushrooms and gravy |
 Gene's dinner - venison with wild mushrooms and preiselbeeren sauce |
 Gene liked his dinner!! |
 Ursula and Lynn in the "ship" booth |
 The "chariot" booths in the rest of the restaurant |
 A helmet-lamp |
 Lynn tests the local pils |
 ....and so does Gene |
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