Things for which I am thankful – Travelogue 2 – unlimited by numbers, gratitudes…
Grateful to still be able to make such a road trip at the advanced age of 71! Getting to Rotterdam was easy – 1.5 hours drive to Hull ferry port and an ovenight ferry which left us most of the day to get to Mothern near Strasbourg. This is in the North-eastern corner of France just over the border from Germany and was a good 7 hour journey with stops – the longest leg of the holiday so glad it was first…
Mothern was about 40 kms from Strasbourg and we spent our first day of three, visiting the city that houses the European Parliament.
The building below was once a barracks but what really intrigued me, once we got close to it, was that all the details around the windows are Trompe l’Oueil – something I once did a bit of in one of my past careers…
For our second day in Mothern, we crossed the Rhine back into Germany (we travelled down through Germany – see last week’s account of German drivers) and headed for the mountains of the Black Forest.
The Black forest is the home of the eponymous gateau which gained Europe-wide popularity in the ’70’s (they grow a lot of cherries here) so naturally we had to go in search of some! Upon arriving in the town of Freundstadt, we discovered that they take Sunday closing much more seriously than in England so the only eateries open were ice cream parlours and so we had to settle for a Black Forest ice cream dessert ( liberally soused with Kirsch) and so eager were we to tuck in, that we forgot to photograph the desserts first and had to resort to photographing the menu – still it proves we are not of that generation that feel the need to photograph and share everything they eat – lol…
Freundstadt lived up to its name (literally Friend-town) as a Turkish couple who have lived in Germany for thirty years, invited us to share their table as the place was packed, and then paid for our desserts too – many thanks…
On our third day, we decided to head north into a national park (more forestry) and since you have to put a destination into the satnav, I chose a castle that was marked there, although I didn’t zoom in to examine the destination…. Eventually we turned onto a small road which became a track in the woods and wound up through the woods – increasingly rough – the centre vegetation giving the underside of the car a good brushing…
We were in the middle of nowhere – the fabled destination to which a satnav will famously take you given half a chance… Discretion being the better part of valour, I eventually zoomed out to see that the track continued to spiral up a hill to the alleged castle -(goodness knows what sort of ruin it was) and we decided to turn round and go back. We stopped to photograph animals in some kind of sanctuary/farm near the start of the track.
And that is where I am going to leave this travelogue till next week- after all, you can only absorb so much of other people’s holiday pictures…
Wishing you all your very best week – Andrew…