The small Alsacian village of Romanswiller, France

Today was a very quiet day. We wandered around the village of Romanswiller in Alsace where Michele lives. Romanswiller has a population of around 1100 and it dates back to the time of the Romans, hence its name "Village of the Romans"

The twin spires of the two churches, one Catholic the other Protestant

Some of the older houses have beautifully landscaped gardens

Michele lives in a new estate where the gardens,

 lawns and trees are newly planted.

The houses are on land where the railroad once ran.

The middle of the town is quite ancient

Some of it has been restored

On this building, the plastering has been removed to expose

the half-timbering and the filling between the timbers.

Ultimately the wood will be left exposed and the filling material plastered over

That night, we took Michele and her

 parents, Rene and Paulette, out to dinner.

Michele chose a secluded restaurant in the northern Vosges 

Rene and Paulette have been wonderful to us

cooking numerous meals and providing lots of treats for the sweet tooth.

The Black Forest - 35th Wedding Anniversary

Today was our 35th wedding anniversary.  As a special treat for Jenni, we drove 500 kms in the car, 300 of it on the autobahns.  Still, we did manage to see a small bit of the Black Forest and, when we arrived at Michele's place in Romanswiller France, she had a 35th anniversay dinner planned for us.

We left Wackersberg after breakfast at around 9:00 am.

Our first stop (literally) was at a small town at the eastern

 edge of the Black Forest called Calw.

It is a very old village; this building dates from 1693.

The original owner (TW) was a doctor and the keystone is

 carved with the tools of his trade: a bleeding bowl and a knife.

A striking feature of the village is its half-timbered buildings.

Its timbers were orginally plastered over but exposed again in the early 20 th century

I don't know what we expected from a drive through the Black Forest,

but it turned out to be a forest full of trees.

Our next stop was at a larger village called Freudenstadt.

It was a hot day and children were playing in the fountain.

Freudenstadt features Germany's largest market square.

Terraced bulidings face the square and

completely surround the square on all sides

Quite by accident, we stumbled upon a panorama

of a large part of the northern Black Forest.

A hang glider pilot was filling the wing with air.

We could see the flats at the western edge

of the forest and in the far distance,

 the faint outline of the Vosges in France

The view from here was fantastic, as was the cool breeze.

We arrived at Michele's place around 6:30 that evening.

Later, when she got home from work, she donned her "Aussie Animals"

apron and made us an anniversary dinner . . .

. . . that we enjoyed on Michele's back porch.

Thank you Michele, you have no idea how much your kindness means to us.

Black Forest 101

Last year with Bonnie & Dennis, we drove over B roads from Bad Tolz to the southern end of the Black Forest. The roads were so slow (our overall average was 45 kmh) that it was early evening by the time we got there.

Determined not to make the same mistake this year, we drove the autobahns to near Stuttgart and arrived at the northern part of the Black Forest in plenty of time.

Unfortunately, the clock making and other highlights are in the southern part of the forest

Tegernsee

Today is our last day in Bavaria - sob!  We needed to conserve our energies for the journey to Romanswiller, France tomorrow so we thought we'd do a short trip to a nearby lake called Tegernsee.  Unfortunatley, so did many others and it was very crowded, noisy and hot. We left early.

Tomorrow is  our 35 th wedding anniversary and, as luck would have it, we have to spend it on the road. Our next report will be from Romanswiller.

The Rathaus at Tegernsee. A tourist boat is just leaving the wharf.

The water is so clean, it could be described as pure.

There must be a thousand diners at this outdoor

restaurant and this is only one of many.

The lake, framed by the Alps in the distance, is incredibly beautiful.

We and thousands of others thought so.

Munich and the bonfire

We went into Munich today and rode on its remarkably user-friendly subway system. In the evening we went to a bonfire and barbecue to celebrate the summer solstice.

Truly remarkable for us is the honesty system used by the subway.

 One ticket gets you anywhere for a day.

You validate your ticket for the day at a

blue stamping machine and then get on the train.

At the end of the journey, there are no barriers and you simply walk away.

There is a train every few minutes.

Our destination was the Deutsche Museum, a museum of technology

Dennis, Bonnie & Claus will remember this old fishing vessel at the entry.

A printing press very similar to Gutenberg's original

The section devoted to rocket power

In the computer section there is this old Univac

which was one of the first digital computers

A Foucault pendulum. The pendulum stays steady while the earth rotates around it.

In the aircraft display, a WWII ME 262

That evening we went with the Biebls to a Sonnwendfeier.

This is an event to celebrate the summer solstice.

A Bavarian band played typical Bavarian music

Jenni had Sterkelfeisch, stick fish, which is a

Mackerel from the lakes of Bavaria.

We were joined by the Bieibl's daughter Sabine and her partner Timo.

Rolf and Maria Biebl, our hosts.

The highlight of the evening was the lighting of a huge bonfire

Many people sat and enjoyed the spectacle.

Eagle's Nest - Hitler's mountain retreat

Today Friday 2,  was a disappointing day in some ways. I wanted to visit Hitler's mountain retreat (Eagle's Nest) but it was not what I expected.

It was quite a long way from where we are staying in Wackersberg, about 140 kms, but half of that was on the autobahn.

Eagles Nest is actually south of Salzburg, Austria

but still in German territory. It was built in 1938 in the

style of "National Socialist Party" (Nazi) architecture.

The views are spectacular but Hitler didn't use the

retreat all that much because he was afraid of heights.

The only way to get to the retreat is by a 6km bus ride.

I thought we were visiting some sort of national

monument but it is in reality a restaurant come building site

and you cant go inside because it might disturb the diners

The views are maginificent.

The haze was caused by this being a 31+° day.

Jenni was a little disappointed but not with the views.

Just near the bus terminus is the only museum in Germany about Hitler

All of the text for the exhibits is in German which makes

 the museum largely meaningless for those who don't speak German.

What was interesting is that the museum is

built on top of one of Hitler's underground bunkers.

The bunker was completely self-conatined with fuel,

electricity, air filtration, sewage, food preparation, etc.

This was a ventilation shaft that went between the floors of the bunker.

The bunker had its own sealed, air flltration system in

 case poisonous gas was used.

Unfortunately, much of the place has been disfigured by idiots.

 It's hardly a shrine of remembrance but it

now looks worse than a public toilet.