Walking Good & Funny Wood

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Our original intention yesterday had been to travel south to see my grandparents who are now both in their 80s. The plan had been for my sister, Esther, to drive us down but she was far too ill to do it. Today, Franziska, my father's wife, came to the rescue and after a quick phonecall to see if they had time, we were zooming off to see only my grandpa who is currently recouperating in a spa resort after having a replacement knee put in. My grandma was too busy to see us at such short notice unfortunately. We took my grandfather for coffee and cake and I couldn't help but be impressed by how well he is walking just 5 weeks after his operation. It was also nice to see him on his own as my grandma is a very chatty lady and he often doesn't get a chance to say much when she's around!

After our visit, Franziska drove us to the nearby town of St Blasien where there is an impressive onion domed church with an unusually bright white marble interior. We also stopped off at the Rothaus Brewery where they make the beer that we've been drinking a lot of since we arrived! Alas the brewery was closed on Sundays so we only got to peek at the big copper vats through the window.

Our final stop on the way back to Neustadt was at a bonkers sculpture park that Franziska is especially fond of. The park is in the heart of the forest and was created after a big storm ripped out hundreds of trees about 8 or 9 years ago. It's a quirky place with sculpted tree stumps and roots depicting fairytale style creatures that have then been brightly painted and placed along the path. The path led down to a pretty little lake where we found hundreds of tiny frogs leaping about in the grass. They could have been no more than a centimetre in size so I guess they have only recently made the transition from tadpole. they were very cute indeed, as were a couple of small lizards that Glynn spotted basking on a rock in the sun.

Back in Neustadt, we paid a visit to the hospital to see my sister who was being kept in overnight again as a precaution. They've ruled out appendicitis and think now that she has a stomach infection of some kind. Hopefully she'll be able to come home tomorrow as she was looking a lot better than she did yesterday.

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Photos

Jude and Opi
Jude is always happy to see her grandfather as you can tell from her HUGE smile :)

Zwiebel Kuppel
Glynn gets to visit a lovely old church AND use one of his favorite German words at the same time ;)

St.Blasien
Apparently the 3rd biggest church dome in Europe

Uplifting art
Way up high inside the giant onion (or große Zwiebel as Glynn likes to call it) is a lovely example of the fine art that is present throughout this strikingly white church.

You had to be there!
We were lucky enough to be here at the same time as choir practise and due to the unusual architechture we got to experience how surround sound was done back in the days of old.

Gotta try harder than that!
No sooner had we exited the church this rather pretty traditional German building leapt out at us! But we are now very experienced tourists and our cameras were already primed and ready ;)

Duty Free?
Glynn & Jude stumble upon the fabled fountain of youth but wonder if it will exceed the 100ml fluid limit at customs.

A bear in the hand......
Jude shows dismay as she distinctly told Glynn to SIT in front of the sculpture :(

Branching out
After making fun of this tree sculpture Glynn found himself on the recieving end of a swift kick in the ass.

Nursery school
OK class, first one to tell me what a bear does in the woods gets a prize.

These boots were made for carrying
Jude tries out the ´bare foot path´ where you get to experience different textures as you walk.

Evolution in action?!
Actually Glynn teaches the local wildlife to do the time warp..... its just a jump to the left!!

Hop stepper
Glynn spots the tiniest frogs ever and shows that it´s even smaller than his fingernail.

Comments

[Linda]

Frogletts!
That's how big some of the frogs in our pond are, but they never stayed still enough or in the open long enough for the photos to work!