Adventures in Germany

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17th - 18th September
We left Lake Constance and headed for a town called Schiltach which is in the Black Forest. We have loved it here. The lonely planet guide didn’t give it much of a write up but it did say it was the prettiest town in the Black Forest and they weren’t wrong.
There are two rivers running through here which meet. The houses are built on the side of the hills and are half timbered. The boys were simply happy to be camping by the river and making rafts to float down and watch the trout. We went out sightseeing today and everything we did was free. The bath museum was great - the 1970s bathroom stood out. The boys said that the 1970 bathroom reminded them of Uncle Cliff. All the information was in German and English. Learnt a lot about the history of bathrooms - reading this it does sound funny but honestly it was interesting. There was a lot of information about the difficultly the Germans had with housing after both the world wars. Gareth and I figure there must be bathroom history somewhere in the Social Studies curriculum. After we wandered through they gave us a coffee and the boys got freshly squeezed orange juice - free. Blake actually wanted to stay the night in the Bathroom museum - it was warm, had free juice and coffee and their new bathrooms were fantastic. Why not stay?
Took the boys to the old mill - they have replica rafts here which use to take the logs down the river.
Went to a small market and bought some ham and salami - the butcher spoke a little English and he gave the boys some sausage and some smoked ham. Then onto the bakery where the women gave the boys pretzels. The boys reckon they could live here for nothing.
The food is very different here. The bread we’ve been buying has been delicious. It’s a light rye and full of pumpkin, sunflower and lin seeds and hazelnuts. We’ve tried Black Forest Gateau. We were all excited about it - not Gareth cos he didn’t have any. Unfortunately the boys thought it was disgusting. Too much alcohol for their likening. It’s certainly a lot cheaper to eat in Germany than it was in France.
A lot of the people speak a little English and we’re trying with our German. But they’re really friendly and happy to have kids around. Although, Anton thinks a lady, when we were out biking asked them why they weren’t at school - in German. Well Anton thinks that what she said. She could have also been telling him off for skidding in front of her and cutting her off. One of the two.

20th September
Today we left Schiltach and drove along the Kinzig river to Wolfach. We had read that there was a glass factory there and that during the tour you may get to have a go. Seeing as Mason wants to be a glass blower after visiting Waterford we thought we’d go and see. Well all three kids got to have a go at glass blowing. They all made a vase each and loved it. They got to pick what colour and then control the size of the vase.
Then we visited Grube Clara. Grube Clara is a mine in the Black Forest which is one of two mines in the world which contains 420 minerals. They take some of the waste to Wolfach and dump it there - people can then pay to hunt for minerals. We stayed for 3 hours in the sun hunting for lead, fluoride, amethyst, jade and others that I can’t remember. The boys thought it was funny because they were finding the most beautiful rocks and poor old Gareth kept coming back with boring ones. What was fantastic about this place was the woman running it. She spent some time with the boys showing them how to pan for gold. Looking at all the rocks they had found and telling them what they were and if they were good or not. We left there with a pile of postcards showing us some of the different minerals, piles of rocks with different minerals in them, a jar of honey ...... and more. She has even given us her friends name - he is a member of parliament and she wants us to ring him when we get to Berlin because he will get us into some places that other members of the public can’t go in the Reichstag. We can’t get over how friendly and giving the people here are.
Onto Baden Baden that afternoon. No campground in Baden Baden so we were back to free camping - Gareth was happy. There was a pop festival on in Baden Baden so that evening we caught the bus into town and listened to One Republic play on a screen outside the venue. Kids loved it.
21/09/2008
Anton goes to a nude spa!!!!!
Finally Gareth gets to laugh at Goldie locks.
We got up with a plan and set of firstly to the food market. Everyone was given 5 euro’s to buy their lunch. Anton and Blake combined their money and brought apples, grapes, pastries, cooked chicken, buns and hot chips. Sherie, Mace and I combined to buy a cooked chicken, loaf of bread, tomatoes, grapes, apple, pears and croissants. Yummmmmmmmm
We caught the bus to a cable car which took up straight up a massive hill which over looked Baden Baden. Once at the top it was time for lunch, gee life is tough. The kids found a cool slide to play on and I took some photos.
Ok down we go and back on the bus to the thermal spa. Wow what a place, it cost 75 euro’s to go in for three hours. The floors were all marble or slate and there were seven pools and two saunas. The pools slowly increased in temperature and you were supposed to spend no more than ten minutes in each before moving to a hotter one. Two of the pools were outside and they had currents and jets and bubbles everywhere. Sherie and I had an aroma therapy sauna which was great for clearing the sinuses.
After this I needed a drink and Anton suggested we go upstairs and have a look, I followed him up to the top and read a sign that said nude spa just as Anton went through the door. He froze in the doorway before turning around with a shock/surprise look on his face. I said it’s a nude spa in there, what did you see? ...nothing he replied...really I said are you sure? Well I saw two old guys, one was facing me and the other was looking in the mirror, they had nothing on.
Anton couldn’t get back down the stairs quick enough to the fully clad bathers.
22nd September
We are now in a place called Cochem which is on the river Rhine. The Rhine is huge - I thought it would be a river like the manawatu but it’s heaps bigger. There are big boats going up and down it full of coal and people. There are grape vines on the steep hills on one side and a small cobble stone town on the other.
On top of the hill above the town is a castle. It’s a pretty cool castle. We went through about 10 rooms of it; dining room, armoury, hunting room..... We had a guided tour and she was good. Sometimes she would speak in English for us (she wants to go to New Zealand one day).
There is also a chair lift which takes you up the other hill above Cochem. It was not that much fun for Mum who was scared. I was telling her when we were on the chairs that it looked like her chair was going to break. Blake enjoyed it. Not like a rollercoaster at all.
Mum and I found a really nice restaurant (well we thought it looked like a restaurant) so we decided to go there for dinner. We had saved 140 Euros for our flash going out German dinner. We all had showers, got dressed up and went into town. It looked really cool. Old wooden tables, bottles of wine that were made there, and happy people. We ordered grape juice and wine for mum and dad and then we waited for the menu - and waited and waited. All the drinks were drunk and then we finally asked for a menu (our German suxs and the ladies English was ok) - she gave us an English menu but the menu had been in front of us the entire time with the wine menu. Mum said I wonder if they actually cook anything here because all we had seen was cold meats and rye bread. Well Mum was right. Masons pork knuckles was pork in gelatine, Dad’s spicy frankfurters when pale boiled sausages, Mums homemade cheese was cheese and onion stuff that Granny makes, Blakie had yummy smoked ham. My dinner was called the kitchen special surprise - it was a surprise to me because I couldn’t eat anything on the plate because it was all offal. No awful - no it was offal. There was a lovely German couple sitting next to us and they were laughing at me trying to eat some of the stuff off my plate. At one stage I had to wipe my tongue with my serviette to get the taste off. Mason ate nothing all night. The only people to actually go home feeling full were Mum and Blake. Then we went to pay - 59 Euros. They didn’t take visa and we didn’t have enough cash. Dad emptied his wallet onto the table, he had about 49 Euros, and she said it was ok. We walked out the door down the street a little then laughed and laughed. It was an experience. And now we’ve still got enough money for another dinner out. Mum and I worked out during the night that it was a wine house and not a restaurant.

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Photos

Sciltach
Beautiful streets and houses

Uncle Cliffs Bathroom
Just for you Uncle Cliff

Mining in Gruber Clara
Cleaning our find

Raw Smoked Ham
Blake got it right