Some friends of Josh's decided to go to the Black Forest for the weekend and invited us along. We decided it would be something neat to check out, and my mom really wanted to see it. We were told to get there it would take us about 4 or so hours to drive. That was before we met road construction. From what I've seen so far in our travels, it's appears that Germany is like Montana and summer is the season of road construction. For the most part we have never had to stop and wait, but things do slow down. When we were driving to the Black Forest we were in bumper to bumper traffic driving very slowly through a stretch of construction. I believe we went about 5 kilometers in 45 minutes... I'm lucky to be one of those people who can read in the car and is entertained by doing so. Whenever we drive somewhere that is not near the base, we use Josh's GPS. It is extremely helpful, and I don't know how we would get to some of the places that we do without it. However... on this trip I was getting frustrated with it. When you punch in your destination, his GPS always gives you three different routes to choose from, and it tells you the distance and estimated travel time for each path. We usually try to pick the one that seems to be the straightest (if it's a curvy path it's probably following a river, which is beautiful, but the curves can get annoying to drive) and on major roads. We thought we had selected this type of path for the Black Forest, and it should have been a straight shot using different Autobahns. We were still on four lane major roads... but we somehow drove through a part of France on our travels. All of us were a bit confused, and wondered if we were headed in the right direction. To get to the little town where we had booked a hotel room we had to drive up this winding mountain road that was definitely not wide enough for two cars. I say that because we did meet another car and only passed by each other with inches to spare. We discovered upon arriving at our hotel and talking with Josh's friends who met us there that there was a different, less rugged road to take, which is the one they drove on. Glad to see the path our GPS chose. Between the slow construction traffic and our interesting driving route, instead of 4 hours it took us around 5 1/2.
The Black Forest is extremely beautiful. It is everything travel books say that it is. Mountains covered with green trees, green fields, picture-esk German towns. It definitely reminded me of Western Montana, especially the Flathead Valley. I have decided when I become extremely home-sick that is a place I could go that may ease those feelings because it does seem familiar and homey. We spent most of our time in a small town called Triberg. There is a waterfall there(the highest one in Germany) that you can hike up, and it has different viewing levels. Beautiful to see, and an easy hike. The Black Forest is known for their coo coo clocks, and there were shops selling them all over the place with any and every kind of clock you could imagine for sale. We ate dinner at a traditional German restaurant (well, as traditional as you can be in the middle of a tourist spot) which was decorated to be a like a hunting lodge. A typical German meal consists of pork and potatoes... it's just a matter of which form of pork and potatoes you choose. I have discovered that I like schnitzel, which is pounded pork that is breaded, fried, and usually served with some kind of sauce (it's similar to chicken fried steak). Josh tried wild boar. They have wild boars in Germany, and the area where we live hunting boars is a popular sport. I tried a bite of it... and thought it tasted very gamey and tough. Josh, however, seemed to enjoy it. We spent the evening sitting outside at our hotel enjoying beer and wine with friends. The owner of the hotel seemed quite tickled with us for doing that... and came out many times to talk to us in broken English. We were more than happy to oblige. The hotel provided a free breakfast buffet, which was a traditional German breakfast. There were hard rolls, meats and cheeses, fruit, yogurt, hard boiled eggs (which were warm), and cereal. I did try some Black Forest ham. I think it tastes more like a smoked bacon rather than actual ham. The smokey flavor is good, but the meat was a bit stringy/chewy... or maybe that was the piece I had. Josh seemed to be in heaven with this type of breakfast. After breakfast we took off to do some more shopping and exploring while Josh's friends returned to bed to recover from the fun we'd had the night before. Like the area we live in, the Black Forest is freckled with little towns. We decided to head for home and just top if we saw something interesting. We had only been driving about 15 minutes when Josh and I saw something on the hillside. It looked like an amusement park, and as we got closer we saw it was a roller coaster. We quickly pulled in to try it out. They call it the Rodlebahn, and it's an "alpine roller coaster". You sit in what looks like an individual little go kart looking frame that has two handles on the sides. You get pulled up to the top, like a regular roller coaster, but then when you get to the top you direct your speed with the handles and by gravity. If you push down you go faster, if you pull up you brake. You're in your own little car, so it's up to you how fast you want to go. Josh went ahead of me and flew down the track. I wasn't nearly as gutsy as him, but those little cars can still get going pretty fast. It was a fun ride, but we both said we wished the ride was longer. It was such a strange, yet fun thing to find in the middle of our drive. I know we will definitely be back to the Black Forest, and I'm up for another ride down the Rodlebahn.
On our trip home the GPS took us through France again. I suppose it's just one more country I can say I've been to. We attempted to change the settings on the GPS so that it will select the most direct path versus the one that will get you there fastest... and in fiddling with the settings we changed the voice of the GPS. Before we had a male voice with a British accent. It was like receiving driving directions from Sean Connery. After changing our settings we had a woman with an American accent. Not nearly as fun. So I fiddled with the GPS some more and changed the voice back. It turns out they call that voice "Henry." So dear Henry lead us home... even if it was a rather odd route.
My mom had to go home yesterday. We drove to Frankfurt in the morning and her flight left around 11:30. I knew that saying goodbye to her was going to be hard. It was something I'd tried to not think about from the moment I knew I was moving. But suddenly the time to say goodbye was there... and I wasn't really sure what to say. Is there something you can say? We both cried. Josh and I waited until she made it through security, and then waved goodbye. I cried as we walked through the airport and out to the car. All of this is finally real. I am in a different country, and the only person I really know is Josh.
The base had a 4th of July celebration. There were a lot of activities throughout the day, but we did work around the house instead. We did go in for the fireworks. I wasn't sure what to expect from a fireworks show on a base in Germany. I'd heard from other people that it was a good show... but I was a bit skeptical. However, it did turn out to be an amazing 40 minute show. There were some styles of fireworks that I'd never seen before. Most of the time that I can remember watching fireworks has been in Missoula, which is a closed valley. I've never watched fireworks in such an open area before.... and the sound seems to echo and reverberate so much more than I'm used to. Almost awe inspiring. It seems strange that when sitting on the lawn of a military base in a country 6000 miles from Montana that I felt at home. At a time when I could have been homesick, I wasn't. I guess that some things - road construction, beautiful forests, fireworks - are universal.
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