1. friday. rented bikes early in the morning and set off to explore the Teutoburger Wald (that is to say, the Teutoburger Forest wherein were had big battles against the Romans back in the day, ala the battle that begins ´gladiator´). In said forest is a big statue of Hermann. That is to say, he is big like the statue of liberty, rising up above the hills and trees with a massive, massive sword raised high above is metallic head.
I climbed this statue. You´re not supposed to. I know why now; it´s slippery. I fell. I would´ve died if David Hasselhoff hadn´t been optimally placed below me to break my fall.
This didn´t actually happen. We did ride our bikes to see Hermann (I had to stop more than I´d have liked on the hills...until I found out the one I was having problems with was 20% grade. naja.) I did climb him a little bit, but not all the way. The weather WAS very deutsch and aprilish all day long (that is to say, cloudy, grey, cold), and i was wearing shorts for better biking, so i was freezing. but the clouds DID part and the sun did shine on German Nationalism Incarnate, so we got some good pictures of klein Hermann anyways. And we ate Aldis french cheese and finnish brotchen under his gaze too. yay.
further bike riding led to stops at this AWESOME falconry place where we watched a little show with eagles flying all around us. so rad. climbed some stone age carved rocks, hiked some...in all, a very happy biking day through some really gorgeous woods.
that night, we had a 14 hour train ride. 14 = 6 hours ON the train and 8 hours divided between 6 different train transfers. backpacking europe for cheap 101: such a train costs less than a fast direct train and also saves you a night´s accommodation. except this meant that we found ourselves in kassel for 5 hours after midnight, and there was no enclosed train waiting room in which to sleep....so we went to a burger king and sat in a booth there the whole time. dad slept awkwardly, and i wrote delusional late night thoughts while eating a burger. yes, a burger. these are the ONLY circumstances under which eating americna chain food abroad are allowed.
but we made it to baden baden the next morning 'round 10:30 mostly in one piece. there we met gisela, a woman my dad knew on his mission here in southern germany 30 years ago. she is soooooooooooooo delightful....so funny, speaks german so well (well, of course), so friendly, such a good cook, and has the BEST girlish laugh. And she laughs a lot. this i love.
we´re staying with her in rastatt, 15km or so from the french border and quite close to the black forest. so, yesterday, after we dropped off our bags (and started some blessed laundry in her wasching machine) and ate some of her homemade Cake From Heaven, we drove to see heidelberg and heidelberg´s castle and buy some gummibärchens and generally walk around. happy. happier still when later she made us dinner: homemade spätzle and fleisch and vanille eis mit homemade himbeer sauce. she is a gem. and she likes it when we eat a lot. so i like her a lot more too.
today, gisela took us all through the schwarzwald, which is the black forest. and it is gorgeous. we stopped in a number of towns. castles, trees, villages, trees, trees, trees.... it´s awesome. and we had dinner at this croatian place near the castle near her flat (just because i´d metioned eating my beloved cevapcici a week ago. she hates cevapcici but insisted we go there so i could be re-satisfied.). i have spoken more german today than i have english...and though the german of mine SUCKS, it´s fun to be making an effort. i manage to be understood and have succeeded in amusing gisela greatly with the way i´ve used words she taught me. also, when a catepillar from a big tree above us fell on me while we were eating dinner, i yelped and in my haste accidentally flung it at her.
this is more than you wanted to know.
i plan on running into david hasselhoff this week. it might be difficult, since he´s in vegas right now, but i feel it would complete the happiness of this german adventure.
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