Thursday, July 22, 2010
Part 2
I just realised the very real danger of forgetting entirely what happened on my trip - it is starting to get a little hazy already. Although that could simply be the hour that I have chosen to compose this entry.
So anyway, the next morning I woke up in France and immediately felt like waking up in France should have been more of a compelling experience. However, the sleep wasn't real, being of the Zoplicone-induced variety, and I was still thoroughly jet lagged, so perhaps I expected too much too soon. I don't know if Mon felt any more special than I did, but I suspect not (unless of course feeling special also makes her grumpy - but two days in to our travels, this behaviour was already water off a duck's back to me). We went downstairs and bought pastries for breakfast at a nice little bakery with nice big prices. We walked around a little more and ate our breakfast by the river, but decided we did not need to stick around too much longer, as we had a bit of ground to cover and we did not want to have to start paying for the park we were in.
We packed up our stuff and set the GPS to take us to some random town in the middle of the Black Forest, partly because we wanted to go back a different way, partly because the Black Forest was bound to be full of novel inhabitants such as goblins and witches. The roads got very narrow, and we ended up entering the Black Forest via a town that essentially doubled as a pass. The road got steeper and narrower, and unfortunately I had to drive more slowly (down to 90km/h or so) because there was the danger of running into another car, driven by an unforgiving German driver, coming down the hill. When we finally reached the top of the hill, we stopped to get out at a lookout, where I tried in vain to take some photos with the necessary human interest in the foreground, while Mon took shots of scenery. You may think to call it 'necessary' is rather picky, but in fact I have good reason for doing so: a few years ago I went to my grandparents' place while on holiday. While there, they invited their friend around, who brought a whole bunch of slides with him. Although a little old fashioned, I had no problem with this, until I realised none, but none, of the slides contained so much as a human life form. And there were a lot of slides. Each new slide containing another view, or another building, or another rose bush, seemed to protract the whole affair by 10 minutes a pop. Perhaps I simply had no patience, but it certainly ingrained a desire within me never to subject anyone else to that while showing them my holiday snaps. Mon and I also found that the amazing view did not translate to digital imagery so well (and at least a person or two in the foreground then gives a reason for the picture).
Farther along the road we came to what appeared to be a walkway to another lookout. The German signboard was singularly unhelpful in everything but its diagram of the loop track. With little effort we made it to the lookout, a structure atop some counter-intuitive steps. I managed to fool a couple of dog owners into believing I was German, which turned out to be a shame, as I never did figure out what was wrong with their dog, other than the fact that its hindquarter was involved. The dog was quite amusing - it was completely distrustful of the steps and shuffled along very slowly. More than once its paw went through a crack, causing the dog to lie flat for a while, not quite knowing what to do. We moved on after exploring a little more of the exceedingly unconventional boardwalk, which appeared to serve no purpose other than looking like it was built by Dr Seuss. At this stage, Mon developed a headache and dehydration, which upon reflection may have been a ploy to get me back to the car because she was unfortunately not wearing sensible shows.
The next stop for us was another random little town on the outskirts of the Black Forest. We walked around briefly, and then set the GPS for Baden-Baden. When we arrived, we parked up and I decided to wow my audience by ordering a pastry in German. All went well until I did not hear her question and so responded with 'wie bitte?' She repeated her own question in perfect English. Hmph. I did get another chance when I ordered my own lunch, however, as the burger stand lady did not understand any English (one of the few on the whole trip) and I was not prepared to compromise by having tomato on my burger.
We drove to Heidelburg next, and completely failed to see the famed Heidelburg castle. It was evidently hiding in the trees somewhere; we found the railcar which went to it, and thought we could dodge the fare by simply driving up, but this took us much too far up, and we couldn't look down on it from on high either. So I contented myself with marvelling at the radio tower. On the way out of town the GPS led us on a merry dance, as the only exit appeared to be blocked by roadworks, and no amount of driving 'in the general direction' would persuade the GPS lady to change her mind. Finally, only by giving in to her, we escaped the Blair Witch situation.
So anyway, the next morning I woke up in France and immediately felt like waking up in France should have been more of a compelling experience. However, the sleep wasn't real, being of the Zoplicone-induced variety, and I was still thoroughly jet lagged, so perhaps I expected too much too soon. I don't know if Mon felt any more special than I did, but I suspect not (unless of course feeling special also makes her grumpy - but two days in to our travels, this behaviour was already water off a duck's back to me). We went downstairs and bought pastries for breakfast at a nice little bakery with nice big prices. We walked around a little more and ate our breakfast by the river, but decided we did not need to stick around too much longer, as we had a bit of ground to cover and we did not want to have to start paying for the park we were in.
We packed up our stuff and set the GPS to take us to some random town in the middle of the Black Forest, partly because we wanted to go back a different way, partly because the Black Forest was bound to be full of novel inhabitants such as goblins and witches. The roads got very narrow, and we ended up entering the Black Forest via a town that essentially doubled as a pass. The road got steeper and narrower, and unfortunately I had to drive more slowly (down to 90km/h or so) because there was the danger of running into another car, driven by an unforgiving German driver, coming down the hill. When we finally reached the top of the hill, we stopped to get out at a lookout, where I tried in vain to take some photos with the necessary human interest in the foreground, while Mon took shots of scenery. You may think to call it 'necessary' is rather picky, but in fact I have good reason for doing so: a few years ago I went to my grandparents' place while on holiday. While there, they invited their friend around, who brought a whole bunch of slides with him. Although a little old fashioned, I had no problem with this, until I realised none, but none, of the slides contained so much as a human life form. And there were a lot of slides. Each new slide containing another view, or another building, or another rose bush, seemed to protract the whole affair by 10 minutes a pop. Perhaps I simply had no patience, but it certainly ingrained a desire within me never to subject anyone else to that while showing them my holiday snaps. Mon and I also found that the amazing view did not translate to digital imagery so well (and at least a person or two in the foreground then gives a reason for the picture).
Farther along the road we came to what appeared to be a walkway to another lookout. The German signboard was singularly unhelpful in everything but its diagram of the loop track. With little effort we made it to the lookout, a structure atop some counter-intuitive steps. I managed to fool a couple of dog owners into believing I was German, which turned out to be a shame, as I never did figure out what was wrong with their dog, other than the fact that its hindquarter was involved. The dog was quite amusing - it was completely distrustful of the steps and shuffled along very slowly. More than once its paw went through a crack, causing the dog to lie flat for a while, not quite knowing what to do. We moved on after exploring a little more of the exceedingly unconventional boardwalk, which appeared to serve no purpose other than looking like it was built by Dr Seuss. At this stage, Mon developed a headache and dehydration, which upon reflection may have been a ploy to get me back to the car because she was unfortunately not wearing sensible shows.
The next stop for us was another random little town on the outskirts of the Black Forest. We walked around briefly, and then set the GPS for Baden-Baden. When we arrived, we parked up and I decided to wow my audience by ordering a pastry in German. All went well until I did not hear her question and so responded with 'wie bitte?' She repeated her own question in perfect English. Hmph. I did get another chance when I ordered my own lunch, however, as the burger stand lady did not understand any English (one of the few on the whole trip) and I was not prepared to compromise by having tomato on my burger.
We drove to Heidelburg next, and completely failed to see the famed Heidelburg castle. It was evidently hiding in the trees somewhere; we found the railcar which went to it, and thought we could dodge the fare by simply driving up, but this took us much too far up, and we couldn't look down on it from on high either. So I contented myself with marvelling at the radio tower. On the way out of town the GPS led us on a merry dance, as the only exit appeared to be blocked by roadworks, and no amount of driving 'in the general direction' would persuade the GPS lady to change her mind. Finally, only by giving in to her, we escaped the Blair Witch situation.
# posted by Jon @ 5:00 PM 
