Our First Road Trips

Hey everyone, it has been a while. Things have been busy here. Last week we made a few road trips and this week was the start of school. Just to keep things in chronological order I'll post some pictures of our travels - I still haven't figured out how to do captions or get them to show up in order. Next time I'll cover the girls' school which is going well - Dayna just went today and only for an hour. Karissa has been there all week and isn't too stressed by the language situation yet!





We made two separate trips into the Black Forest. The first to the northern part and the second to the southern part. The terrain is beautiful. The reason they call it the Black Forest is because the pine trees are a type with very dark needles so it can give the impression of "black" trees. It really isn't appropriate - I had pictured some foreboding place but it wasn't like that at all. We had picture perfect weather on the first trip, the second was a little more "black" as it was overcast. We only got "lost"


(read "missed our turn") 5 times! The German roads are awesome - the signage leaves something to be desired. They don't use road numbers, just destinations. So, for us who don't know the city/town names when they say "Herrenberg this way" and "Dinkeldorf (real name!) that way" it doesn't always give us enough time to hit the right exit. We are learning and serious contemplating a GPS - English speaking of course! The roads follow old paths so they twist and turn constantly. I have learned that "as the crow flies" when measuring distance doesn't work unless you add about 50%!! It takes longer to get most places unless you're on the Autobahn which is the only straight kind of road in Germany.

Anyway, the pictures are from our first set of ruins and waterfalls at a place called Allerheiligen and some more waterfalls at Geraldsauger. I'm including the names so that I'll remember! It was a beautiful day and we learned a little about the pace we can handle (much slower than when Jay and I used to travel alone!).

The next day we went to an area about 16 miles away from home. There is a "barefoot trail" where you walk barefoot and experience different natural materials. We went with our Icelandic friends. (The parents speak English but the kids don't speak any. It's fun to watch the girls communicate with one another! These two girls are in Karissa and Dayna's classes at the local school and live here in our apartment complex. The mom has been a lifesaver because she speaks German and can read all the signs for us so that we don't get in trouble! They have been such a major blessing to us! They will be here until March of 2011 and the dad is working on research regarding Parkinson's disease at the University hospital.) After the barefoot park we went to Schloss (castle) Hohenzollern which was fabulous. We didn't go in as they didn't have any English speaking tours that day. Since it's so close we'll go back and undoubtedly will be a place we take visitors when they come!!

Finally, on our 3rd excursion we went to Triberg to the highest waterfalls in Germany and the center of cuckoo clock making. We got hammered by Oliver the carver (see picture) with a detailed explanation on genuine cuckoo clock making. At first we were annoyed but by the end Jay was just about ready to shell out $600 for a clock!! We'll go back to that area again so get your orders in fast!! Later we drove to an Open Air Museum where they demonstrated life on a German farm from the 1600's. They were redoing the thatch on the large barn/house (see picture) which was really neat to see. It's about 18" thick when they are done. The picture of the building with the thatch roof is where they would live and also doubled as their barn. Pretty interesting to say the least!! The houses were built into the side of the hill so that they could enter the "hay mow" from the back without using ladders.

It is amazing how many things are so close. If we hadn't gotten lost the furthest destination was about 2 hours! We've got so much more to see and we're trying to decide where to go during the girls' first week long break at the end of October. We'll see.

More later...