We’re almost packed up to go home.  It’s just after midnight and we’re about to knock off for the night.  We get up in the AM, have breakfast and check in for our flight.  Ten-and-a-half hours.  We have videos, Sudoku puzzles, books, magazines, etc.  Should not be too bad.  Plus Lufthansa treats you right.

Today we took it slow.  It’s May 1, a holiday in the European Union.  Originally it was May Day, now it’s not unlike our Labor Day.  With one big exception;  seems like the workers get the day off and use the time to protest their working conditions.   We saw one parade of demonstrators go by our hotel and saw news reports of riots in other parts of Europe.  The whole place is deserted.  Stores are closed, the streets are empty.  It was quieter today than any Sunday we’ve seen on this trip.  So we did little other than check out of our hotel in downtown Frankfurt, check into our hotel at the airport, drive around the suburbs of Frankfurt looking for an open restaurant (didn’t find one), gas up the rental car (Prius, got almost 40 mpg) and finally return it.  We had lunch and dinner at the airport.  Not as bad as it sounds; unlike an American airport, they have a lot of cafes, restaurants and shops before security.  We had good food for both meals.  But at this point, we’ve seen enough of the airport!

It’s been a great trip, a fantastic trip.  Relaxing, engaging, educational, not to mention driving our own car all over two countries.  We’ve not had this much time together, with no work worries, no home worries and nothing in particular to do, ever.  It’s been great, we’ll probably miss this the most.  But we miss our friends and family too and it’s exciting to be heading home.

We’ll have some wrap-up thoughts in the next few days.  Tomorrow’s entry will come from home.

We had originally thought about driving to Nurnburg to see the zoo there.  The other Eisbärbaby… We checked the weather last night and realized it would be raining there today and sunny tomorrow.  Plus we were on the road for 8+ hours yesterday.  So we decided to do nothing in particular today.  And had a great time!

We hung out in Starbuck’s for an hour or two in the morning.  Then bought some packing supplies and boxed up some stuff to send home.  It cost 74 Euros, and will take two weeks!  For lunch we ate a little of this and a little of that from the street vendors around the hotel.  Later we took a longish walk around Frankfurt.  There is more to see than we expected.  I caught this gentleman preparing for an afternoon walk around Römerberg, Frankfurt’s original town square.

 

 Later, we came across a Coffee Fellows.  They are the German equivalent of Starbuck’s (even though Starbuck’s is here too.)  We found them in Munich and liked them.  So we sat for a second coffee and relaxed a while.

For dinner we hit the street stands again and split a currywurst.  This needs some explaining… They take a sausage, basically a hot dog, but better than the cr*p we get in the US, cut it into bite-sized pieces, pour somewhat spicy tomato-based sauce over it and sprinkle curry powder on top.  Yumm!  This was our third of the trip, and maybe the best.

And that’s it.  We’ve been running pretty hard the whole trip and it was nice to do nothing for a day.  Off to the zoo tomorrow.  Flocke, here we come!

You might have to re-read that to see the difference.  Today we learned there are two cities in Germany with nearly the same name.  We wanted to go to Schmallenberg as part of our quest to find S’s mother’s birthplace.  We think she lived in Kuckelheim when her family emigrated to the US in 1924.  We knew Kuckelheim is a village in Schmallenberg, in the district (Kreis) of Hochsauerlandkreis in the federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia.  Google maps says Schmallenberg is about 180 or so kilometers north-ish of Frankfurt.  So, we jumped in the Prius, inserted the key fob, pressed the brake, pressed the start button, waited for the ready light, moved the selector to drive and…. where was I?  Oh yes, we set the navigation system for Schmalenberg and took off.  Yes, Schmalenberg with one ‘l’, not two.  We were going west and a little south but for a while I figured it was just taking us to the autobahn.  Finally we decided we were too west and too south and pulled over.  Consulting my written notes we realized our mistake.  So our two hour journey north took a total of four hours.  But it was worthwhile.

Weather-wise it was gorgeous this morning in Frankfurt.  We walked around a little after breakfast and it was warm enought that I decided to change to shorts for the day trip.  First time this whole trip!  As we got closer to Schmallenberg, with two ‘l’s, it got darker, and then rainier and much colder.  About 10 celcius colder.  We decided to go to Schmallenberg before Kuckelheim because we had the notion that as a village, Kuckelheim would not have a town hall, or records we could search.  We were hoping Schmallenberg was large enough to have some archives or records.  As we neared the town, we saw a sign for a TI (tourist information.) 

In a lot of the smaller towns, the TI is a sign posted near the entry to town, with a few posters and maybe a map.  But little Schmallenberg had a great TI with a wonderful woman named Ursula who was very helpful.  She told us there are two Kuckelheims.  Spelled exactly the same and in the same district.  I’m glad I’m not their mailman!  Anyway, she had the idea to call some people in both Kuckelheims to see if anyone knew anything.  Alas, no leads there.  But she did point us to the town hall (Rathaus.)  There we met another very helpful person who pulled some records and also called her collegue in an adjacent town (Eslohe) to help us decide which Kuckelheim was more likely to be the town we wanted.  As there were no matching records in her books, we decided to shoot for the Kuckelheim closer to Eslohe. 

 

As you can see, I figured out how to put photos in the blog!  Only took me 21 days… Anyway, we drove to Kuckelheim (near Eslohe) and found the town to be cute as can be.  In the years following WW I a huge percentage of the population of Westphalia left for the US.  Looking at it today, you have to wonder what they were thinking.  It’s peaceful, pretty and seemingly mellow.  But you have to think back to the situation post- WW I when Germany was under intense pressure from the allies for war reparations.  Most of the people were farmers, the markets were depressed and most could not make a living.  They left for the US where they heard land was cheap and farming was good.  Of course many of them never got past New York City or Detroit or Cleveland and they needed to make money on arrival before they could move west and buy a farm.

So we’re not any closer to knowing exactly where S’s mother was born for sure, but we have seen the town where she lived at least for a little while.  It was a great day.  We drove a long way for a lot of hours but met some wonderful, helpful people, saw some beautiful countryside and got to appreciate a little more what it must have been like for the German emigrants so many years ago.

We drove from Stuttgart to Frankfurt today in our rental car, a Prius.  Somewhat different than a 911!  When other drivers see a 911 in their review mirror, especially one screaming up on them in the left lane, they, for the most part move.  Not always, we had one guy in an ancient Mitsubishi hold us up for quite a while.  Let’s just say the Prius doesn’t invoke the same response.  Interesting car with a somewhat bizarre start-up and shut-down procedure.  My hybrid at home works like a car.  Put the key in, turn it, press the gas.  With the Prius you have buttons to push, levels to pull, etc.  The first time or two we were just plain stumped about how to get it to move.  Once it does move, it doesn’t move all that quickly.   People fly on the autobahn here.  The Prius lives in the right lane… Just the same, it got us here and hardly used any gas in the process.

We’re in a small hotel next to a very loud public market.  We finally closed the windows and lowered the steel (yes steel) outer curtains to shut out the noise.  Now we’re sort-of trapped in a small room using an electric fan to move the air.  As we intend to just camp here at night, it should work out.   And if it becomes to confining, we’ll move.

At the recommendation of the hotel owner we ate at Gasthof Steiner or something like that.  A few hundred years ago it was the first stone building in the area.  Stein is German for stone.  I think.  Anyway, we had pork schnitzel mit pommes frites and salat.   See, you can read German already.  All those who thought french fries and salad, move to the head of the class.  Anyway, we each got about a third or so of the way through the meal and just… stopped.  Could not eat another bite.  We are officially schnitzeled out.

Counting the dinner on the plane over, we’ve had 20 dinners.  We’ve been to two restaurants twice, an Italian place in Vienna and another Italian in Stuttgart.  Plus three other Italian places, one in Munich, another in Vienna and one in Reutte, Austria.  Seven times we’ve been to ‘authentic’ German places like tonight.  I could eat spaghetti the rest of this trip, but if I see one more Schnitzel…

Parking at Wilhema Zoo in Stuttgart…. 3.20 Euros

Entrance for two adults… 22.80 Euros

Map of the zoo…  3.30 Euros

Lunch for two (hot dogs & fries)…  19.70 Euros

Seeing Wilbär the Eisbärbaby?  Who knows, he never showed his cute little face.

As a casual observer, three things seem to be über-popular in Germany these days;  George Clooney (on the cover of several magazines), Heidi Klum (on tons of billboards) and the two Eisbär babies.  Flocke is at the Nurmberg Zoo and Wilbär is at the Wilhelma, the Stuttgart Zoo.  His name is a pun, a combination of the zoo’s name and the German word for bear.  We’ve seen photos and videos on the news, just about daily, and he is cute with a capital q.

We debated visiting the zoo yesterday but chose to do our Black Forest drive instead as we knew we only had the car for half of today.  We got to the zoo around 11:30 and it was pretty clear a LOT of people had the same idea we did.  When we got to the bear section, we saw posted signs listing the wait times from various points.  We went from the one hour mark to the 45 minute mark very quickly.  We made the 30 minute and 15 minute marks in maybe 12 or so minutes each.  So our wait time was maybe 35 minutes.  Once we got to the front of the line, we saw the sign that said each group gets to watch for five minutes, and there is no guarantee that Wilbär will show his face.  And in fact, he did not during our five minute window.  His Mom, Corrine, poked her head out and yawned a few times.  We were hopeful she was checking out the scene and would bring the little guy out.  But no such luck.  We did get some nice photos of Mom and several of Dad, who is a real ham.  He paced back and forth for the crowd the whole time we watched.

The other event of the day, aside from dropping off the car, was watching the explosion of a building.  Yesterday, Michael, the number-two in charge of the hotel, mentioned they were going to destroy a building around the corner at 3pm today.  Our goal was to leave the zoo in time to park the car run over to the site.  Instead we found the roads around the hotel completely blocked off by polezi (police).  So we parked the car and walked as close as we could.  At 3pm, all eyes were trained on the building.  Then two or three quick popping sounds and the whole thing tilted right and fell to the ground.  It was over in five or six seconds.  I did get a few photos and S caught some of it in video.  When I get a few moments I’ll make a composite photo of the building falling and post it to the Smugmug site.  Link here.

And lastly, we dropped off the car.  We put 2594 kilometers (about 1,600 miles) on it in 16 days.  We covered the width of Austria and the width of the southern part of Germany.  It is a blast to drive.  A little small for all our gear, but otherwise a great touring car.  I’ll never get it over 150 mph in the US (really), so it was fun to unwind it on the autobahn.  We’ll see it in eight to ten weeks.  I hope they wash it before they ship it!

 

Tomorrow we head to Frankfurt.  Our flight back at the end of the week originates in Stuttgart.  We would then change planes and have a three hour layover in Frankfurt.  We were able to get the airline to cancel the initial leg and confirm we can board in Frankfurt.  We’ll drop the car off there, and stay near the airport the night before.  We’ve been gone 19 days so far, but have not yet said to each other, “Wish we were home already.”  I think that means it’s a good trip.  No, great trip.

Last full day with the car today and we took full advantage.   We left our hotel a little after 11am and didn’t get back until a little after 9pm.  We headed toward Freiburg, pretty far south in the Black Forest area.  We had planned on staying briefly to eat lunch and then take local roads to Baden-Baden in the northern part.   But Freiburg is really nice and we lingered a while.  They have small water channels that run along a lot of the streets, sort of an open gutter with fresh-looking water flowing in them.  We found a small dog frolicking in one, very cute.

After that, onto Baden-Baden.  By the A5 (one of the major autobahns) that would take about an hour.  We took the back roads and spent more than three hours covering maybe 75 miles.  But we did see some amazing and beautiful scenery.  We didn’t see too much forest, but that’s at least in part because we were on public roads.  But it’s also the case that they are chopping down the forest all over Germany.  We’ve seen logging everywhere we’ve been.  They also seem to water the logs after they stack them.   We saw this several times.

We finally arrived in Baden-Baden around 6:30.  It’s a town know for its spas and medicinal baths.  All we wanted at that point was to have dinner!  We found a nice, non-smoking place on the main square.  Overall we have found Germany to be less smokey than Austria.

Driving in Germany has been fun for the most part.  On average drivers here are far less random than in the States, at least compared to Washington.  But we ran into our share of chuckle-heads today including one guy who frequently passed on the right, which is against the law.  Still, we had a good time driving, listening to Bruce on the iPod and checking out the scenery. 

Black Forest

Black Forest Deforested

Ok, catching up a little.

Yesterday (day 16) we went to the Kings’ Castles.  That’s plural kings, and possessive.  It was a gray, rainy day.  Just  before we got to the location, we saw Hohenschwangau through the fog. This was King Maximilian’s summer home.  Normally they hung out at the Residenz in Munich.  Hohenschwangau is a tidy little summer home.  Not too big, but certainly not small.  Each room tells a story in words and pictures painted directly on the wall.  One of the king’s sons was Ludwig.  The stories had an impact on Ludwig and when he became king, he started his own castle, Neuschwanstien, which became known as the fairy tale castle. 

Hohenschwangau

Neuschwanstien is anything but tidy.  Ludwig had a big budget and a big imagination.  And not many management skills.  It was a project mostly amok, but the results are completely amazing.  When we arrived, it was in the fog, but by the time we exited Hohenschwangau, we could see it.  Even from a mile away it takes your breath away.  And when you get close, it’s just plain freaking incredible.

Neuschwanstien

Neuschwanstien is about a mile from the parking lot.  When you get your tour tickets, they give you a time for each castle.  You have to be there at that time or you miss your shot.  So we looked at the hike, looked at the watch, looked how far up it was, and decided on the horse-drawn carriage.  Please see the post Ausfarhts and horse f*rts for more details of that ride!

The fairy tale castle is as impressive inside as it is from the outside.  The quality and amount of craftmanship is incredible.  They have a mosaic floor with two million tiles.  All sorts of secret rooms and passageways.  And early examples of indoor pumbing and a telephone.

The whole thing is a tourist trap of course and you pay for everything. Tickets, parking, horse f*rts, even the rest rooms!  Four hours at the castles blows away the cost of a day at DisneyLand.  But in some ways is more fun.  We have nothing like this in America.  The whole premise of the country works against it.  I suppose San Simeon or Bill Gates’ house come close in ambition, but they were built with private money.  These castles were built by the kings, using resources of the kingdom.  Might be part of the reason that whole king-thing has mostly died out…

Today we moved on from Austria, back to Germany.  We’re camped out at a hotel on the edge of Stuttgart and plan day trips for tomorrow and Saturday.  Along the way, we saw a lake that took our breath away.  Check out the photo, that is not a painting.  Not long after that, we hit the autobahn and some of the hardest rain we’ve ever seen.  Even so, I was driving around 100 mph and occasionally being passed!  People really do hammer on the highway here.  I did hit 155 for a short period, that was fun!  Well, at least one of the two of us think so…