Germany - Part 2

After three nights in Bacharach, we headed to the southwestern corner of Germany, into the Black Forest. On our way, we stopped in Heidelberg for about 4 hours to meet up with my friend Martin, whom I had met in Kratie, Cambodia. Once again, it was really nice to see someone I had met on my travels and catch up, and this time I got to introduce my dad. Martin met us at the train station, and drove us into the city center, where we got out and walked around a bit. Martin treated us to a good lunch which consisted of one of the few local Heidelberg dishes that exists - it was a meat and vegetable patty, with fries and sauerkraut, and was really tasty. Then, we walked up a steep hill and a couple hundred steps to the castle that overlooks the city. It is still in a half-ruined state, thanks to the French, who destroyed the city in 1693. There is some reconstruction work being done now though. From up top, we had great views of the city and Neckar River below. Then we walked back down the hill and over the Alte Bruke (Old Bridge), to see the city from the other side of the river. Since it was cold and windy that day, we then sat inside for awhile and enjoyed some enormous cups of coffee, and talked for awhile, until it was time to head back to the train station.
We just barely caught our train, and if I remember correctly, we had about 2 or 3 transfers to make it to our destination, the small town of Staufen. We caught the last short commuter train of the day that only runs between Staufen and another small town called Bad Krozingen - that 7-minute ride was really cool because it literally ran right through corn fields! When we arrived, we easily found our hotel since it was right across from the tiny train station, and was therefore aptly named Hotel Bahnhof. We were warned by Rick Steves that no one at this friendly, family-owned place spoke English, so we were prepared. We checked in, and before heading out to try to find food, I asked my dad what the German word for key was. I was surprised when he said it immediately, pulling it from his memories of almost 40 years earlier! We asked the cute, and very short, older lady if we could have the key to the room, at which point she appeared to get very upset with us and started saying a lot, none of which we understood. She almost looked like she was going to cry, so we tried to tell her nevermind - apparently no one ever asks for keys at this place? She continued to talk and be upset, and went upstairs and came back down with a whole box full of antique keys. We kept trying to tell her not to bother, but she started trying every one of those keys in our lock! Eventually, we just left, feeling bad. When we came back later, sure enough, our door was locked, so we had to go find her again to get the key! True to most small towns, the stores and restaurants closed early, so we had a fun time trying to find a grocery store that was open at that hour. We asked several people for directions, most of whom did not speak any English, and we found our way basically via sign language. Since it was a bit of a walk to get there, we stocked up on enough food for breakfast and lunch for the next couple of days. That night, we enjoyed some store-bought tapas (pretty minimal as far as tapas goes, so thanks for humoring me and not complaining about our "meal," dad!) and wine on the balcony of our hotel, which overlooked the town´s lit-up castle and vineyards surrounding it.
The next day was beautiful, and we took full advantage of it by spending it mostly outside. We took a nice walk uphill, past what seemed to be the Stations of the Cross, into the forest. I must say, I was a bit disappointed at how light, and therefore non-black, it was! The Black Forest gets its name from the dark canopy of evergreens, which clearly is not so thick anymore. We ended up by some vineyards and near the top of the castle, and had a nice chat with an older German lady who pointed out France off in the distance. We were also really close to Switzerland. That afternoon, we sat at an outdoor cafe and had some black forest cake and coffee, and just enjoyed the beautiful place we were in. Then we took a walk along the babbling brook that runs through the town. For dinner, we had decided to try the plate of the day at our hotel, which Rick had recommended. There really was only one option available every evening, but it was always german food, and was pretty inexpensive. We sat down and ordered our food and beer, and our waitress pointed out that the people at the next table over were Americans as well. We started talking to them, and it turned out they were from Minnesota, and one of the older ladies was born in the same town I was - the very small town of New Ulm, MN! The locals seemed to be very excited that we all could communicate with each other and had made friends, and at one point a guy got up and tried to help us move our table nearer to theirs, but our table was literally a tree stump which could not be moved! It was fun chatting with them, and then our food came, and it was fun eating it. It was thick ham and potato salad, and a lot of it! Of course we felt the need to eat all of it, and wash it down with some of that good german beer, so we were happily stuffed at the end of the meal, and luckily had only to waddle upstairs to our eccentric room and call it a night. The cute lady who had been so upset about the keys came up and knocked on our door to say goodbye to us, which was really nice.
The next morning, we were off to Munich. We arrived in the late afternoon and went to find the hostel that we would stay in for one night. Then, since we knew that we didn´t have much time in the city itself, we took the metro back into town and walked around a bit, ending up in a nice park, where we could hear bits and pieces of a classical music concert that was going on nearby. When it was starting to get dark, we headed for the Hofbrauhaus, which is of course a Munich institution. Dad remembered going there with my mom and I think my grandparents, and he really wanted to at least walk through it again. We did walk through it, and then decided to stay for one of their famous beers, and you can´t have beer without a big pretzel! We were really impressed by the Irish couple that sat across from us - they were both on their third HUGE beer and could still hold a normal conversation! Dad remembered that when he was there almost 40 years ago, the ceiling had been covered with spit wads, but now it was painted a neutral beige and no spit wads were in sight. I was impressed to see that the live polka band included a french horn - interesting since I was never allowed to be in the polka band in high school because french horns supposedly weren´t in polka bands?!
The next morning, we moved across town to our home for the next two nights, which was definitely one of the more interesting accommodations I have had on this whole trip! It was called The Tent, and basically was a campground/dormitory. There were a couple of big tents that had a lot of very basic bunk beds, as well as areas where people could pitch their own tents, all for dirt cheap prices, especially for Europe! We picked the tent with about 50 beds in it versus the one with 100. Since it really was just a big tent, there was no heating inside, and I thought I had been prepared for how cold it got at night by reading the online reviews. I put on warm clothes both nights, and piled about 6 wool blankets on me, and covered my head with the only thing I had, my scarf, and I was still cold! It was an experience, that is for sure! After we checked in, we left right away for the main train station and headed to the town of Fussen, which was two hours south of Munich, and the home of Germany´s most famous castle, Neuschwanstein. When we left Munich, the weather was warm and sunny, and I remembered wondering whether that would change much two hours away, but figured it wouldn´t. I was wrong! We stepped off the train to cold and windy weather, and as we started climbing the hill towards first Hohenschwangau Castle, and eventually Neuschwanstein, it started to rain! We had not been prepared for that at all, and didn´t even have our rain jackets; not to mention I was wearing flip flops and a skirt! We soldiered on though and kept climbing higher and higher, where it was of course getting colder and colder, and the rain started coming down much faster. We made it up to Marienbrucke, the bridge where there was a great view of the castle, but we weren´t satisfied and wanted those classic photos from really high above it. So, we kept climbing, on a precarious path strewn with leaves, tree roots, sticks, and mud - none of which were made better by the worsening rain. Eventually, dad really wanted to turn back, especially since we had been climbing for a long time by then, and we had to think about getting all the way back down still. For some reason, I still wasn´t satisfied, and encouraged both of us to continue on. We climbed for a long time still, and yes, it kept raining. I was determined to get to the top, even though we never really could be sure where the top was. Eventually, we talked to some other people who were on their way back down and they confirmed the difficulty of continuing onward, so we turned back. It took A LONG time to make it all the way back down, especially since going downhill was worse for me with the flip flops. There are some pretty funny photos of us, completely drenched. We were cold and soaking wet, but for the most part, we kept smiling the whole time. Then we got on the train to head back to Munich, which again was two hours, and that´s when I got really cold. Sitting there cold and wet for two hours was not fun at all, and by the time we got back to The Tent, I was chilled to the bone. The weather had turned cold and rainy there as well, which definitely didn´t help. They normally have a bonfire at night, but because of the rain, they didn´t. I think that would have really helped me get warm, but since it didn´t happen, I just stayed cold and then had to get into the cold bed in the cold tent. I couldn´t stop shivering, and I don´t think I got warm until about 4 a.m.! Needless to say, it was hard for me to get out of bed the next morning since I was finally warm. That day, we had planned on going to Dachau concentration camp, but I think we decided against it because the weather was cold and rainy, and we didn´t really want to spend another day in the rain. We went back into the center of Munich and wandered around when it wasn´t raining. Thankfully, the rain stopped by the evening, so we were able to have a bonfire! We sat around the fire and met a lot of people and had some really good conversations. Dad said at the time that it might be one of the highlights of the trip for him. I was much warmer getting into that cold bed that night.