Wednesday, November 24, 2010

La Forêt-Noire

(back to the chronicles of the Vogler Parents' Visit)

After our brief stay of recuperation in Metz we jumped in the Twingo yet again for a trip to the "motherland", so to speak (lots of German ancestry for us Voglers and Reindls). 

We drove 2.5 hours and arrived in the beautiful German city of Freiburg in the Black Forest. We dropped our things off at our beautiful farm B&B which was an adventure in and of itself. You see, when I booked the B&B online the information clearly stated that the owners spoke English. In France this isn't a problem; we know enough French to converse but German? Not one of us speaks a lick of German. And as it turned out, the daughter speaks a bit of English (think of your junior year of high school level of foreign language) but she wasn't home so we were out of luck. Really though, the woman was so nice and trusting, just leaving us with a key to their place without ever taking our name.



 After getting settled we hopped in the car again and headed back into Freiburg. We had a great lunch in the Cathedral square (goulach, pasta, wiener schnitzel and sausages) and spent the rest of the cold afternoon walking around the city and browsing in kitchen stores to warm up. At dinner time we filled up on more German food and beer and shortly after, crashed back at the B&B.



We woke up to this the next morning. It was rainy and dreary but the colors were so vibrant that even the rain couldn't dampen the day. 

We set off in the car on tiny winding roads through the mountains of the Black Forest. The views were spectacular but thanks to the rain, capturing them on camera was not an easy feat. After a bit of driving we pulled off into a parking area. Dad though he heard something but he was the only one...we didn't really believe him (sometimes his hearing isn't the greatest, and I've acquired the trait). But he insisted that I open the door and when I did, lo and behold, there was a horn playing clear as day.



We walked around a shelter at the end of the parking lot where we saw the Ricola man  himself putting on a concert for...well, for us I suppose. He spoke no English and again, we speak no German but we did manage to ask for a picture and he kindly obliged.





As you can see in the picture with the horn player (I really need to look up what that is), the rain turned to snow as we traveled higher until at one point, I was going about 5mph and trying to keep the sliding under control on the yucky slush. It did, however, make for some beautiful sights. I can't tell you how much I would love to live in that house. I'll soon be posting more pictures from the trip on Facebok and will be sure to share them with you all. I'm also hoping to get a hold of some of the pictures that my Mom took on her sleek and shiny camera that I spent the entire trip drooling over.

Up Next: More time in Metz

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