mike & rhonda's latest adventure: Let Them Eat Cake

We have been driving through the southern Black Forest area of Germany for the past few days. Although we have done several short hikes while we have been here, we have still been unable to find the Black Forest cake........where are they hiding it?
Nonetheless, our drive has been a good one. Rhonda has been doing a masterful job at the wheel. I am a wuss (pronounced 'vuss' here in Germany) when it comes to driving a stick shift vehicle, especially when there is more than one of them on the road at the same time. The panoramic views have been wonderful.....lots of mountains, valleys and rivers along the way, including the Schwarzwalder Panoramastrusse (Black Forest Panoramic Road) with it's narrow serpentine roads up into the clouds on the first rainy day of our trip. Along the way we have passed many lovely villages that probably look the same as they did 100 years ago (with some fresh paint added). They all seem to have a well stocked supply of firewood (easily replenishable) indicating their winters must be cold. They seem to use their available resources better than we do.......many rooftop solar panels (on older homes), wind turbines (individual use rather than wind farms) and houses on hillsides, preserving the flatter land for agriculture (and still good use of their hillsides for farming). The fall colours have been nice but they would have been outstanding, especially in Todtsau (surrounded by mountains) if the sun had been shining. The other advantage to having a car for the first time is that we have been able to stay at some great B&B's in countryside homes, with hosts that only speak German but cook tasty meals. We will spend another half day in the area tomorrow (Friday) before re-joining Rachel in Basel.....Caity had to return home to earn more money to spend travelling.

Prior to coming here, we spent last week-end with both daughters in Bern (medieval, cobbled streets, neat underground shops) and Lucerne, where we took a boat across the lake to Alpnachstad. From there we took the world's steepest cogwheel railway (48% grade) up to Mount Pilatus (where Pontius Pilate was sent to grieve). There were fabulous views all the way (up and down), and at the top we hiked to the peak at 7000 feet for some incredible views including a long distance view of Lucerne. Back in Lucerne we walked across the Chapel Bridge to the Old Town, stopped into the Hof Cathedral and went to the Lion Monument (Lowendenkmal) which Mark Twain referred to as "the most mournful and moving piece of stone in the world".

At the beginning of this week we picked up our car and drove to Strasbourg, France where we spent a full day and a bit. Perhaps we should have taken a train since we parked the rental car for 36 hours in a pay parking lot and then walked around the city. Their Cathedral is a magnificent one, as I suppose it should be when it took over 250 years to build it. With the top steeple reaching 466 feet it was the world's tallest building for 227 years (1647 - 1874). The boat tour along the canal circling the Old Town, the Barrage Vauban area (controlling the water levels and preventing hostile navy forces from entering the city), the tiny winding streets of Petite France, the Museum of Modern Art (Kandinsky, Monet, Picasso) and the relaxing walk through the Parc de l'Orangerie were other highlights. Strasbourg is also the government seat of the European Union, and the recently built buildings (appropriately outside of the Old Town) looked impressive.

Stay tuned for more developments as we make our way to Berlin next week and I try to convince the locals to build a wall to keep out non-desirables.

Vienna Opera House - taken from our $4 standing room only seats since we only had 1 hour to watch the performance of Salome before our overnight train to Zurich (and didn't want to pay $100+ for a regular seat)