July 8 – A Step back 50 years and Black Forest

Today was a slow start to the day, I chuckled when I mentioned to Patrick that this week will probably be a pretty relaxing week even though we have a lot booked in for the time we are here. I am starting to be thankful we are heading back this way after we are done in Switzerland. There is so much to see and do here.

Our first place to visit today was Langenwinkel. This was where Patrick lived when he was here before. Though privately owned now the buildings look identical to what they did before. He was able to pop inside on of the 5 (they are all the same) to see what the area looked like and he was amazed that everything looked smaller than he remembered. But in the eyes of a young child everything looked bigger.

Leaving here he took the route they took to the other area that housed military families, Kippenheim. Again he was surprised at how closer it was than his memory.

Back to Langenwinkel, we drove the route he would take to the base for ball games, etc. Our first task of crazy side roads in Germany. The speed limit here was 100 km/h…on a road with no middle line and really only big enough for 1 car. It is crazy for speed here. But more on that later.

After we left here we headed to Baden-Baden base area. Not much is there and the Germany/Canada Museum was only open on Sunday so that was a bust. Headed to the actual town, spent time walking around. Very nice part of town.

When driving here, I spotted a location on the map that I thought would be interesting to explore…a castle ruins. What a spectacular area. We were able to climb all levels of this castle and the vantage points were beautiful. Leaving here we headed for the Black Forest. Taking highway 500 with all its twist and turns is hair raising considering you are supposed to do 70-100 for a good majority of it. Think hairpin switchback corners at 100! Patrick did not do this thank goodness. I was holding my bar enough for him not to do that to me 🙂

We had hoped to get back in time for a german restaurant from the past but as the kitchen was closing at 8:00pm and we would be getting there at that time we will have to wait for another day to do that.

Overall today was absolutely beautiful. Total steps today 11,265.

Tomorrow we will be sticking close to here…hopefully Patrick will be getting his phone back by then 🙂