after awaking late yesterday, it took a while to get going. my head was really not in a good place. my eyes felt as if they would pop out of thier sockets and i had a headache all day, and the bed i'm slleping on is way too soft, so my upper back is hurting. a pot of tea and a long hot shower seemed to help a bit, as did the advil. i'm assuming this is still the jet lag effects, i hope. by the time we were ready to head out it was 3pm.
Gisi was consulting the maps earlier and had planned a trip into the Schwarzwald (black Forest). now if you look at the pix previously posted, we are basically in a valley adjoining the forest. not far at all. as a matter of fact, we will soon be on the other side of the mountain where the 4 windmills are.
it is another perfect day weather wise, so we head out with the top down again. within minutes were out of town and driving up the foothills of the mountains. as you can see in the pix, if you are familiar with the catskill mtns, these are very similar..in height, topography, almost exactly. it's probably why so many Germans settled in the catskill area, or at least one of the reasons.
as we drove on, thru beautiful small villages, we started to see the typical black forest houses and farms...people hiking about the roads, lots of bikers in thier biking suits climbing impossible hills for miles. of course we had the luxury of the barchetta...really fun on these roads.
our first stop was in the village of st. peter, where there is a great cathedral. absolutely breathtaking, the detail and condition are flawless. we were lucky enough to get there as the choir was practising. the acoustics were awesome, and it was spellbinding sitting in this great cathedral, hearing this midevil german music being sung by what sounds like a chorus of angels.
we then ent to a cafe in the town square where i had my first piece of black forest cake...yum. gisi hab black currant pie. it was just a perfect setting.
after we walked the town, then moved on into some other towns and stopped at another church.
speaking of churches, it's sunday morning at 9:30am and the cathedral here in town is tolling it's bells which can be heard all over the town and valley. i digress.
i got to drive on the way back to town. it is such great fun to drive an italian sports car thru these roads, which btw are in excellent condition. they post signs for damaged roads...which to them means a slight imperfection i the surface, or a small patch. we passed many lumber mills, the smell was so nice...many farms, mostly dairy. very verdant and lush..just look at the pix.
soon we were on the road back to town, thru another route which took us under a mountain thru a tunnel, we were back within a half hour.
we spent the rest of the day listening to music at home on the balcony. we had dinner of the shrimp and salad we bought in france yesterday. we ate at 9pm and it was still very bright out...by 10:30 it was almost dark. we waited to see the stars...and we saw the strangest orange light in the sky, moving quite erratically...stopping, moving, changing direction..then fading away behind a cloud. really, i'm not one for the ufo sightings but this was quite strange....
have a nice sunday!
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