8/10 – Woke up to weather in the low 50s, with sun but very cool temps expected all day. Glad I brought my long sleeved hiking shirt! Breakfast was the same, with a soft boiled egg in addition to the coffee, bread, butter, cheese, cold cuts and jam. I guess in Germany, this is what’s for freestück.
Wednesday is market day in Wolfach, and the Main Street was blocked to auto traffic so folks could shop.
Saw some nice wall art too. This one is about the rafters who plied their trades on the Kinzig River, which we have been following since Loßburg.
I don’t know what this one is about, but it looks like this dame can hold her own!
The morning’s walk took us for miles along the Kinzig River to the town of Hausach.
Here’s something you don’t see every day.
The town was pretty big, and once on the busy streets we had trouble finding the shell markers. Once all the way through town, we ended up using the GPS on the phone. We knew we were supposed to cross a mountain, but which one? Google pointed us in a likely direction, but we still didn’t see a trail marker. We climbed anyway.
And climbed…
…and climbed some more.
Finally, by mid afternoon, we saw the faintest of shell markers, on the same tree as what I had been calling the Black Hat trail. Turns out the hat is for the Hansjakob Weg, named for a priest in the 1800s who lived close by, and probably did good stuff.
What goes up, must come down. Our afternoon descent took us into some pretty, and pretty dense forest.
Hikers build rock cairns here too.
Finally we could see our destination town, Haslach. Pretty as a postcard!
Our hotel was in the center of the altstadt, or old town, and we couldn’t see any restaurants nearby, so we asked Google Maps for a suggestion. Five minutes down a side street was the Peace Garden, which served both Chinese and Thai food. Didn’t expect much from an Asian restaurant in southern Germany, but we both agreed that it was the absolutely best Asian food we’d had since Thailand. Five stars! Be sure to check it out when you’re in Haslach!
8/9 – The Gastehaus Muller may be run by ghosts. When we came downstairs, our breakfast was laid out – rolls and butter, ham, cheese and coffee, but no Frau again. We’re on our own. According to our guidebook (which is totally in German making it useless to us except for the maps) today’s hike is the longest and most challenging, with three mountains to climb and major changes in elevation. The clouds and chill weather are back, with rain forecast throughout the day. Considering these facts, Jim made an executive decision, and we opted to hop on the tram for a fifteen minute ride to Wolfach – this evening’s destination – then hike the trail backwards to include only the last mountain, then retrace our steps. Sounded like a good plan to me.
When we got to the tram stop, we met another couple who had made the decision to skip this day’s hike altogether and proceed to the next day’s map. This is not an option for us, as our rooms are all pre-booked. We boarded the tram together as the rain started to fall.
At Wolfach, it took us a while to find the Sign of the Shell, then we started our hike. The Black Forest is even darker on a rainy day.
Dark and rainy forest
Unlike other trails where the blazes enable you to hike either east or west, the Camino trails are only meant to be walked one way: toward Spain. That means the trail markers can only be found on the side of the tree you would be facing if you were going the right way. Like Ginger Rodgers, it felt like we were in high heels dancing backward. We kept looking over our shoulders to see if there was a sign we missed, and trying to imagine what the decision points would be if we were heading in the other direction.
The rain continued, light but steady. We saw a sign for the St. Jakobskappele, Chapel of St. James, and decided to climb up toward it.
The little chapel in the woods was locked, which did not surprise us.
We were preparing to move onward, when a little nun, about four foot nothing in a white wimple and long gray robe, came around the side of the building and beckoned us in the side door. It was a beautiful chapel, maintained with candles and fresh flowers, with St. James dominating the altar. We stripped off our wet gear, and sat to enjoy the silence.
When the little nun came out with more candles, I asked if we could take her photo. Oh no, she said in German, I am old and sick. Take pictures of the chapel. When we meet in Heaven, you can take my picture then. She gave me a hug, and I started to cry ( no surprise to those who know me). She went back to the sacristy, and returned with a wooden rosary for each of us, a St. Benedict medal, who she explained was the patron saint of Europe, and a Blessed Virgin medal, which she said is because Mary is for all of us. More hugging and tears ensued. She turned and told us to stay as long as we liked, and just close the door on our way out. And then she was gone.
We sat for another while, contemplating the beauty and the quiet, and me quite overwhelmed by my ability to understand everything she said, when my German, trust me, is not at all good. We put our jackets back on and walked outside to find that the rain had stopped, and mist covered the mountains. A magical morning.
We continued up the mountain until we reached the crest around lunchtime, and spread Jim’s poncho on a bench and ate our sandwiches.
Walking back down the mountain toward Wolfach, we were in harmony with the signs, and walked down a lot faster than we had walked up.
We spied some deer who were curious to see hikers on a rainy day.
Checking out the distance marker, we realized that the Chapel was part of a side trail that we would not have seen if we had walked the route we were supposed to walk today. Serendipity.
Wolfach is a pretty town, even on a rainy day.
The Hotel Garni Schilli was at least two kilometers from the center of town, and we didn’t see any restaurants or groceries during our long walk there. The lobby had an unusual quality…
…but the Frau was very nice and said she would make us eggs and sausages if we didn’t want to walk back into town for supper. Eggs and sausages it is, with lots of brown bread and butter, of course.
We had a patio so we laid out our gear to dry, and ate some cherry tomatoes from the vines growing up,our trellis. There were grapes as well, but they weren’t ripe yet. An interesting day!
8/8 – After a sumptuous breakfast of fresh hard rolls, cold cuts, many cheeses, large slabs of butter, soft boiled eggs and a variety of marmalades and honey, we were ready to start our hike. Frau Kilgus encouraged us to make extra sandwiches to take on the trail, and even gave us bags to store them in. What a sweet lady! I usually lose weight while hiking, but I’m pretty sure this hike will be the exception.
Germans love to hike and bike, and there are many routes we could have chosen through the Schwarzwald. We elected to follow the Jakobusweg (Way of St. James), as we had previously hiked the Camino de Santiago Frances (Way of St. James) across northern Spain in 2011, and the Caminho de Santiago Portugues, north through Portugal and into Spain in 2014. There are Camino pilgrimage routes throughout Europe, all ending at the Cathedral of Santiago de Campostela in Spain.
This time, we are not competing a Camino to the Cathedral, but just walking along its path for one week. It will be good to follow the yellow and blue Sign of the Shell again.
Our trek today was advertised at about 10 miles, but was closer to 12 once we factored in the extra mileage to our Gastehaus. The terrain was pretty and fairly flat, for which I was grateful. The weather was gorgeous. Here is my favorite hiking sight: the back of Jim.
Cows in the meadow.
A field of yellow flowers with the Black Forest beyond.
St. Jakob with a broken hat
We reached our next destination, the little town of Schenkenzell by mid-afternoon, and were able to do some laundry and hang it on the balcony in the sun. No wifi here either – definitely a trend…
The Gastehaus Muller had no attentive Frau – a teenager let us in, then took off, so there was no one to answer our questions. Luckily, Google Maps on my phone showed us a place to eat, even though we weren’t crazy about walking another half hour after walking all day. It turned out to be a nice Italian restaurant, so pasta carbonara was our evening fare. Carbo loading for tomorrow’s hike!
8/7 – Today we start our Schwarzwald hike! We rode the train two hours south from Heidelberg to Freudenstadt, then took a local tram to the little town of Lossburg (The character on the sign that looks sort of like a capital B is the German letter indicating a double S). As the train went south, we saw more hills, more chalet architecture, and more tall, dark pine trees. The Black Forest, for sure!
Our guest house, Gastehaus Kilgus, was just 1.5 kilometers from the tram stop, in a pretty little town with sunflowers for sale, and lots of blooms all around.
It also has some wall art, which I try to capture wherever I see it.
Frau Kilgus had no English, but fetched her granddaughter to answer our questions about where to find a restaurant for supper, and where to pick up the trail to start our hike in the morning. She was a gracious hostess, but again, no wifi! Hope this is not a trend.
We walked down the lane to a nice outdoor restaurant where we had our pick of dishes, as long as they contained pork. I had pork loin with cheese and tomato, and Jim had pork with cheese and mushrooms. Cheese also seems to be a trend here. Supper was delicious, and included complimentary cookies for dessert. Can’t wait to start walking in the morning!
8/6 – Gerard and Kathleen will spend several more days in Hanau and Bonn with his children, but it is time for us to move on. Jim always says that once you pay the airfare, you might as well stick around for a while, and see what else there is to do! We plan to hike for a week in the Schwarzwald (Black Forest) in southern Germany. We took the train from Hanau back to Frankfurt, then south about one and a half hours to Heidelberg. We hear they have an old castle there.
We got a room at the Classic Inn, just down the road from the train station. We cruised over to the Tourist Information to find out about the castle, and were directed to jump on bus 33 for the 30 minute ride. When we arrived at the Heidelberger Schloss, we were dismayed to find Disneyland conditions, with tourists of many languages pushing and jostling to buy tickets and get into the mob (sorry, but Asians excepting the Japanse have no concept of getting in a line or queue) that waited for the next funicular up the mountain. We were promised that a funicular would arrive every 10 minutes, and we waited through at least 5 cycles before it was our turn for the three minute ride up.
Once there, we enjoyed the ideal temperature and afternoon sun as we admired the ruined remains of a castle originally built in the 1200s. There was no signage, so I can’t tell you much. It was a castle, built and rebuilt over several centuries, then left to decay. We got to walk all around the ruin, but not inside.
There was also an Old Town with stately buildings and lots of strolling tourists. A lovely afternoon.
Beautiful wild flowers right near our hotel.
Bus 33 brought us right back home, and we went to the grocery next door to see if we could scare up some dinner. Sure enough, pizza! We bought two each and brought them back to eat in our room while we watched the Olympics on tv (in German, of course) and drank a good German bier. No wifi at this hotel – I am writing this offline with hopes to post in the future!
8/4 – Walked from the Ibis Hotel in Frankfurt back to the train station, for a twenty minute ride to Hanau. Here we were met by beautiful niece Jeanette, sister of the groom, and her handsome beau Marcus, who drove us to our hotel. We walked around Steinhaim, which is an old town with the wooden Alpine architecture so typical of Germany. Still gray and rainy, but the sun is supposed to shine tomorrow for the wedding.
8/5 – The wedding day is here, beautiful and sunny. Jeanette and I are waiting at the hotel for the groom to arrive.
Here is Gerard, father of the groom, his lovely wife Kathleen, and Jim at the church, waiting for the groom to arrive.
Happy to say, the groom arrived in the nick of time for the 13:30 service.
The church was decorated with flowers, and there was a full mass. The guests really participated, singing every hymn. The bride, Eva-Maria, was so beautiful! There were no bridesmaids or groomsmen. It was all about the happy couple.
After the church service, all the guests walked down the street to witness the civil ceremony at 15:00. This is something that does not happen at American weddings. The civil ceremony lasted almost as long as the church service, and the witnesses had to promise to help the new couple with everything, including chores. This got a round of laughter, so I’m pretty sure it was a joke.
Then we all went out into the garden, to watch the newlyweds cut a heart out of a big piece of red cloth, using dull manicure scissors, and then step through it together. This is also something we don’t do in the US.
We spent the afternoon in the garden, drinking champagne and eating little cakes, while the bride and groom were congratulated by all.
Kathleen’s son Dylan, Jeanette and Marcus, mother of the groom Ursula, Eva and John, Gerard and Kathleen
At 19:00, we filed into the banquet hall for supper. I was starving, and everything smelled so good! The buffet included salads, potatoes, pasta, chicken, fish and the absolutely best roast beef I have ever tasted, cut in half inch slabs and covered in brown gravy. Folks went back for seconds and thirds. Words just cannot do it justice. Everything was delicious.
Then there were games and performances by family members to entertain the bride and groom. The party was still going strong when we took our leave around 22:30, and we heard the party didn’t break up until 02:30. A full day of celebration!
8/2/16 – Several months ago, we received an invitation to a Franza nephew’s wedding in Germany: Gerard’s son John is marrying his beloved Eva-Maria, after 13 years of courting. We met them eight years ago at a family reunion in Florida. I was honored to be invited, and we started making plans.
We left Virginia where the temperature was over 90F every day, and arrived 16 hours later in Frankfurt where it was a gray and rainy 70F. We spent a full day in Frankfurt-am-Main, walking along the Main River to help minimize our jet lag. We visited Goethe Haus, a tribute to favorite son writer Johann Goethe. His family home was destroyed in 1944 by Allied bombs, but was recreated from the ground up after the war, using artifacts that had been removed and hidden from the bombing.
It was four stories of old furniture and musical instruments.
This is a pianoforte with vertical strings!
Most of our fellow tourists were from China – a phenomenon we encounter in every country we visit.
10/24 – Now that we are back home in Virginia, we still have lots of opportunities for hiking. We are fortunate to live near the Great Dismal Swamp, 112 thousand acres of wilderness that straddles the state line between Virginia and North Carolina. George Washington and his cronies forced slaves to dig miles of canal, with the expectation of draining the swamp, but the mosquitos and terrain were so formidable that the project was forsaken.
The miles of canal remain, with an excellent dirt roadway maintained by the forest service alongside, which affords great hiking or biking, and other areas dedicated to hunting. No fires or overnight camping are permitted. We find this trail not at all dismal!
We entered at the Washington Ditch entrance and walked for about four hours on a gorgeous weekday afternoon. We saw frogs and turtles in the swamp, and lots of birds in the foliage. A hawk was kind enough to drop a feather, which I picked up to adorn my hat.
At one point we encountered a black snake. We weren’t quick enough to get a picture, but here was my reaction!
Here is one of the locks that regulates the water level in the canal.
A praying mantis on a fall bloom.
The trail goes eventually to Lake Drummond, but we didn’t walk that far today. A peaceful walk on a beautiful day. On our way out we passed fields of cotton, another reminder of Virginia’s heritage.
I have been away a year and a quarter from America and I have seen strange and interesting things alike in the heart of the wilderness and in the capitals of the mightiest and most highly polished civilized nations. Nonetheless, I am more glad than I can say to get home, back in my own country, back among the people I love. – Theodore Roosevelt
9/20 – After 16 months on the road, it’s time for us to head home. There are always more places to go, but the time comes when you just want to rest for a while and hug grandkids. We booked a two hour domestic flight from Bali to Jakarta, Indonesia, a four hour flight from Jakarta to Manila, Phillipines, then a 13 flight from Manila to LAX. The more we traveled east, the more hours were added to the day. It was a very long Sunday.
We spent a week in California, to visit with Jim’s brother Dave, his sister-in-law Jerry, nieces Dawn and Kelly and great-nephew Liam. We slept a lot to recover from jet lag, and spent an afternoon making sandwiches for the homeless. I’ll blame the jet lag for our neglecting to snap a pic of us all together.
We had lunch with Patricia and Ray, a couple we met while walking the Camino last year in Portugal. We were lucky to catch them before their flight to Spain to walk another Camino!
On Saturday we drove down to visit my brother-in-law Tom, his wife Dawn, my niece Jackie, her husband Jeff, and their eight-month-old son Colin. What a cutie!
Then we took our final flight home to Norfolk, Virginia.
Now we are happily camped at son Peter and Lauren’s beautiful home, enjoying the attentions of the lovely Emma Rose, while we look for a new home of our own nearby. Emma at 2 and 3/4:
Grandad with Lexi at 4 and 3/4 – so mature!
We’ve shared this blog with more than 3300 visitors from 81 different countries, with over 11,000 post views. Our most popular blog post was the tale of our freighter trip across the Caspian Sea, which has been read 153 times, and continues to get a few more hits practically every week.
We’ve learned a lot, made new friends and experienced so many new things. We are frequently asked what our favorite country was. We always answer by saying we are enjoying the place we are right now, and that’s always true. What was the most unusual thing we ate? Probably fried bugs for Jim, and horse meat and durian for me. There were lots of things we ate without really knowing what they were! My most important observation is that there are Nice People everywhere, and that there are plenty of ways to communicate without sharing a language.
Are we glad to be back? You bet. Would we do it again? In a heartbeat. If you get a chance to travel, grab it and run. You won’t regret a single minute. Buen Camino!
9/17 – We took a walk beyond the main tourist street to the place where the Indonesian wood carvings were made. There were huge wood and stone carvings, most of which were too big to consider bringing home. We came to a factory where the wares were stenciled “Costa Rica” and “Aloha from Hawaii” – now we know where the rest of the world gets its souvenirs!
Is it my imagination, or does this guardian spirit bear a striking resemblance to Homer Simpson??
For our last walking day, we hired a guide to drive us to parts of Ubud we couldn’t get to on foot. Rai turned out to be a biologist, conservationist and lawyer, who takes tourists around in his spare time. We spent the morning walking through some of Ubud’s many rice paddies.
A farmer clears the weeds from the irrigation ditch, wearing a traditional sarong.
Ducks also help keep the paddies properly cleaned:
Scarecrows and rattling cans keep the birds from eating all the rice before it can be harvested.
Rai showing us the rice flower:
Rai was a wealth of knowledge about natural remedies. The fluid in these star flowers can be used as soothing eye drops.
You can eat this fist-sized spider to relieve your kidney stones:
We stopped to pick delicious passion fruit from a nearby tree:
After our rice paddy tour, we drove to a coffee plantation to see the famous Kopi Luwak. This is coffee made from beans that have been eaten and excreted by civets. The coffee sells for $600 a pound.
Here are the civets. They are nocturnal animals, and didn’t look happy being on display:
Here is the coffee-bean laden civet poop that collects under the cages:
The poop is dried and beans are cleaned:
The beans are roasted:
The beans are then pulverized into fine coffee powder:
We got to sample a variety of coffee flavors and visit the gift shop:
Taking Our Time 