Tag Archives: Germany

TraveLog: Germany, Day 4

7 June 2009

  • After breakfast, Marty’s cousin, Hans, picked us up and brought us to a gorgeous castle not too far from Burladingen, Schoss Hohenzolhern.
  • Unfortuantely, the tour we took was in German (the English tour was an hour later, and we were hungry and the weather wasn’t cooperating…more on that to come).  So, I spent the majority of the tour glaring at some dude who wouldn’t shut up while our lovely tour guide was explaining the history of the centuries-old building.
  • As I mentioned, the weather wasn’t doing us any favors.  Luckily, we got some pics in before the tour, because after the tour, the skies opened up and we got rained on:
Rain, rain, go away...
Rain, rain, go away...

 

  • After the castle, we went to Boll for some lunch.  I had some potato pasta with a (heavy) mushroom cream sauce and some salad.  Very rich, but tasty.
  • Then, we drove to Hechingen and walked around the quaint little town for a bit before getting some tasty pastries to eat with Hans’ girlfriend, Irmgard.
  • She was waiting for us in Gammertingen, where I had some Black Forest cake and coffee.  Luckily for Marty (and me, for that matter!), she spoke English, so the conversational burden could be shared between us.
  • Since the weather wasn’t very nice at end of the castle tour, Hans drove us to a lovely viewpoint that overlooked the castle.\
  • After parking the car, we had to hustle 1.5 km to the spot due to the uncertain weather conditions.  But, amazingly, the sun came out just as we reached the overlook.  Here’s a selfy of that spot (note the sunshine…yay!):
The castle is MUCH bigger in person.  Cool view, though, huh?
The castle is MUCH bigger in person. Cool view, though, huh?

 

  • We then drove back to Burladingen and waited for Sofie and Gerd to get back from their election day work.
  • Sofie perpared a DELICIOUS dinner, and we capped off the meal with a shot of Jaegermeister.  Ah, Germany.

Whirlwind

It’s about two hours before Marty I leave for the airport to fly to Germany via Iceland (hey, Björk!).  This after I returned Monday from an excurison to San Diego to present at a conference.  As I’m waiting to leave, I can’t help but reflect on the past year and how much has happened and how much is going to happen in the next few months.  It has been and will be a whirlwind that shows no sign of slowing until possibly mid-August.  But the way I see it, the school year was tough, much more of a struggle than I anticipated and much more of a struggle than I initially wanted to admit, so I deserved some time off to travel and see new places and meet new people.

I should have fairly regular internet access, so I’ll be sure to post some pics from Germany, and I hope to have some really good ones for the upcoming 12 of 12.  Stay tuned!