It was their loss because this is now our third time here and we have not stayed in Basle since.
Bad Sackingen is at the very south of the Black Forest. In fact our hotel room overlooks the Rhine and Switzerland is the other side of the river. The wooden bridge you can see in the photo dates from the 13th century. It was the site of a famous battle between the Germans and the Swiss- or whatever the tribes were called in those days.
I do enjoy staying in this hotel. We live well in Ragny but it is only here that I have champagne for breakfast. Brenda says it is decadent. I remind her that Churchill had a bottle of champagne every day before lunch so surely Ted is entitled to one (or two!) glasses with breakfast. Brenda tells me that Churchill was waging a war. I remind her that I too am waging (and hopefully winning) a war- against ANZ Bank, Perpetual Trustees, Qantas Airways and all other purveyors of inferior customer service. Point made I think.
Being our third time her we have got to know this southern part of the Black Forest quite well. The panoramas are superb. I was expecting forests but had no conception of the depth of the valleys and height of the mountains. It is Germany not Austria but looks like Julie Andrews territory. I have tried to video Brenda gambolling down a hillside but she says she has neither the athleticism nor the voice for such an endeavour.
Have thought of our friends as we have travelled around the last few days.
Graham would have revelled in our tour yesterday.
We also found a country flochemarket where Brenda bought two special German cups so that she and Heather could enjoy afternoon tea together next month. It is not that we have no cups and saucers at Ragny but these appealed to Brenda- so Heather’s visit was a convenient excuse!!!
We also revisited a shop named “ Pak and Sak”. The equivalent of St Thomas’ Posh Shop. We are not sure whether “Pak and Sak” is the name particular to this shop or the German generic of our Australian op shop!!
Today’s excursion would have appealed to Fred. It included a water-powered sawmill with a wooden saw. Well, not quite, but virtually everything except the metal saw itself was made of wood. A very elaborate contraption and we were fortunate enough to see it working.
Germany as we see it is not at all militaristic. Compared to France there is a dearth of war memorials or other reminders of the dark past. We did come upon this modern (2004) memorial sculpture but it commemorates an 1849 uprising. Sufficiently long ago to be respectably commemorated.
We are also intrigued by a particular series of road signs which make no sense to us. The ones in this photo are especially interesting because it seems there are different speed limits for tanks!!! We have seen none.
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