Travelogue 1995 / Episode Seven

Travelogue Deutschland 1995 / Episode Seven

Friday, the Start of a Relaxing Weekend
I was really looking forward to the weekend in Zavelstein, so that I could have some time to relax and take a break from all of the sightseeing of the last few days. Today, we all met for breakfast in the morning, then Martin's mother, Krista drove us to Neubulach, and her office there. She needed to pick up her work car, in preparation for working the following week.

A Tour of a Silver Mine
Mats and I then drove out of town to the Bergwerk or mineral mine just outside of Neubulach. It was a short walk down to the mine itself, where we bought tickets for the tour and put on the mandatory red plastic helmets and nylon capes. The tour began as I wondered why we needed goofy plastic helmets and capes, when I scraped my helmet on the roof of the mineshaft. I knew that there had to be a simple reason for the precaution. It was very cool in the mineshaft in fact people with ailing lungs and asthma can pay to stay in the mine for hours at a time. Mats told me that the cool, damp air improves their breathing. The tour was al in German, so I was only able to pick up details here and there. Mats helped explain some of the tour to me, which was helpful. Soon the tour had ended and we exited out of the mine into what seemed like very warm air. I think that the temperature must have been about forty degrees inside the mine.

A Sketch in Neubulach
Mats and I returned to the top of the roadway and the climbed back into the car. I drove back into Neubulach and parked, and we walked to the old part of the small town so that I could do some sketching. It was a really nice to sit in the shade and sketch old buildings Mats was busy checking out some of the other buildings in the town while I took half an hour to finish my drawing.

Back for Lunch
We arrived at the house early for lunch, so I spent some time catching up on my writing. Soon lunch was served and the family enjoyed Kassler Ripchen one of Juergens favorite dishes [Juergen is one of the owners of the company I work for and a Hungarian-German] so I thought of him as we enjoyed the meal. After lunch I spent several more hours working on my writing, until a three oclock coffee break in the afternoon.

A Bike Tour of The Schwartzwald
After coffee,Martin suggested that we take a short bike tour of some smaller towns in the Black Forest and I agreed. I was prepared for biking, bringing along a pair of biking shorts in my suitcase. The tour was nice, though I could see that my lapse in training had some effect on my riding, along with a bike very different than I was used to riding. Still, it was good to get back on a bicycle again. We Passed through several small towns like Schmeih and Emberg. We stopped in a farmers field for a while, letting the evening roll past as we took a rest from touring. Later, we returned for a light meal and it was off to bed for a good nights rest.

Bad Teinach and Wildberg
After breakfast, Martin's father, Rolf, invited me to visit Bad Teinach and Wildberg. Bad Teinach is the city below Zavelstein in which naturally carbonated spring water is bottled for distribution across Germany and eastern France. We visited the hotel, built next to the bottling plant and the park behind it. There they have a pool with spring water in it. It seemed very popular with older people. We also visited the garden behind the hotel, with a waterfall built into the hillside behind the hotel. It was a very nice complex. inside the water room there were four different quelles or sources of mineral water that could be tasted there. Rolf and I tasted several of the cold mineral waters there, though they were also offering warm and hot waters [called therms].

Bad Wildberg
After the visit to Bad Teinach, we climbed back into the car and drove into another small town called Wildberg, the site of another old ruin of a fortress. Its really amazing how many castles and fortresses there are in Germany Martin mentioned that the kingdoms were very small and attacks were common, so many burgs and schlosses were constructed. It is also interesting to note that there is quite a difference between older burgs and newer schlosses the older burgs tended to be designed as protection, while newer castles were designed as places for royals to spend the days. This ruin of an old fortress was in much rougher shape than the burg at Zavelstein, with only a few walls standing though it appeared that restoration work was progressing on one portion of the structure. After viewing the city from above and taking a few photos, we walked for a while in the upper portion of the city. One of the things that I really have enjoyed aestheticly has been viewing old cities built into hillsides. What I think i like best is seeing the bright orange-red rooftops contrasting with deep green, tree-covered hills.

Lunch and Fishing in the Schwartzwald
We returned to Zavelstein for a lunch break, and afterward I snuck away to get a bit of writing done. Rolf eventually found me behind the house, and invited me to come fishing with he and Mats. I decided to kill two birds with one stone and bring my notebook computer along with me. We drove back into the woods to reach the small pond that Rolf rented from a farmer and we had a bit of hiking to do to reach it. In fact, because the pond was on the other side of a small brook, we had to cross the water over some wet stones my goal was to keep my little computer *dry*. Everything went well in the water-crossing and we walked to the small area that Rolf and Mats had set up Mats had a hammock strung from tree to tree that he could fish from and behind that, Rolf and I sat on a small homemade park bench. The fishing was really terrible, since the small pond had no circulation from the river Rolf had stocked the small oval of water with some small trout but with all of the algae in the water I could not believe that any fish were still alive. He also mentioned that the ducks in the area seemed to enjoy eating his trout, so the remaining few might have also become duck-food recently. I did achieve some writing, though the mosquitoes were very annoying and I had foolishly worn shorts to the pond. Within half an hour we were climbing back up the hillside to the car, ready for a coffee break.

Coffee and A Ride Into Altburg
When we arrived back from fishing, Krista had a new Kuche [or cake] waiting for us, along with coffee. I always looked forward to coffee time around 3pm it was always a relaxing time in the afternoon. About half an hour after coffee and Kuchen, Martin and I went for another ride to a few other small Schwartzwald cities, including Altburg, where a good friend of Martin lived. He was supposed to be returning from Egypt, after studying there for the past two years. We rang the bell and his mother answered Freidhelm was indeed home, after arriving on thursday from the Middle-east. He was on the phone, so we waited in the livingroom for him to finish. A few minutes later, Friedhelm emerged from the other room and said hello in Deutsch and English. His English was very good part of his studies were at American University in Egypt. We talked together for a while, but had to leave after half an hour, because an Arabic woman was visiting to speak Arabic and test his learning of the language. We said Tschuss, apologizing for the sudden visit, Martin promised to call Friedhelm again tomorrow. The sky was darkening over us so we mounted our bikes and began the quick ride back to Zavelstein, hoping to beat the heavy rain. Some of the way was rainy, though more of a drizzle than hard driving rain. Fifteen minutes later, we were back at the Kohnlein household only a little wet. The rest of the evening was spent eating dinner and continuing on my writing for the day. I had a firm deadline to send my first weeks episodes and there was still some work to be done.

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