Boy, it sure does rain a lot in Germany during Spring! It rained when we arrived, it rained when we watched the horse parade (more on this later), it rained when we slept and when we woke up, it rained while we were eating pretzels (which didn't affect how yummy they were in any way) and it even rained when we were climbing ropes and riding zip lines from tree to tree 40 feet up in the air (more on this one to come). But regardless of the weather, Germany is one of my favorite places out of all of the places I've been so far. I don't know what it is exactly, but there's just something special about it. Maybe it's the people, maybe it's the pretzels or the small-town feel even in the cities...perhaps it's a mix of all of that stuff. Whatever it is, I like it and am looking forward to returning soon!
Our German tour guides were a couple of long-time friends of Becky and Justin. Simon and Nadine are pictured below with Becky:
Travelling foreign countries is always better if you know some locals that will show you around and introduce you to the real every day life of people in their country. There was a lot of local living on this trip, that's for sure. We started our adventure in Weingarten, Germany where Nadine goes to school. While we were there, we saw some horses. 3,000 horses to be exact! Apparently we arrived just in time to see the annual horse parade where people (and horses) from all over Germany come to Weingarten and march around the city starting at 7 AM! There are so many horses it takes over three hours for them to go through the town!
Also, every town that comes also has a marching band. The bands play traditional German songs while trying to step around the messes that all the horses ahead of them made (gross!).
Halfway through the horse parade we were all getting a bit hungry so we set out to find some breakfast. I kept hearing about these German pretzels from Justin and Becky and couldn't wait to try some myself. Let me tell you, amici, these soft, fresh-from-the-bakery treats were truly worth the wait! The Germans may not have invented them, but they sure have perfected them! We ate them with jam made by Nadine's grandmother - which made the experience even more sweet.
From Weingarten, we set off to the town where Simon goes to school, Konstanz. Konstanz is very close to the Swiss and Austrian borders and is on the shores of the Bodensee, which is one of the largest lakes in Europe. Here I am on top of a tower looking out over the Bodensee. It was raining so you can't see much, but on clear days you can see all the way to the Swiss Alps across the lake!
The weather decided to behave on the second day we were in Konstanz. Becky and Nadine decided that was a good enough excuse to do some shoppendoofen (this is a fake German word Justin made up that means "shopping") while Simon and Justin went to Simon's university to participate in some computer nerd activities. That evening, we set off for another German town called Weiler where Nadine and Simon grew up and where both of their families still live. But first, we had to make a quick stop in Switzerland to get some famous Swiss chocolates. Unfortunately the factory was closed, but the sign looked good enough to eat!
When we arrived in Weiler, Nadine's dad had dinner waiting for us. We had a pasta and pork dish (similar to stroganoff), German potato salad (made by Nadine's grandmother) and fresh veggies. It was all so tasty I had to sneak in a second plate! The following morning we had another traditional south German breakfast with baked goods (mostly pretzels of course), deli meats and yogurt. We had to get in a good meal first thing because we were off to an abenteuerpark ("adventure park" in English) that afternoon.
We came across a few adventure parks while driving through the German countryside between towns. Basically, an adventure park is an obstacle course in the woods on platforms 40 feet in the air. Crazy, huh? To get from tree to tree, you have to climb ropes, ride zip lines, balance yourself on moving platforms, wobble across tight ropes and even swing from a long rope like Tarzan into a giant net. Here is a little taste of the tracks from our place safely on the ground:
It doesn't look like much here, but these platforms were scattered all over the woods. There were 9 different tracks we could follow, each one with increasing levels of difficulty. We did two of the medium tracks and it took us over five hours! It was a lot of fun, but very exhausting. Good thing I had a little help getting from tree to tree:
We had a nice chili dinner at Nadine's mom's house then went back to Weiler for a few rounds of Rummikub. Justin's family played this game a lot when they went camping with his grandmother. I was helping Justin out for a while (I like to think that I helped him win).
Way too much fun for a character like myself to have in a single day! We slept well that night, which was a good thing because our plane to Italy left very early the next morning.
Such a fun trip made even more enjoyable by fun people. I will miss Germany for now but I know we will be returning soon. There is much to explore in that country and we only saw a very small part of it. Maybe I'll go practice some German! Until our next adventure, this is Flat Stanley saying "Auf wiedersehen Freunden!" (which is German for "Goodbye, friends") and is pronounced something like "owf vee-der-zen froynd-en", but don't quote me on that one!).
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