Almost there ... the airport anyway

On our way to the outskirts of Frankfurt for our last night in Germany we stopped in Heidelberg . A very interesting college town with a pretty cool castle.

From Germany2012Album

From Germany2012Album

From Germany2012Album

From Germany2012Album

From Germany2012Album

From Germany2012Album

We ate lunch in a market square ...

From Germany2012Album

It's a busy city ...

From Germany2012Album

and finally ... the storks ... We've seen lots of storks over here ... I caught this one in Denzlingen ...

From Germany2012Album

Homeward Bound ..., well almost ...

Tonight is our last night in Denzlingen ... we will have been here a total of 8 nights and seen many sites in the surrounding area. This evening we spent packing and re-packing to get our bags under the 50 pound limit and still get the dirty laundry and new found "treasures" home. We will drive to a place near Frankfurt tomorrow to spend the night and arise early Wednesday morning to catch the 10:30AM flight back home. We expect to meet up again with Woodie and Linda in Chicago for the flight to San Antonio arriving at about 8:30PM Wednesday night. Today we motored the short distance to Selestat, France only to find that the specific shop Carolyn and Linda wanted to visit was closed on Monday's ... but the country side was pretty as was the village...

From Germany2012Album

From Germany2012Album

From Germany2012Album

WWe also stopped by the World War II memorial the Maginot Line.

From Germany2012Album

From Germany2012Album

We bid farewell to our wonderful German hostess, Rosi, over frozen margaritas ... About to wrap this journey and the web log up ...

Freiberg ... a college town

Today our German hostess, Rosi, drove us into the city of Freiberg. Freiberg is a bustling college town filled with young people on bicycles. We walked over to the central market in the center of town to find a very busy open air marketplace with vendors selling everything from carrots to wood carvings. Rosi told us the market was up and running every day! The market surrounds a huge cathedral that was started in the 1200's ... it is massive and one very interesting point is that during WWII Freiberg was bombed into total ruins ... but ... the cathedral was unscathed. Apparently the allied forces were instructed to leave the church standing ... this old photo shows what it looked like after the bombing ...

From Germany2012Album

A few pics of the church to give an idea of size ...

From Germany2012Album

From Germany2012Album

From Germany2012Album

... a story here about the "odd" gargoyle on the left ... apparently the stone mason wasn't satisfied with what he was paid ...

From Germany2012Album

The inside of the cathedral is impressive ...

From Germany2012Album

From Germany2012Album

From Germany2012Album

The market ...

From Germany2012Album

From Germany2012Album

McDonalds in Freiberg

From Germany2012Album

Cable cars in the street going both ways ... YIKES!!

From Germany2012Album

We also visited a botanical garden ...

From Germany2012Album

From Germany2012Album

It was a nice relaxing day ...

We saw a "See" and a glass factory ...

In Germany a "see" is what we call a lake ... so lot's of small towns are "am see" meaning "on the lake". Today we drove thru the black forest to Titisee ... a lake ... The drive was really pretty since today was really our first day of good warm sunshine ...

From Germany2012Album

From Germany2012Album

The "see" was basically ... a lake ...

From Germany2012Album

We did have cheeseburgers for lunch ... and enjoyed them very much! Then we drove to a glass factory ... Don't be fooled by the large carved figures ... it really IS a glass factory!

From Germany2012Album

From Germany2012Album

From Germany2012Album

From Germany2012Album

From Germany2012Album

Our German hostess Rosi fixed what we would call "Chili beans" for dinner and they were great!! Here is a pic of our home in Denzlingen for 8 days ...

From Germany2012Album

I'm cuckoo for Cuckoo Clocks ...

Today we drove deep into the Black Forest ... in search of the rare Cuckoo Clock ... ok ok not so rare once you get there! The drive was up a very winding narrow road and we arrived in the village of Triberg Germany. Triberg is famous for waterfalls and cuckoo clocks ...

From Germany2012Album

From Germany2012Album

Linda and I decided to trek up to the Triberg waterfall ...

From Germany2012Album

From Germany2012Album

From Germany2012Album

I had seen a cuckoo clock I really liked in the House of 1000 Clocks but it was very expensive ... we went next door and the shop turned out to be an outlet of a clockmaker down the road ... this particular maker did his own work, by hand, and sold only his designs thru his shop. The girl in the shop suggested we go to see him ... we did ... The House of Black Forest Clocks was a very interesting place ... we got to visit the clock maker in his workshop and spoke at length with him about his craft and family. He is a 6th generation clock maker ... His workshop ...

From Germany2012Album

From Germany2012Album

The clock maker Adolf Herr giving Carolyn a lesson in clock making ...

From Germany2012Album

and with Woodie and Linda ...

From Germany2012Album

One of a couple of workbenches in what is a pretty crowded shop ...

From Germany2012Album

This is the clock we bought ... it's really very cool ...

From Germany2012Album

Also in Herr Herr's shop were cool beer steins ...

From Germany2012Album

and handmade grandfather clocks ...

From Germany2012Album

I really liked these steins ...

From Germany2012Album

From Germany2012Album

This is a GIANT cuckoo clock outside the store/shop ...

From Germany2012Album

... it all works ... things move and it has a really loud "cuckoo". It was a very cool day!