Germany Day 9: Black Forest and Strasbourg
From Tübingen, we drove through the Schwarzwald (Black Forest), across the French border to Strasbourg for lunch, then back across the border to Burghotel auf Schönburg on the Rhein (Rhine) for the night. As we approached the French border, we realized that we had brushed up on our German before our trip using Duolingo, but had forgotten to brush up on any French. There were a few awkward moments adjusting to the different street signs and communicating with our waiter at lunch, but we managed just fine without any major issues. It was nice not having to exchange any money since both Germany and France are on the Euro now, unlike when we lived in Germany thirty years ago.
We used Google Maps to guide us from Tübingen to the Schwarzwälder Freilichtmuseum Vogtsbauernhof (Black Forest Open Air Museum). As we were driving past the fields of rapeweed of the countryside, we noticed a strange, tall tower that looked out of place. So we did what we normally do when we come across something interesting, we took a picture of it and researched it later. One of our friends said it looked like a giant birthday candle. It turned out to be the Rottweil Test Tower to test elevators and you can get tickets to go up to the observation deck at the top for free on weekends (testturm.thyssenkrupp-elevator.com). Had we known about it sooner, we might have been tempted to go up.
Google Maps then directed us on a shortcut off of B462 through Aichhalden. We had another one of those "are you sure?" moments in Aichhalden, as Google told us to leave the town on a narrow, little road. But our trust in Google Maps paid off yet again. The little road switched back and forth through the woods and followed a stream back down to rejoin B462, past small farm houses and a quaint Landgasthaus (traditional restaurant or tavern). The fastest route generally isn't the most scenic, but in this case it was and we were grateful for the wonderful scenery.
From the Schwarzwälder Freilichtmuseum Vogtsbauernhof, we drove over to Strasbourg, France. It still amazes me how the culture and language is so different from one side of the border to the other, especially given that Strasbourg has flopped back and forth between French rule and German rule a couple of times in its history. We managed to communicate well enough with our waiter at lunch to order what we wanted and pay for our meal. However, we did notice a difference with how you pay your waiter in France compared with Germany. In Germany, the waiters carry little money pouches on them so they can give you change at the table when you pay them instead of having to run the money back to a cash register. In Europe, people do not tip waiters as much as we do in the States because waiters are paid a living wage. So, in Germany, it is customary to round up the bill and tell your waiter how much you want the total bill to be so they know how much change to give you back. For example, if the bill is €5,67 (Europeans use comma for the decimal point), then you might tell your waiter "six, please" ("sechs, bitte") and hand them €10, expecting the waiter to give you back €4. We tried to do this in Strasbourg by telling the waiter a value rounded up from our bill, but the waiter might not have understood what we were trying to say and I don't remember if we were speaking in English or German, but I'm sure we did not try to say that in French because we couldn't remember our numbers in French. But all was not lost, the waiter took our money, went inside the restaurant (we were sitting at an outside table) and returned with change for the exact amount of the bill (closer to American customs than German). So we just left the amount we wanted to tip on the table.
After a nice stroll around the old town center of Strasbourg, which is dominated by the huge cathedral (Cathédrale Notre Dame de Strasbourg), we drove back to Germany to our hotel to live like royalty for the next two nights in an old castle on the Rhein river, Burghotel auf Schönburg. It was a once-in-a-lifetime splurge, well worth the money for the experience, but we don't think we'll spend that kind of money to do it again. I'll save the pictures of Burghotel auf Schönburg for the next post on the Mosel and Rhein areas.
(RB)