Germany 4: A castle and a dip into France

Yesterday didn't end up amounting to much.  The day started out promising, as we drove out to see the castle remains of Burg Hohengeroldseck.  The weather was beautiful, if a tad hot in the sun. 

We parked the car in the car park at the bottom of the hill and then hiked to the top of the small mountain, in a little under thirty minutes.  Near the bottom was a small wheat field, which I do not believe is something that I have seen before(and noticed).  We took a trail that zig zagged through a forest, with signs and information about the castle(not in English), along the way.  We walked around the castle, into its main room, and up its spiral to the top.  As usual, I did not like the height.  

I started to realize just how much I love the German countryside in this area.  There are tons of trees, beautiful grass fields, and just a small amount of traditional houses clustered together.  It is the perfect combination.

Stephanie wanted to see a local open air museum with about twenty four buildings.  As I have seen enough of these in the past to know that I am over them(add it to the list along with museums and the inside of churches).  The grass roofed buildings reminded me of the buildings in Ainokura and Shirakawago in Japan.  I guess if it works as a house in one place, then it'll work as a house in another.

The sun was hot overhead, and I realized that I must stop wearing jeans to walk around.  While Stephanie looked in the buildings, I found a few birds that looked pretty.

Just nearby was the main store related to one of the cuckoo clock stores from the day before, so we stopped in.  I wasn't impressed.  It didn't really offer anything new and I just didn't feel any interest in them.  We planned to drive a few minutes more, back into Triberg to look at the stores again.  One minute down the road was the main store of the House of 1000 Clocks.  We stopped in there, again were not impressed, and I turned around and we returned to our hotel for the night.  I was just wiped out.

We rested all night, I put on light khaki hiking pants(with zippered knees that convert the pants into shorts), and took the train to Triberg.  In the previous night, I did more research into cuckoo clocks in the area, and came across a store that we had not found, in Triberg, that did all of the woodcrafting and clock making in house.  Other stores, in comparison, put together pieces from different sources and most finished pieces looked sloppy.  I wanted to check out this store.

I ended up being much happier with this store and we spent a while examining the pieces thoroughly before picking out a clock to be shipped home.  Then we took a train for Strasbourg, France, on the border of Germany, just northwest of Gengenbach.  Our free train pass covered the train up to the border of Germany, but not the remaining distance to Strasbourg.

In the train station, there was a small enclave that housed a ticket buying screen, along with a video camera on one wall, with another wall dedicated to accepting payment.  Interacting with the screen did nothing.  You had to press a button and then wait until an operator was available, who then video chatted with you and put in the order for your specific tickets.  This is what we needed to do, according to the tourist information booth in town.

After a four minute wait, a relatively unhappy looking woman helped pick out our 17 Euro total round trip tickets that we needed.  We paid, the tickets came out, and then she asked if we needed the train schedule.  We said sure, and she printed up the train schedule for us as well.  It was actually a pretty cool experience.

Upon arriving in Strasbourg, I was disappointed that no conductor had come to ask for our tickets.  I was tempted to find a conductor, just to hand them over and make the cost feel worthwhile.  Later, when we would return home, once again no one checked for our ticket.

We first walked to the Barrage Vauban, a 17th century bridge.  When we entered we went straight to the top, to take pictures of town.  Upon looking up the bridge's name for the blog, I read that the inside housed historic sculptures.  Whoops!

We explored most of the old city, starting just northeast of the bridge.  The buildings shared a lot of characteristics with the German style.  We walked to the Cathedrale Notre Dame of Strasbourg, which was the world's tallest building from 1647 to 1874.  Today, it is the "highest extant structure built entirely in the Middle Ages," according to Wikipedia.