 1 Sunday 4 July, 2010 35th wedding anniversary We got under way after breakfast and in about 3 hours, we had reached the outskirts of Stuttgart. We then headed south and reached the first town that we planned to stop at in the Black Forest. |
 2 Sunday 4 July, 2010 35th wedding anniversary It was at a beautiful little village called Calw and we had driven there non-stop over the autobahns. Our average speed from the time of filling with petrol was 95 kmh. |
 3 Sunday 4 July, 2010 35th wedding anniversary Calw is in the middle of Baden-Württemberg in the northern Black Forest. We had difficulty pronouncing the name but it is like calf with the 'l" prounounced as well. |
 4 Sunday 4 July, 2010 35th wedding anniversary Many of the places we visited in Germany were rebuilt after being destroyed during WWII but this beautiful town is all original. |
 5 Sunday 4 July, 2010 35th wedding anniversary This is the main shopping street; we spot an outdoor restaurant to our right and grab a table. After our anniversary dinner last night, it is now time for an anniversary lunch. |
 6 Sunday 4 July, 2010 35th wedding anniversary We had a very pleasant lunch here and, for about the first time ever, we actually received what we imagined we had ordered. A picture helped. |
 7 Sunday 4 July, 2010 35th wedding anniversary German menus are almost impossible to read. French Menus are impossible to pronounce (for me) but I recognise far more of the words. |
 8 Sunday 4 July, 2010 35th wedding anniversary I love the exposed timbers done in a style called fachwerke or half-timbering. |
 9 Sunday 4 July, 2010 35th wedding anniversary It came as a bit of a shock to learn that in this idyllic, peaceful town, a subcamp of the Natzweiler-Struthof Concentration camp was located here during WWII. Parts for aircraft were assembled by female forced labourers at the camp. |
 10 Sunday 4 July, 2010 35th wedding anniversary A doctor whose initials were TW was the first owner of this building in 1693. The logo shows his tools of trade: a bleeding bowl with a knife and scissors. |
 11 Sunday 4 July, 2010 35th wedding anniversary That same archway now belongs to the metzgerei or butcher's shop. The funny thing is that the business remains much the same as it was in 1693. |
 12 Sunday 4 July, 2010 35th wedding anniversary The most prominent resident of Calw was the poet, novelist, and painter Hermann Hasse. In 1946, he received the Nobel Prize in Literature. |
 13 Sunday 4 July, 2010 35th wedding anniversary We walk into an area of town called the marktplatz. And it is stunning. |
 14 Sunday 4 July, 2010 35th wedding anniversary This is the Calw Rathaus (Town Hall). The figures date from 1929 and symbolise the three major obligations of the city to its citizens:
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 15 Sunday 4 July, 2010 35th wedding anniversary In the Middle Ages Calw was an important commercial town especially for the trade of cloth and leather. |
 16 Sunday 4 July, 2010 35th wedding anniversary In the 18th century Calw flourished from the lumbers trade and the rafting of timber on the Nagold river. |
 17 Sunday 4 July, 2010 35th wedding anniversary I am walking up Marktplatz where the buildings date primarily from the 17th and 18th centuries. |
 18 Sunday 4 July, 2010 35th wedding anniversary This is the Evangelical (protestant) church of Peter and Paul. This site was first mentioned as being a church in 1262. It was rebuilt and extended around 1500 but destroyed in 1634. The new church was inaugurated in 1655 and burnt down four decades later in 1692. |
 19 Sunday 4 July, 2010 35th wedding anniversary This is a lovely, quintessentially German town that is one of the most beautiful I have seen. |
 20 Sunday 4 July, 2010 35th wedding anniversary According to a dual-language sign in the Marktplatz, the timbers of the buildings here were originally plastered over and only exposed in the early 20th century. |
 21 Sunday 4 July, 2010 35th wedding anniversary From Calw, we headed SW to another town through the Black Forest called Freudenstadt. I do not know what I expected to find in the Black Forest but it turned out to be full of trees. |
 22 Sunday 4 July, 2010 35th wedding anniversary It was a hot day and children were playing in the water fountain. |
 23 Sunday 4 July, 2010 35th wedding anniversary Freudenstadt (Town of Joy) was heavily damaged during WWII and plundered by allied troops. |
 24 Sunday 4 July, 2010 35th wedding anniversary Attractive terrace houses line the square. |
 25 Sunday 4 July, 2010 35th wedding anniversary Freudenstadt is an internationally known climatic health resort . In the 19th and 20th centuries, visitors of note included George V of the United Kingdom, the Queen of Sweden, John D. Rockefeller and the American writer Mark Twain. |
 26 Sunday 4 July, 2010 35th wedding anniversary Freudenstadt was founded in 1599 as a refuge for Protestants from Salzburg. |
 27 Sunday 4 July, 2010 35th wedding anniversary The town was severely damaged by fire during World War II. The central city, including the Renaissance arcades in the marketplace and the Evangelical church (1601–08) were rebuilt to their original form. |
 28 Sunday 4 July, 2010 35th wedding anniversary The Gothic/Renaissance Evangelical Lutheran (protestant) Church, with its green tower roofs, is on the south side of the market place. It dates from the beginning of the 17th century and is considered to be Freudenstadt's most significant building. |
 29 Sunday 4 July, 2010 35th wedding anniversary The town is a winter sports centre and one of the most frequented resorts in the Black Forest. Its spa has been reconstructed with modern facilities. |
 30 Sunday 4 July, 2010 35th wedding anniversary These buildings are on each side of the square and behind these buildings are other rows of buildings that form a sort of a fortress to enclose the square. |
 31 Sunday 4 July, 2010 35th wedding anniversary Freudenstadt’s industrial products include machinery, cosmetics and leather goods but its main industry is tourism. |
 32 Sunday 4 July, 2010 35th wedding anniversary Marktplatz is actually three separate areas: the market area, the area where the children were playing and the park to the left. This aerial photograph makes it appear that the square itself enclosed by a fortress of rows of buildings. |
 33 Sunday 4 July, 2010 35th wedding anniversary We decided that light refreshment was in order so we sat in the shade and had dessert (cherry liqueur ice cream) and coffee. |
 34 Sunday 4 July, 2010 35th wedding anniversary The market place is 250 m x 250 m. Heath is the other city in Germany that claimed to have the largest market place in the country. Both cities eventually agreed that the markets were equal, but Heath has the largest built-up marketplace and Freudenstadt has the largest undeveloped market place. Win-win. |
 35 Sunday 4 July, 2010 35th wedding anniversary The Rathaus is the imposing building with the spire. |
 36 Sunday 4 July, 2010 35th wedding anniversary Late in WWII after the town's capture, allied troops raped about 500 women in Freudenstadt on April 17, 1945. This was one of many inexcusable atrocities perpetrated by the victors. |
 37 Sunday 4 July, 2010 35th wedding anniversary A beautiful fountain adorns the plaza right next to where we were seated. |
 38 Sunday 4 July, 2010 35th wedding anniversary We decided not to go to Baden-Baden but to take the road that headed in that direction for a little while and then to turn west for Strasbourg |
 39 Sunday 4 July, 2010 35th wedding anniversary Quite by accident, we came across a fabulous view to the west from the mountains of the northern Black Forest. |
 40 Sunday 4 July, 2010 35th wedding anniversary There were two paraglider pilots trying to fill the wings with air but they were unsuccessful and we never got to see them take off. |
 41 Sunday 4 July, 2010 35th wedding anniversary These aircraft are paragliders and not hang gliders. Paragliders are more easily transportable, usually in a back pack, which means they can be transported to the top on a ski lift. |
 42 Sunday 4 July, 2010 35th wedding anniversary Definition: "A paraglider is a free-flying, foot-launched aircraft. The pilot sits in a harness suspended below a fabric wing, whose shape is formed by its suspension lines and the pressure of air entering vents in the front of the wing." |
 43 Sunday 4 July, 2010 35th wedding anniversary How many husbands take their wives to the Black Forest to watch paragliders for their anniversary I ask you? |
 44 Sunday 4 July, 2010 35th wedding anniversary We spent some time here enjoying the breeze and the views. After this we headed downhill and this seemed to take a very long time. |
 45 Sunday 4 July, 2010 35th wedding anniversary We had the road to ourselves except at one point a red Honda S2000 sports car came up behind us very quickly. I pulled over at the first opportunity and let him by. He soon disappeared from view. |
 46 Sunday 4 July, 2010 35th wedding anniversary After some time we reached the flats and headed for Strasbourg. |
 47 Sunday 4 July, 2010 35th wedding anniversary Our route took us over the Rhine into France and through Strasbourg itself in heavy peak-hours traffic (I did not enjoy this). After maybe half an hour through stop-start traffic, we made it to the roads to the west of Strasbourg and got to Romanswiller without any further angst. Next stop: We share our 35th wedding anniversary with Michele |
