22-27 May 2017
After leaving Bavaria, Gerri, while driving, announced she had a surprise destination for me - below, here we are at the Dornier Museum Friedrichshafen, an aerospace museum located in the German town of Friederichshafen near Lake Constance. Dornier ceased as a company in 2002, but the museum remains, having opened its doors in 2009.
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Across the runway from the museum is the present day Zeppelin NT company. Much like the Goodyear blimps, they conduct passenger flights and advertising missions. We watched several appearing to be performing training flights with many touch and goes.
Then we arrived in the town of Freiburg. "An old university town, Freiburg was incorporated in the early twelfth century and developed into a major commercial, intellectual, and ecclesiastical center of the upper Rhine region. The city is situated in the heart of the major Baden wine-growing region and serves as the primary tourist entry point to the scenic beauty of the Black Forest. According to meteorological statistics, the city is the sunniest and warmest in Germany and held the all-time German temperature record of 40.2 °C (104.4 °F) from 2003 to 2015."
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Mosaics in the sidewalks in front of businesses. Most of the them were created in the last few decades, based on some remaining very old examples. Some of the businesses had been replaced by new ones unrelated to the previous. And a stained glass example from the cathedral. And the cat, it appeared a current or previous owner just liked cats.
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Upon leaving Freiburg, we entered the Black Forest. Somehow the first shot through the car's window indeed showed a dark and foreboding view - the camera computer was apparently confused.
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In the left photo below, at the top of a major ridgeline, we found a hang glider/para glider launch point. As we continued down the backside of the ridge we were treated to more amazing scenery, as we approached Baden Baden Germany.
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"Baden-Baden is a spa town, located in the state of Baden-Württemberg in southwestern Germany. It lies at the northwestern border of the Black Forest mountain range on the small river Oos, just 10 km (6 mi) east of the Rhine, the border line to France, and about 40 km (25 mi) north-east of Strasbourg, France."
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A Bentley automobile can apparently be parked anywhere you want, after all this is a $250,000 car - what tow operator would dare tow it, what amount of a parking ticket could you not afford.
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Free outside offerings of a modern art museum, located adjacent to the historical spa's.
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And then the next day we took what they say in hiking language is a zero-day, just lounging around the apartment. It was also a German holiday, so just about everything was closed. Tim headed out towards dinner to find some bring-home pizza, and stumbled upon a crowd appearing to be waiting on either arrival or departure of a celebrity. He asked around and discovered Barack Obama was in town to receive a press award - apparently he'd arrived earlier and likely wasn't headed out till the next day.
After leaving Baden Baden, we hiked up to this balancing rock formation, and found a neat car parked nearby.
After leaving Baden Baden, we hiked up to this balancing rock formation, and found a neat car parked nearby.
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We were scheduled to arrive in Luxembourg the next day, but a mini-reunion near Ramstein AFB worked out, so we diverted a day to meet Dave Valentine and his family, and Jim Braunscheider and his wife. They were Gerri's ROTC friends from back at Michigan Tech. Dave works on Ramstein Air Base, and Jim was traveling for a few days out of Wash DC. (awaiting photos)
And now in Luxembourg standing on the bridge from Germany.
And now in Luxembourg standing on the bridge from Germany.
We continued on towards Luxembourg City, but visited an American WWII cemetery before arrival in the city. The Luxembourg American Cemetery and Memorial is 50.5 acres and contains the remains of 5,076 American service members. 44 graves are 22 sets of brothers resting side-by-side. Most of the interred died during the Battle of the Bulge which was fought nearby in the winter of 1944/1945. Two flagpoles overlook the graves area. Situated between the two flagpoles lies the grave of General George S. Patton.
We came to the cemetery on Saturday of Memorial Day Weekend, and arrived, unexpectedly, just as the annual ceremony began, with many dignitaries, and several service member families in attendance.
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An American and Luxembourg flag, along with a rose, was placed at each and every burial plot.
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We found Luxembourg City to be a modern city, as well as containing well preserved parts of its past. We took a walking tour which wound and circled along its old defensive formations.
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To the left, near the end of the tour. On the right, we ate dinner and watched an international marathon cross in front of us - as usual dominated by either Kenyans and/or Ethiopians. The race was also unexpected, and had much of the inner city blocked off for it. Many of the international runners were even staying at our hotel.
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And now we're in Belgium!
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