Black Forest (IV): Gengenbach

Since we were in the middle of the Black Forest, we carried on to visit another of the recommended towns: Gengenbach. It is another historical town, with walls and towers. It was also very pretty, especially with the lights on, but it felt a little more dressed up than Schiltach.

It seemed like we had Schiltach to ourselves, but there were a lot more people looking at the lights in Gengenbach.



The 18th century town hall has 24 windows. They make up a life-sized advent calendar:

We wandered around in the gathering gloom before going for a nice meal. I had a wild boar stew with spaetzle. Very nice - it was probably the equal of the duck stew in Strasbourg.



In the UK, I've been trained to expect little in the way of public places to pee. At Kings Cross and the Victoria bus station, you have to pay to use the disgusting toilets, when by rights they should be paying for users' hepatitis treatment for going anywhere near it. In central London on a Friday night, trucks drive around offloading foul four-sided plastic urinals for the drunken revellers. Do not inhale when one of those trucks goes past. When Dick Whittington came to London on the promise that the streets were paved with gold, he would've found golden streets all right, but I hope he didn't tread in any of the golden puddles. I think that's how his cat died.


This is a wordy way of saying that although we were viewing the sights, I was somewhat distracted by the more important hunt for a toilet. There wasn't one at the station when we arrived, and things were getting desperate. I'm opposed to paying, but I eventually decided to use the pay-per-use public toilet in the main square. I put my money in, expecting there to be a small portaloo behind the door. Instead, a long, white, pristine staircase descended into the basement to one of the most luxurious toilets I've ever seen. Kudos Gengenbach.

Black Forest (III): Schiltach

On the second day, we caught a train into the Black Forest. We travelled through the hills to Schiltach, which is debatably the prettiest town in the area. The centre of the town is made up of medieval half-timbered houses up to 500 years old.







This is the cafe where we stopped for goulash and Black Forest cake. They had commemorative plates of the UK royal family around the walls. Psh, as if the Saxe-Coburgs have anything to do with Germany.



























Being perched on the edge of a river, the town floods on a semi-regular basis. The stones on the wall of this house record the heights of the highest floods.

Black Forest (II): Strasbourg

We caught the train from Karlsruhe down to Offenburg, and then jumped a second train to Strasbourg. The name sounds German, but it's actually just over the border in France.

During WWII, the population of Strasbourg was evacuated and the city was empty for 10 months. That was probably the smart move. I've seen what it's like overrun by hordes of Germans.



Strasbourg labels itself "the Capital of Christmas", and even post-Christmas when we visited there were markets scattered all over the city.

That's What I Said

In addition, it's cute as a button. The town is dominated by a massive cathedral, so we slogged our way up a narrow spiral staircase to the top to see the view.

The centre of Strasbourg is completely surrounded by canals and is a World Heritage site. It has a bit of a Bruges feel to it.

There was no snow, but the river was very full. The benches in the shot below stick out of the water. The path is completely submerged.







For dinner, I had a duck stew with potato and chestnut. Germany, you're going to have to lift your culinary game.

Black Forest (I): Karlsruhe

In the holiday between Christmas and New Year, we travelled to the Black Forest region to explore.

If you're anything like us, the phrase "Black Forest" conjures a couple of mental images: cake, fur trees, and of course, cuckoo clocks.

Called it!

We also expected the region to be buried in snow, but we were wrong there. It was cool and rivers were full, but we only saw a few wisps of snow.

The trip turned out to be better than I expected - there are a lot of interesting sights in the area. We based ourselves in Karlsruhe, which was probably the least exciting option, but it was central for travel and saved us some money.

Only Interesting Building in Karlsruhe

Bank on Seeing it

Vermeer was an extremely exacting artist, completing about 3 paintings per year. 34 of them have survived. Of those, I've seen at least 6, maybe 8, and lifesize reproductions of the rest.

By contrast, Banksy spray paints on walls, mostly within 100 miles of my flat.

I enjoy the works of both these artists. In my time in Europe, Banksy's work has proved far more elusive than Vermeer's. Bansky angered the supporters of a fellow graffiti artist, King Robbo, and they set about destroying his work. London councils have also worked overtime painting over his pieces, even when begged not to by the property owners. I slogged to Bristol to see his show but was turned away, I've spent afternoons stomping around disreputable parts of London with scribbled notes looking for the remaining pieces, I went to the pier at Bournemouth to look for the Treasure piece, and when my brother visited, I dragged him down a filthy alley near St Paul's in the hopes of finding one. Not a bloody thing.

When a new piece appeared near the BT Tower, I zoomed down to see it. At last!



Someone put a perspex sheet over it to protect it. If you look closely at the lower right corner, you can see that someone has tucked some of the Banksy money inside the sheet.