auto and technical museum in Sinsheim

On Thursday the 18th of June, I drove with Dietrich 10 miles south to the Auto and Technical museum in Sinsheim. There I took off to tour through a Concorde Air France, other planes, and stroll through many collectable cars, bicycles, trains and motorcycles. Just the logistics of bringing an airrplane the size of the Concorde, through city streets to a museum sight, is mindboggling! The airplane sits high above the ground at an upward angle, and I walked thru it to the cockpit, small by todays standards. There are only 2 seats on each side of a narrow aisle, and only 120 people flew each flight. Wow! I went into a German plane, an Air France jet, and viewed many planes, including a Messerschmit 109, the plane which shot Poppa's plane down in 1943. The swastica was clearly visible on the tail, and a weird chill ran up my spine.
Many Mercedes, Rolls Royces, Ferraris, Cadillacs, many beautiful cars were on display from many different times. Bicycles from the 1800s and early 1900s, and many racing winners, were there. Several steam trains, complete with sound and the moving of the wheels, were there. The Blue Flame, which is the first car to break the world land speed record at 622 mph, in Nevada, is there. Wow! what a place!! Visit www.technik-museum.de to see all I saw. Wow!!
Upon leaving, I rode my bike one block and what to my wondering eyes did appear but "second hand store"! I looked at books, toys, and bought a bike jersey, lighter colored shorts, and 2 light shirts. I wove my way thru the back roads to Christine's and we had lunch, then later in the day went for supper at a local tavern. I had schnietzle, which is a pork-fried steak, with lots of shredded carrots, cabbage, tomatos, cucumbers, sauce, and pomme frites, ubiquitous french fries and oh! so good! I'm going to need to bicycle a bunch to burn up all this food! At home, we visited til late, and I tasted ice wine, the first time I'd ever heard of it. This is a very special limited production of white wine, which is made from grapes which have been exposed to below freezing temperature while still on the vine. The wine is pressed from the cold grapes and there is only so much. The taste is lightly sweet and subtle, very rich- delicious isn't a big enough word for it. Only in Germany! (maybe not literally...)
Friday morning we all drove over to Heidelberg, where Christine is part of a huge quilt exhibit in the city. We all worked til noon setting up the racks and poles on which to hang the quilts her guild has made. Then Dietrich and I left to shop for a tent. First we had Thai food for lunch. I had a duck soup with orange curry, and the flavor was superb. Then we had success with a tent in a large 6 story department store. We drove up the mountain above Heidelberg and drove the scenic road home to Mauer. When Christine arrived home we stayed awake for a long time sharing stories, laughter and a great time.
Saturday morning Christine was off to the quilt show, and Dietrich and I drove south to Friedrichstrasse, in the black forest where his parents live. They are at 3000' same as Alberton, but rise from 500' only 50 miles away. Their home is in the woods, next to a nature preserve. Gorgeous and quiet, a rest from city life. Dietrich and I rode our bikes into the town, 8 miles away. It was almost all downhill, which meant....it was uphill and thru the woods back home. After supper his parents, mostly Mom, shared stories about the war, about their lives then and now. It was an undescribable gift to hear his mom talk of all these things still so close in her heart.
Today, Sunday, Father's day. A Happy happy day to you, Raymond!! Happy day to all you dad's!
Dietrich left back to Mauer, and his parents and I drove further south to the Bodensee, AKA Lake Constance. They dropped me off in Lindau, on the southeastern edge of the lake, still in Germany. I bicycled south and around the end of the lake into Austria. A man saw me looking at the map at the edge of town and told me that "Switzerland is very expensive, camp here", so I rode north to a campground with hot showers and food and internet. I will sleep a long catchup sleep on this, the shortest night of the year, and head into Switzerland tomorrow to St Gallen. The town has a bibliotheque (library) with 150,000 volumes, many dating back 2 and 3 and 400 years. Wow!! I can't wait!! Should keep me out of trouble for a little while.... :)