Wednesday Sixe and Hilde once again picked us up, this time to take us on a nostalgic trip back to Rohrdorf and the surrounding area. We first visited in 1979 with Scriven Park FC to play the return leg of an exchange which had been in Knaresborough the year before, and then came back again in 1982. The experience made a huge impression on us all, and we’ve maintained contact with Sixe ever since.
We had a picturesque drive through the northern Black Forest – the Natural Park – stopped for coffee and blueberry cake at a small typical Black Forest village and then drove onto the village where Hilde grew up.
We saw her family home and her father’s tractor repair workshop, and then drove into Rohrdorf, where Sixe showed us the house he grew up in, which is now a office.
When we arrived neither Karol nor I realised we were in Rohrdorf as it has changed so much. The pub/butchers shop, the Ochsen, where we stayed as guests of Karl Otto and his wife in 1979 has been demolished and is now a bank.
On closer examination there were a couple of streets that were familiar but it’s much larger than we remember.
However, it was great to see that there are some things in this part of the world that haven’t changed, as whilst we were there the local farmers were queueing up with their tractors and trailers filled with grain, waiting patiently for their turn at the village mill. We then drove onto Nagold, the largest local town, about the size of Knaresborough.
Nagold has changed significantly too, and the bar we had spent a good deal of time in on earlier visits has also been demolished.
Sixe and arranged for us to meet Rainer Lenz, also known as ‘Kleiner Rainer’ to those of us who were on the earlier trips as there was also a much taller Rainer in the Rohrdorf team! He’s now a successful architect and partner in a practice in Stuttgart and has designed his own home in Rohrdorf where he still lives. We enjoyed a lively discussion about old times, modern politics and the differences between Germany and the UK over dinner.
Sixe then drove us home in the rain, and we said our goodbyes. Sixe and Hilde have been such good hosts and their hospitality has meant that we’ve managed to fit in so much in a few short days with them. It’s also been great to meet their boys again – they’re both a credit to their parents who are justifiably proud!
On Thursday it rained. We’d been expecting it, and decided to press on regardless, put on our kagools and visit Ettlingen once more to follow the historic walking tour we’d collected from Tourist Information on our earlier visit. We spent an interesting couple of hours strolling around the centre in the rain, with a brief stop for coffee and cake (getting to be a habit!) to dry out.
Rain was also forecast for Friday, but as it was our last day we decided to travel south into the Black Forest to Baden Baden and take in the B500 drive over the mountains from there which Sixe and recommended. The best of the weather was in the morning, so we decided to do the drive first before the cloud came down. It was a very picturesque drive, but unfortunately we didn’t beat the cloud, so after about 30 minutes we turned round and went back to Baden Baden.
After coffee we walked around the centre taking in the various sights. Baden Baden is a spa town – very like Harrogate in both it’s design and it’s feel. Spa towns had their heyday in the 19th century, when they were the places where anyone who was anyone went to be seen for the summer, and Baden Baden grew significantly in that time as a result – just like Harrogate.
The baths still exist, and on Friday’s it’s mixed bathing – we think without bathing costumes – I was keen (were you really Grant?!) but Karol decided that she wanted to preserve her modesty so we didn’t partake. We did however visit the pump room, the theatre, a museum chronicling the rise of Baden Baden in the 19th century, and some lovely gardens. We unfortunately couldn’t go into the casino as we had missed the last guided tour, and we weren’t dressed smartly enough to go in whilst the casino was open in the afternoon (I needed a jacket and tie, and, I suspect trousers!)
We drove back through Bad Herrenalb where the annual flower show was on, but it was raining so hard that we decided to head on back to the campsite and get ready for our move tomorrow to Luxembourg. From here we can visit the Mosel valley, Trier and the Grand Duchy itself.
We packed up in the rain, and set off for our next stop at around 10am. Unfortunately satnav Satan decided to come into play again, and we ended up heading south towards Basel. We eventually realised and found our way back to the A5 where we drove through the same roadworks which had held us up on Sunday and after an hour’s driving we arrived back almost where we had started! We carried on and arrived at our site in Born at about 3.30pm. This is a lovely site and we are pitched right by the river Sure. So far no mosquitoes – perfect.