Albert Einstein was born in Ulm; more on that later.  We got up super early, so that Ian could do Parkrun, at the pretty Friedrichsau Park.  Parkrun is not all that big in Germany, and he lined up with 26 others.  He got a round of applause for being from Australia, and completed his 5 […]

After the crowds and noise of a day at Legoland, we were looking for peaceful places to spend the day, without venturing too far from our base at Blaustein.  I already knew that I wanted to visit Kloster Wiblingen, with its spectacular library.  And our host suggested that the Kleine Lautertal nature reserve was a […]

For anyone wondering why we came to southern Germany, and Ulm in particular, the main reason was Legoland.  It was all planned so Ian could shop right at the end of the trip.  We’ve never been to a Legoland theme park, so I tagged along (I think I was there to carry the shopping).  Even […]

Eking out the last of our time in Gernsbach, we piled everything in the car,, bid farewell to Lachenackerweg, and drove to Baden Baden.  Our goal was the ruins of the Alte Schloss, perched high above the town, and built into the sheer cliffs.  The ruins are a labyrinth of stairs, arches, courtyards, walkways, towers, […]

Sometimes you don’t have to go far from home.  We’re staying on the northeast edge of Gernsbach, with only a couple of houses higher up the hill than us.  There is a narrow bitumen path that leads invitingly further on.  Ian had already been for a walk along it, and came back suggesting I would […]

It was dry in Gernsbach this morning, so we decided to drive the Schwarzwaldhochstrasse, or Black Forest High Road (aka the B500).  We figured on a cool, cloudy Monday, it would be a lot less busy than on yesterday’s sunny Sunday, when the motorbikes would have been out in force.  This 60 km road is […]

If you stay in the Black Forest, you receive a Konus Card, entitling you to free travel on local trains and buses.  Being Sunday, we wanted to avoid sharing the road with hundreds of motorcyclists on the famous High Road, so we took to the rails, and rode the S-Bahn train through the Murg Valley.  […]

It was time to farewell Cologne, and head south.  Thanks to train travel website The Man In Seat 61, I’d booked us onto the slightly slower but infinitely more scenic train to Karlsruhe via Koblenz, rather than via Frankfurt.  And I’d reserved two window seats on the side of the train that would maximise views […]

We slept late and didn’t rush this morning.  West of us is the GrunGurtel, or “green ring” of Cologne.  A walk in the park with a picnic lunch sounded appealing. The Cologne Central Mosque, in Ehrenfeld, was completed in 2017.  It is the largest mosque in Germany.  Its modern glass and concrete design, along with […]