Germany: The Rhine River & Black Forest

Here you see we are crossing the Rhine River from France (on the right) to Germany (on the left). As when we passed from Switzerland into France, this border crossing again had no checks or controls whatsoever. We just drove across.

I hadn't previously known much about the Rhine River - I had had the impression it flowed through the middle of Germany, because David had biked along it when he lived in Bonn as a youth. In fact, it also forms part of the border between eastern France and western Germany, and continues to form (along with Lake Konstanz/Bodensee) the border between southern Germany and northern Switzerland. We crossed it as a country border twice in the same day. Actually, four times, because we did the crossing to Germany twice since we didn't really realize it the first time! We just stopped the car, turned around, went back to France, and then back into Germany with full realization this time. Then later in the day we crossed south from Germany into Switzerland, again over the Rhine.

In French: Le Rhin
In German: Der Rhein
In English: The Rhine

Talk about confusing spellings!

After crossing into Germany, we completed our brief study of tri-national road speed limits:

Country/Speed Limit	Switzerland	France	Germany
KPH In-Town	50	50	50
KPH Out-of-Town	80	90	100
KPH on Highway	120	130	sometimes no limit

The cars on the highway kept zooming past us, even though we were going along at a good clip (130kph, or 80mph). Fascinating phenomenon.

Then we got into the Black Forest - entering through a breathtaking gorge filled with the orange, red, yellow and gold of Autumn. It's a beautiful area - and we only drove through a small portion of the southern part of the forest. We passed ski jumps on the right, and golf course on the left just afterwards, and stopped off in the resort lake town of Titisee ("tee-tee-zeh") for lunch (check out the story at that link about why they measure the ice at 4 locations daily in the winter). I found the waitress' German refreshingly easy to understand compared to Swiss-German. I am so pleased that this indicates I have been learning something at least. We had a delicious and peaceful lunch overlooking the lake. It was quiet and relaxing - ah, the benefits of the off-season and mid-week! I enjoyed some "Pfifferlinge" in cream sauce (Chanterelle mushrooms), which in Switzerland I have found on menus as "Eierschwämmli" (I pulled out my trusty pocket dictionary which lives in my purse to discover what a lot of things on the menu were, such as "Ingwer" which is ginger).

Continuing on our way home to Zürich, we passed through the town of "Aha" (good for a laugh for our car's occupants) and along its lake "Schluchsee." I just can't make that word sound elegant...

Having crossed into Switzerland again (into the canton of Aargau, at the town of Koblenz, not to be confused with the German town by the same name), we started listening to Silly Songs with Larry on David's ipod (favorites being "I Love my Lips" and "Bellybutton"), which links in to our Toyota Corolla Verso's stereo system and comes out the speakers (our first experience with this neat technology). Then Enya got us the rest of the way home and we decided we'd had enough driving for the week - a day of errands and two more of lounging around in pajamas sounded perfect.

Thank You for a lovely trip and for letting us live here in the centre of Europe, God of the Universe! Thank You that so many much more amazing things await beyond this life, in Your presence! Can't wait to be with You in a closer way! Thank You for my boys in the other room jamming together on drums and bass with a track for "Famous One" - that's You!