So we’re camping on the edge of the Black Forest and we’ve got a few days here. We also got given a public transport pass as part of the campsite fee, so we decided to use the bus system and go and have a look at Baden Baden. It turns out that you can take a bus to one of the National Park Centres at Mummelsee, up in the Forest Hill’s, and then another bus back down to Baden Baden.
We’d studied the timetable the night before, decided on how it all worked, got a plan… and then decided we’d just ask at reception when we were leaving.
After a quick conversation with the guy on reception we realised we were mostly good. The bus stop was literally outside the campsite entrance and so we arrived like good Brits, 20 minutes early. By the time the bus departure time arrived there were three couples waiting. And then, in a very non-German way, the bus arrived 10 minutes late, much to the frustration of of one of the couples.
We then had a twisting turning bus ride up to the National Park and our next bus stop. For Much of the route the views were obscured by trees, but once in a while you got glimpses of the expanse of the Rhine valley stretching for many miles (30) below us. It was also a bit hazy, so not the best viewing conditions. There’ll be some pictures later on from the Mummelsee, National Park.
Mummelsee
Mummelsee seems to be named after something to do with the lake and mermaids🤷♂️. There wasn’t much in the way of English translations going on but we did decipher that the lake was 800m in circumference, 17m deep, 1036m above sea level and created by a glacier in the last ice-age.
Lots of people seemed to be using this stop as the base for a walk, as well as the dozens of cars that had driven.
So, after a coffee/coke and the 40 minute wait for the next bus we hopped aboard for the trip back down the mountain to Baden Baden.
While waiting for the bus we did start talking to a German family on a birthday hike. It turned out to be the son’s birthday yesterday. That’s very spooky as it was the campsite owner from Trier’s birthday yesterday too, and PaulM’s birthday! 3 birthdays in one day… I know there are 8Bn people on the planet, but I hats the odds of three people you know having the same birthday?? 🤷♂️🤷♂️
The family were very chatty and we found out that Germans near the French border only see France as a quick nip over the border for cheese and cheap red wine! 🤣
We hadn’t been seated in the bus for more than a minute before we were pounced upon by a survey guy from the local bus company. He quickly bounced into English and we did the survey. We then proceeded to have a 40 minute conversation with him about the area, his wife being born in London, his grand-father-in-laws escape through Siberia in WW2 as a German Jew and a whole host of local and world politics. Gotta love an ad-hoc conversation… we even missed our stop as we talked to him and had to get off at the next stop in Baden Baden.
Baden Baden
BB is one of 6 (?) UNESCO “Roman Baths Cities of Europe”. One of the others is of course Bath – Baden means “bathing” in German.
We weren’t looking for an in-depth analysis of BB, we were after a flavour… and some Black Forest Gateau for Sue.
BB has the Roman Baths but also saw a huge development in the 19th century with the spa being a big draw for the wealthy from around Europe. So, lots of culture, hotel and gambling related development to go along with the spa.
Our Jewish bus surveyor had told us it was still a big destination for wealthy Russians, but we didn’t manage to spot any (old fat blokes with wives in high heels, 30 years younger… stereotyping… moi?!)
We were using the GPSMyCity app to give us a walking tour and came across…
The Casino is a big thing, we guessed, because of the 19th century “baths” tourism 🤷♂️
It wasn’t “Gat-ohhh”, but it also wasn’t “purrr” either (Sue and Tim will be the only ones to get that particular joke).
And that was Baden Baden. We spent about 3 hours there and probably could have done a day or two. But we got the flavour we were after and jogged-on.
We didn’t encounter any rogue surveyors on the bus trip home but we did have to walk about a km from a bus-stop we weren’t entirely sure we should get off at. No probs, it was a walk.
But if we hadn’t had enough of a day… Sue got accosted, in the van, by a Dutch guy (René Winters) who was a Rover fanatic. I think I managed to get back to the van just in time to save her from a fate worse than death – a car enthusiast. He started the conversation with a “we have a VW camper van, how is yours”, but by the time I’d got back from the loos they were discussing his collection of 15 1980’s and 1990’s Rovers.
He’d got SD1’s, 200 series, 400 series and a lot 800 (three in the same colour but saloon, coupe and hatchback!).
We spent about 45 minutes with this guy talking about cars and then went to visit his T5 on the campsite. You’ve gotta go with the flow when you encounter an enthusiast! His wife didn’t seem, shall we say, to be quite as enthusiastic as he was!!
Anyway, that was the end of a day.
Harry, Ron and Hermione are just figuring out who Nicolas Flammel is.
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