April 15, 2014
Today
we managed to drive through FOUR COUNTRIES: Switzerland, Germany, France, and
Luxembourg. Of course we started in Lucerne this morning; we made sure to get
down for breakfast before 8am because we had heard last night that the school
group was coming down at 8am and we didn’t want to listen to them being rowdy.
After a nice filling breakfast we came up with a contingency plan for our night
in Luxembourg. We had put in a request for
a room with someone advertising on AirBnb, but with the short notice we
weren’t sure if they would get back to us, so we researched a hotel north of
Luxembourg City and close to a castle that looked super cool (we are kinda over
cities and cathedrals at this point and figured some time in the country would
be a nice change).
It
was about a 2 hour drive from Lucerne up into Germany with our first stop being
Furtwangen im Schwartzwald.
When I had been in Germany with mom in 2010 we had wanted to go to Furtwangen because they have a clock museum there, but it was too hard to get to on transit, so I made sure that Ben and I stopped there and checked it out.
It was actually pretty cool and had a whole history of clock-making in the Black Forest and the history of clocks in general. Some of the pieces they had in their collection were amazing.
When I had been in Germany with mom in 2010 we had wanted to go to Furtwangen because they have a clock museum there, but it was too hard to get to on transit, so I made sure that Ben and I stopped there and checked it out.
It was actually pretty cool and had a whole history of clock-making in the Black Forest and the history of clocks in general. Some of the pieces they had in their collection were amazing.
After
Furtwangen we continued through the Black Forest into Triberg: the land of
cuckoo clocks. We went into a store called House of 1000 Clocks and agonized
over all of our choices: manual wind or battery operated? 24 hour or 8 day?
Music or no music? Traditional or modern? Colours, styles, themes…the list goes
on. Eventually we decided on a traditional, manual wind, 8 day, no music.
We figured this would be the only cuckoo clock we ever buy so we should get a traditional manual wind, but we also thought that the music would get annoying after a while and the manual clocks on have 2 songs that they play, whereas the battery ones have several more.
We figured this would be the only cuckoo clock we ever buy so we should get a traditional manual wind, but we also thought that the music would get annoying after a while and the manual clocks on have 2 songs that they play, whereas the battery ones have several more.
After
such an important decision, we decided we should have something to eat, so we
headed up the street for some traditional Schwartzwald food, including
Schwartzwald Kirschtorte (Black Forest Cake). It was so delicious with real
whipped cream and boozy kirsch.
With full bellies we left Triberg and checked out the biggest cuckoo clock in the area on our way out of town.
With full bellies we left Triberg and checked out the biggest cuckoo clock in the area on our way out of town.
We
continued north and I fell asleep for a short while (like I said, fully belly,
beer, warm moving car = sleepy time) before Ben woke me up to let me know that
we were about to cross into France. There are no “borders” in this area of
Europe, only a small square sign with the country name on it. I keep trying to
catch them to take a picture but they are so hard to spot I always miss them.
Anyways, we took the highway through France and they had the highest speed
limit we have seen so far: 130 km/h. Everyone is still going faster than this
of course. We didn’t drive through any cities, we were mostly in the
countryside, which apparently is where France has built all of its nuclear
reactors. In fact we drove past 3 different nuclear power plants today, one was
in Switzerland right next to the German border (nasty Swiss polluting the clean
German air), and two were in the Alsace region of France that we drove through.
I tried to take pictures but this is always difficult in a car that’s moving
minimum 120 km/h.
Not
long after we crossed into Luxembourg we arrived in Luxembourg city and drove
to the downtown core. It’s not a very big city, but it seemed nice and clean
and there were several parks right downtown. We didn’t get out and walk around
because it was already 6:30pm and we still needed to figure out where we were
staying. Ben checked his email and we hadn’t heard back from the AirBnb place,
so we decided to go with our backup plan and head out of the city. We drove
north for about another hour until we reached the small town of Hoscheid.
Our hotel is very comfortable, includes breakfast and parking for about half of what we paid in Lucerne. Tomorrow we are going to go check out Vianden Castle and possibly a WWII museum that apparently has a very impressive collection and display detailing the Battle of the Bulge, and since we are currently right in the middle of the Ardennes where the battle took place, I feel it’s something we should experience.
Our hotel is very comfortable, includes breakfast and parking for about half of what we paid in Lucerne. Tomorrow we are going to go check out Vianden Castle and possibly a WWII museum that apparently has a very impressive collection and display detailing the Battle of the Bulge, and since we are currently right in the middle of the Ardennes where the battle took place, I feel it’s something we should experience.
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