A fine autumn day
Flying over some nice multicoloured vineyards beside the Rhine river
Multicoloured fields
Multicoloured trees
The lovely Lorelei concert venue (middle left)On Sunday we had one of the more interesting days here in Gemany so far.
Sunday morning: we set off to a town called Baden-Baden (no I don't have a stutter). Trucks are not allowed to drive on Sundays and being early there was little other traffic. Therefore I took full advantage of the autobahn and drove most of the journey at about 180kmh.
Second, Kerstin had noticed some little kunst-fahrradfahren festival (roughly art or acrobatic cycling) in a tiny town just outside Baden-Baden. We popped along for a look and were just in time to see the German champions do their thing. I just watched the videos again and it really looks like they have the bikes on strings. Crazy what some germans will spend years perfecting...
I made several videos of most of it (biggest is 3mins, 51mbs) which if you want to see I will have to set up a server on my PC seeing as its so damn big. Its worth seeing though, so if you have broadband, get in contact if you're interested.
Next, we headed into the Friedrichbad (roman style bath house). Now there was an experience. Something for you New Zealanders to keep in mind, is that Europeans in general (excluding the british) are much more liberal when it comes to nudity (just take note of any advertising you might see on TV).
So the first thing you do is strip off completely and wander down a long hallway to where they finally give you a towel. You don't get to hide behind it for long though, because the next thing you have to do is have a shower (naturally in a communal room). Next you head into the sauna - which in tradional Northern European style is of course, naked. Then they give you a "soap and brush massage" - I kinda felt like I was an invalid in a hospital being washed.
After sweating some more in a steam room, you then head into the communal pools where it is mixed. I have to say that coming from prudish New Zealand and then seeing lots of men and women wandering around naked like its nothing unusual is quite strange.
Anyway, there are about 10 'areas' which include hot pools, cold pools, bubbling pools etc which you are supposed to use in a particular order, although most people of course just take their time, pick their favorite pool and stay there.
All this culminates in showering one last time (the 4th time it was 'mandated'), jumping into a freezing cold pool to close your pores, drying off, moisturing yourself in a room with a bunch of other people in front of big mirrors, then relaxing wrapped in a towel to finish off.
So all in all, a very interesting day.
The Friedrichbad houseThen on Monday while leaving to head to Munich, some fool backed into us as we were driving along... (sob sob and we're only done 2 1/2 thousand kms :( - actually that reminds me - that will be the first post of our new car - lovely isn't it. We got it about 3-4 weeks ago - still only does 200kmh though :(
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