Friday 24 October 2014

BLACK FOREST 2014

I had been keen to visit The Black Forest in Germany
ever since I read about it in Hans Krebs' autobiography in my student days. That dream came true this year. 

GETTING THERE
Twelve years ago Popular Mechanics reviewed the possibilities presented by the then proposed Airbus A380.
They fantasized about shopping malls in the air, restaurants, health spas and a host of other amenities. The reality has turned out to be anything but, as it happens. There are seas upon seas of just seats.
It appears commercial pressures have shaped the interiors more than any romantic fantasies. In spite of that the A380 remains a delightful aircraft. I was privileged to fly A380s on the Dubai-Heathrow leg of this trip, the Quantas one
on the outbound trip and the Emirates one on the inbound. The confidence and stability of ride on the A380 is in a class of its own. It takes turbulence in its stride, not surprising with a wingspan of 80 metres. Sometimes it is hard to tell it is moving at all. The Emirates one had a choice of 1700 entertainment channels, most of them on demand. It also had power sockets,
a real boon to long haul travelers even though it was only 110 volts. I had never seen that on any aircraft before. National Express buses have some competition at last!
Not all A380s are born equal though. Just like motor cars, the buyers' realities determine the fittings. Relative to Emirates, the fittings and facilities on the Quantas A380 are modest.
The major downside on Emirates is the halal meat. So I went vegetarian all the way.

Worries are like onions. No sooner do you peel off one layer than another appears underneath. My first worry on this trip was overflying Somalia
on the Harare to Dubai leg. When we safely got over that, my next worry was overflying Iraq on the Dubai to London leg. The standard route was supposed to take us directly over Baghdad.
To my relief, we veered off into Turkish airspace instead. Obviously the pilots decided ISIS are more likely to have sophisticated weaponry than Somali tribesmen. 
My next worry after that was time pressure in London. I had only three hours to connect from Heathrow Airport to the holiday coach at Victoria. I was aware that once Airbus A380s disgorge their contents, long queues in the immigration hall are inevitable. In the end I made it to Victoria with about 20 minutes to spare!

The holiday coach was a double decker and I wondered how that would get through the Channel Tunnel at Folkestone. Up to that point the only long tunnels I was familiar with were tube train tunnels
and even narrower mine shafts. The Channel Tunnel turned out much bigger than I had imagined. Big enough to accommodate double deckers and more.
 
On a visit to Switzerland  nine years ago I discovered that The Black Forest was not far from Basel. When I enquired about the possibility of going across, I was advised that a Swiss visa was not enough, I needed something called  a Schengen visa. Eight years later, this Schengen thing cropped up again on my escapade in Croatia. So this year as part of my preparations for the German trip, the Schengen was the first visa I secured. After all that fuss nobody ever asked to see it! So it was in effect US$80 down the drain. I went in and out of France and Germany without anybody ever asking to see my passport, let alone my visa. 

THE BLACK FOREST
The Black Forest is a mountain range in South West Germany covered in pine and fir woodlands
that are occasionally interrupted by lakes of glacial origin.
The highest mountain Feldberg is 1493m high.
So as part of preparations for the holiday, we were advised to "please check that your policy covers you for walking at altitudes up to 1493m". Strange advice for me considering the altitude of my house is 1481m, like the rest of Harare. 
The main economic activities in the Black Forest area are tourism and logging. So there are plenty of hotels and lodges
and an extensive network of very well maintained footpaths.
We stayed at a traditional Black Forest farmhouse in Dresselbach.
In return the local Tourist Board awarded all 58 of us complimentary rail, bus and tram passes for the duration of our stay!
The railway descent from the Black Forest mountains to the Rhine Valley is reputed to be a remarkable feat of engineering. Unfortunately most of the civil engineering details are actually not visible to passengers riding on the line!

A LOVELY SURPRISE
The Black Forest is a natural beauty area.
The best way to take it in is through walking.
So our holiday was primarily a walking holiday. 
One surprise excursion was to the German Clock Museum in Furtwangen.
The Black Forest area is the cradle of the cuckoo clock
but the museum was all embracing.
The collection included sandy hourglasses
through to atomic clocks.

AN AMUSING ANTICLIMAX
The museum excursion was part of a double bill. In the afternoon we proceeded to view the world's biggest cuckoo clock.
We timed our visit to include the cuckoo emergence at 3:00pm. The clock itself is impressive.
However the cuckoo deserved to be cooked, it was so anaemic and feeble for that size of clock!
I suspect the anticlimax was deliberately crafted. We certainly remember it more vividly than many other excursions. A similar trick was used to similar effect in the movie Too Late The Hero.

PERFECTIONISM
I was already aware that the Germans were more than just good footballers. 
I have enjoyed considerably lower blood pressure ever since I started using German gearboxes in Gwatamatic machines.
Since then I suspected that Germans were perfectionists. Now I know they are. Their perfectionism is not limited to just engineering.
It seems to reverberate thorough all aspects of their work, including firewood stacks
and even the alignment of geranium pots on window ledges.
Not just some of them but all of them. Throughout the 
Schluchsee and Frieburg area I never saw a single flower pot out of alignment. Maybe they really are superior after all!
 
FRUSTRATIONS
Their only weaknesses were in the provision of WiFi and bureaux de change. It was an uphill struggle finding either, at least for tourists anyway. 
Throughout the holiday I was suffering from a chronic WiFi deficiency condition. Then we came across a hot spot in Schluchsee that felt like an oasis! I spent longer than most there and got separated from the rest of the crowd. Picking my way through the forest
from Schluchsee  back to Dresselbach spawned a drama. I took a wrong turning and ended up in a cemetery. Then I went back to the beginning and tried again. On my second attempt I took directions from a passing jogger and ended up at a horse farm. In hindsight, I should have just commandeered one of the horses! This time there was hope on the horizon, literally. I spotted a giant windmill
near the farmhouse and headed for it. This time I made it, but nearly missed dinner. As expected for such a large group, there was no shortage of piss-takers. They conspired to kill me by over-feeding. I'm told ring-leader Helen
even over-exposed me on Facebook!
Fortunately being a Christian crowd, there was no shortage of forgiveness either. So I never defriended anyone. 

FREIBURG 
One of my missions in Freiburg was to find the laboratory at Freiburg University where Hans Krebs discovered the ornithine cycle (that is a cycle of biochemical reactions through which mammals produce urea from ammonia). It was the first ever metabolic cycle to be elucidated. The original buildings are still there but unfortunately the biochemistry laboratories are now housed in a modern block. So I never found the original lab but spent time in a fascinating University museum.

THE FOOD
Oak Hall (http://www.oakhall.co.uk/) have put together a great value package tour of The Black Forest. It is primarily a walking holiday. That means for what you save in monetary terms you pay in sweat. In spite of that I still put on 4kg, which says a lot for German fare. German food is right up my street, not too spicy.
Most importantly there was no evidence of garlic anywhere. It was like a breath of fresh air in more ways than one!
The fresh breath did not last too long though. The original Black Forest Gateau is laced with soooo much liqueur.
If I had been breathalyzed after just one slice I probably would have failed!

THE TRUTH
I have seen more BMWs on the Western Bypass in Johannesburg than I ever saw on any German street. 
In spite of their engineering prowess, Germans seem to drive/ride modest vehicles.
Maybe that is why they are wealthy. They certainly create more value  than they consume. I don't know whether the same could be said of any African country. 

MORE TRUTH
The German sausage
was a disappointment. Maybe my expectations were too high.
Boerewors
 is streets ahead! A case of a derivative surpassing the ancestor.

ANOTHER LET-DOWN
Pilgrimages to Foyles bookshop have thus far been inevitable parts of my visits to London, even when I was only in transit. This time I was shocked to find the bookshop shutters down.
It turned out to have moved to a new address also on Charing Cross Rd. I was relieved to find it still exists even though it is now a shadow of its former glory. The entire mathematics collection is now housed on all of one shelf.
Previously it took up almost a whole floor! If such venerable institutions could die at the hands of The Internet then nobody is safe! I don't think I will bother with any more pilgrimages to Foyles. It was a sad conclusion to an otherwise brilliant tour.