Sunday, 26 June. Offenburg

Another 32 degree day in beautiful Baden-Württemberg. All went smoothly with my journey to Lahr, which is a pretty big town. There were two things I wanted to see here and with the help of Google Maps I found the Storchenturm (stork tower) pretty easily. It is in old red sandstone tower attached to a last crumbling piece of what must have been the town wall. And yes, there was a stork’s nest on top with a stork in residence.

Like Offenburg and other German towns practically everything was closed because it’s Sunday. The only place where you see people is in the cafes, which is where I headed next. I had seen Cafe Süsses Löchle on the Visit Lahr website. It is a little cafe which has endeavoured to retain its traditional style and I was not disappointed. I enjoyed coffee and cake in a booth by the window and took a couple of photos of the charming interior.

I walked back to the main square by a different route. I had seen what looked like a better bus stop for my return trip. There was a park with a shady seat nearby but by the time I had gone a little further to look at a fountain, a family had occupied the seat. Wandered further and found yet another red sandstone church but also a purple building with a very Art Nouveau style.

Back to the main square, where there was some music and a few food stalls. It looked like more was going to happen, especially as all the roads leading into the square had been closed off. If the roads were closed off the bus was not going to stop at that stop, so I hot-footed it back up the hill to Lammstrasse and waited there. The bus eventually came, thank goodness, and returned me to Offenburg, where the festival was still in full swing.

I bought an Afghan dish like a gozleme, stuffed with cheese and spinach, because I felt a bit mean about not buying anything yesterday. Then I found a seat and watched the show for an hour or so. As I arrived there was a group of Alpenhorn players performing. After that all the acts were local kids either singing or dancing or both. There were a few talented kids with heaps of personality and a lot of groups of dance class students. A few of us enjoyed watching a little girl standing on a table and imitating the dancers. She was spellbound. By this time I wasn’t, so I headed home to cool down for an hour before heading to the Eis cafe for a small ice cream. It has been a rather indulgent day.

This is one of the many shrines you see in the villages and beside the road. They must be or have been very devout.