Wednesday, 21 June. Offenburg

Last night my Deutsche Bahn app wouldn’t let me buy the ticket I wanted even though it all looked fine on the timetable. We had quite a thunderstorm last night and this morning was drizzly as I walked to the station to buy my ticket. No problems there as the nice girl was on duty and I found the right “platform” at the bus station. Off we went and I had the front seat so I had a go at taking a couple of photos from the bus.

I was on my way to Haslach im Kinzigtal, which was quite a bit further on from Monday’s excursion. Once again lots of fruit trees and farms with a variety of crops and even a few cattle. We were driving through a valley surrounded by forested hills which of course are part of the famous Black Forest. By the time we reached Haslach I was the only passenger on the bus. I checked with the driver about where to catch it on the way back and the stop was pretty obvious.

By now the sun had come out and I had a good wander around the old town. There was a small market today and the bratwurst smelled good as I passed the queue of bratwurst lovers. I expected to see quite a few buildings with paintings on them but there was really only one. 

I did notice that many of the houses have a religious plaque on them with Mary or Jesus holding a child, that sort of thing. Going through the vIllages there were lots of roadside shrines made out of red sandstone. And of course there are numerous churches and convents, some really big.

I made sure I was at the bus stop well ahead of time, which was fortunate because there were some stalls there with Italian goodies. It was an Italian fest. I bought a cannoli for later on.

Sat at the bus stop and waited along with heaps of school children who came and went on other buses but my bus didn’t come. After about half an hour the next bus was due and there was me and a handful of kids. Checked my DB app and it said the next bus was cancelled. I have no idea what happened to the first one or whether those kids ever got picked up, but I made my way to the station and caught a train back to Offenburg. No staff on the station but there were people I could ask, thank goodness.

When I got home from the station I had a little rest and cool down as it has once again been really hot and now humid as well. Then back to the cafe for my daily Eis. They certainly know me there now. I decided that today was the day to have a Spaghetti Eis so I selected Fruits of the Forest. Some of the ice cream had been squeezed through a mincer or something that made it look like spaghetti. The fruit was lovely but it was too big and I struggled to finish. I think the waiter thought it was a bit of a joke. Won’t be having any more of them.