Walk in the Black Forest
Friday afternoon 23rd June
It was suggested that we may like to have a short walk, on the flat! and visit a working oil mill. The walk would begin at the Rathaus and take about 30 minutes each way. So we met up with our hosts at the Rathaus for this stroll. we were all in normal clothing they were in hiking boots and carrying sacks! After some discussion it was agreed that we would forgo the 1 1/2 hour walk to the mill and go by car to a car park about 20 minutes walk from the mill! so off we went.
View from the car park towards the mill up the hill!
The jolly crowd note suitable clothing and foot wear!
The walk was not flat but seemed to climb for a very long time! The very
efficient Germans do consider their tourists and place benches at convenient
places to rest and enjoy the views. Every farm we passed had it's own chapel
built near the main building. The farm house is designed to incorporate not only
human living areas but also livestock and equipment. Many are now being
converted or altered to incorporate some form of tourist attraction. One group
of farms provide an out door theatre to promote local folk stories which has
proved very popular. Others have provided tourist accommodation.
Most farms are still family run and are small scale it is only recently that farms have begun to provide community equipment and storage to reduce overall costs. The Christmas storms destroyed many trees and there is now up to 10 years supply of wood being stored on farms awaiting the increase in prices. The area we walked is is at about 1000Km above sea level and has snow from the end of October until April. We were able to still see snow on some of the higher parts of the area.
This water but is typical of the humour that is built into many ordinary items
of household furnishings on the farms.
When we got to the Oil mill we had to wait for our tour as a group of Firemen from Neustadt were entertaining their guests from Leighton Linslade! They did not walk there but abandoned the towns fire service minibus near the mill.
Apart from showing us how they extract linseed oil and also flax from the same plant using equipment driven by a water wheel we were also shown a typical living accommodation with the whole building being heated by smoke from the main kitchen fire! the whole place reeked of wood smoke. We were also given an insight into the dress code and working practices.
The hat being modelled by Christine was a Sunday best
hat. The tiles behind are the back wall of the kitchen fires and provided a warm
area to sit near.
After the tour we walked back to the cars and were then taken to what the locals claim was the best place to eat Black Forest Gateau! and certainly no one complained!
The gateau came with the traditional pils beer and also cherry schnapps which was not needed for the gateau but went down well anyway. Our grateful thanks to Herr Dr. Kropp for introducing my son to schnapps!