Baden-Baden

Viv and I woke up in the bed of Bastian Bob the next morning at 7am. For those of you doing the math, that's about 3 hours of sleep.

The plan originally was for Viv and I to catch a train to Frieburg to go hiking in the Black Forest, but Bastian Bob recommended Baden-Baden because it was closer (seriously, this excessive alliteration writes itself).  Bob walked us to our train, bid us goodbye, and then biked off. Viv and I hopped our train and set course for Baden-Baden.

We arrived in Baden-Baden around 10am. It was then we realized that we had no idea where exactly in Baden-Baden to hike. We determined the best course of action would be to find a tourist information booth in the city. We took a bus to Leopoldplatz only to find the information booth closed because it was some weird German holiday.

The town itself looked deserted. Luckily, I was able to just grab a map from behind the counter and I figured we could just navigate the city that way. (Remember kids, I don't have a German data plan, so we can't just look this stuff up on our phones. Paper maps it is.)

We backtracked to the train station and found some lockers to store our extra stuff. Just when it felt like we'd finally be able to get our day going, we realized the bus to the trailhead wouldn't be coming for another 45 minutes. Rather than wait, we decided to hike to our hike.

It was slightly rainy and a little cold, but that didn't dampen our spirits. Viv got our her uke and we sang as we walked down the streets of Baden-Baden. Just when it felt like we'd never find the trailhead and that our trip was a bit of a waste, we FINALLY found what looked like woods.

Some folks leaving the trail gave us directions and we headed into the Black Forest towards a Schloss or castle.  Again the woods reminded me of western PA and I'm still not exactly sure while they call it the "Black Forest."

As Viv and I were hiking further up and up into the woods, I heard an odd sound that was similar to rushing water. I couldn't quite place it, but it was getting louder.

"Viv, do you hear that? It almost sounds like....  bees?"

It was a hushing sound that the closer we got sounded more and more like buzzing. We couldn't figure out where it was coming from until we looked way high up into the trees and saw this:

A vicious swarm of thousands of bees. They had a nest about 60 feet up in the trees and something must've made them super angry. It reminded me of the Tracker Jacker scene in the Hunger Games. We admired the creepy scene for only a few minutes because should these bees decide to attack, we'd surely be dead.

After about an hour or two of hiking, we reached the old castle. We walked through the ruins and had lunch overlooking the city. I'll let the pictures do the talking:

Around 3 we headed down from the mountain. Along the way, we saw some top-roping climbers. If you go to Baden-Baden, bring your climbing shoes!

Viv and I made it back down to the village in about 45 minutes. By that time we were exhausted from hiking and our lack of sleep so took a nap on a lawn near Leopoldplatz. 

A bus ride, train ride, bus ride, train ride, car ride, Chinese food, train ride, and cab ride later and we were back in Trier around midnight (See how efficient European travel is!) Now it's time to get as much rest as possible on Friday because on Saturday I'm headed to Kaiserslautern for my very first German ultimate frisbee tournament! Can't wait!