The Black Forest with Alex

The weekend of October 13th - 15th had long been reserved for a short hiking trip in the southern part of the Black Forest near where Steffi lives.  This was meant to be a contrast to the Vosges Mountains where we have been several years in the late spring and this time Steffi (as opposed to Veit) chose a trail that would not render me helpless at the end of the day.  Steffi's sister, Sybille, called a few days before we were to leave and asked if we could take her son,  Konstantin, with us since she couldn't go herself.  When I heard he was going to be with us I asked Alex if he wanted to go along too and he liked the idea, so on Friday at about 5:30 pm we drove to Schopheim / Gersbach, picking up Konstantin on the way.  It was a long trip but the boys kept each other entertained and fell asleep about an hour before we arrived at 10 pm. 

We put Alex to bed and joined the others in the restaurant for a while before we all decided to rest up for the next day. 

We arranged to meet for breakfast at around 8:30 but Alex was awake at 7:20 so he had to entertain himself  with his gameboy for a while before he and I went to the breakfast room at 8:00, where we had everything all to ourselves for at least half an hour.

The hotel was once a mill and the boys had a great time after breakfast playing at the stream where a small mill was turning.             

Our group was made up of ten people, friends from the time we lived in Viernheim many years ago.

                                        The parents, Martin and Elisabeth

                                        Their daughter, Steffi, and Peter

                                        Their daughter, Dorothea, and Veit
                              (Konstantin is their third daughter's son.)

After breakfast it was time to get ready for our hike.  We broke up into two groups.

This, of course, was the A-Team (for all those over sixty and under ten).

I had on my hiking shoes for the first time since we had all been together at the end of April.

Alex and Konstantin got along fine although they hadn't known each other before they met in the car the day before.  They are both eight and in the third grade, but Alex is 3/4 of a year younger.

The landscape was just the way you would expect it to be in the Black Forest in the autumn.

It took us a lot longer than Steffi had calculated for the hike because the boys were interested in so many things along the way.  They had to examine almost every ant hill for example (and there were some huge ones).

They also had to feed the ants a piece of candy and watch them try to eat it.

The path itself was boring for the boys and they were always on the lookout for alternatives.

We also had to take time out for several picnics along the way.

This was about our furthest and highest point, called Sägbaumdumpf, (which sounds very funny in German and consisted of several piles of trees that had been cut down).  The altitude here is 1,045 meters and our hotel in Gersbach is 4 kilometers away at this point. 

We had the option of continuing on to the Altensteiner Kreuz, but opted for the somewhat shorter route.  It was a good thing we did because shortly after our picnic (and play break) here it started to rain.

Of course, it's extremely important to have the optimal walking stick and the boys tried out quite a few before they were satisfied.

An expedition is rarely without a scratch or bruise, but luckily Elisabeth was well prepared with her first aid kit.

As I mentioned, it soon started to rain.  Luckily, Lee had given us an umbrella to take along and the boys made good use of it.  We found a building with a porch to sit under and wait for the rain to let up and have one last picnic.  We were a little wet but fortunately it wasn't at all cold......

.... so that Alex was able to lend his jacket and cap to someone who needed it more than he did.

As we walked through Gersbach we admired the many houses that were decorated.

Later we had a very nice dinner which we all felt we had fairly earned.  Alex had a bowl of ice cream topped with Smarties for dessert....

...... after which he soon fell fast asleep, but not before complaining angrily about his Opi who had promised that he could sleep in the same room with Konstantin.

                                                                                                                        

                                                                              The next morning we told the boys we were going to take them to a museum because we weren't sure the "summer sledding" was open and didn't want to disappoint them.  Fortunately it was up and running so the first thing we did was take the ski lift to the top of the mountain.

                                                                                                                        

                                                                                                                      
                                                                           (The following pictures can be enlarged by clicking on them.)

Veit became the hero of the day by agreeing to take the trip down with Alex.  (Frank was eternally grateful!)  Alex even managed to get a yellow sled, which is his absolute favorite color.

Alex and Veit had a good head start but Konstantin and Peter soon caught up due to their daredevil driving.  They then braked to a complete stop to let the front sled get a long way in front of them so that they could continue the course at the top allowed speed, which was rumored to be 40 km per hour. 

The rest of us then took the ski lift back down, which was a lot slower than sledding.  By the time we reached the bottom the boys had talked Veit and Peter into doing another run with them!  (I wasn't there to witness how much convincing it took.)

After a lunch of Bratwurst and very salty French fries we spent a little time at the nature museum at the bottom of the ski lift to the top of the Feldberg (the highest mountain in the Black Forest), but it was getting late and we had about a five hour drive ahead of us so we set off for home and it should come as no surprise that both boys were soon sound asleep.