Return to the Black Forest
16 September, 2017 continued
We begrudgingly drove down the highway, leaving Eguisheim and Alsace behind us and beginning our long trip to the airport. It wasn't all heavy hearts though since we were passing through the Black Forest once again! As we crossed the border and drove the winding highway 31 past Freiburg, we saw the stag looking over the rocks and felt our spirits rise. We have a tendency to drag our feet a bit when it is time to leave and we take longer than we should in places, squeezing every last possible second into our time. So while plan should have been to take Rt 500 south past Titisee and down closer to the Swiss border, we instead took 500 north back toward Furtwangen. We passed those lookout points over the mountains, where earlier in the week we watched the fog roll across the hills and the sunset light up the sky. A little further up the road we passed the turnoff to Brend, wishing for one more night in the forest. Maybe someday, but we had to keep going this time.
A little way up past Brend was the Donauquelle. This was where a spring emerges from the ground to form a little trickle of water down the hill. Seems small and rather insignificant. This trickle of water is fed by other trickles however, and it grows and grows more until it eventually grows into the Danube River. That important river – vital to cities like Regensburg, Linz, Vienna, Bratislava, and Budapest – gets its furthest beginning at this tiny little spring trickling out of the ground. Last year we stood on the bridge in Bratislava below the UFO, looking out over the wide river as we imagined taking a boat along the length of the Danube. That works through Vienna, but I doubt even those little toy boats from the Bächle in Freiburg would have fit in this part!
We looked around the property, not really hungry enough to stop in the restaurant just yet. There were hiking trails all behind the Donauquelle and we were pleasantly surprised to see a sign pointing the distance to our hotel in Brend. We'd never make it with my ankle as it was, but maybe someday it would be a great hike to take, walking from the woods behind the hotel all the way out to this spot, grabbing a quick lunch before heading back. Or heading further on. The forest is actually filled with trails scattered all throughout. It's amazing how far you can go just on a hike down the first trail you find!
It was getting late in the day, much later than it should have been for us to start our way back. We followed Rt 500 back to the south through the forest, stopping for pictures all along the way. As we circled around Titisee we made a quick stop at the Bistro Zum See again, with a wurstsalat and surprisingly the first flammenkuche of the trip. Finished with a "new wine" and more strong coffee, it was back on the road with the next stop being Zurich.
We crossed the border and headed along the road from Kloten to Zurich, with the sun brilliantly glowing behind us. Another rainbow flashed across the sky ahead. It seems whenever we arrived at a new destination, we were greeted with a rainbow. This one may have been for our farewell, but maybe it also could have been a sign that this won't be our last time in Switzerland and the Black Forest!
As night fell in the city, well after the car was dropped and we had our last quick walk through town (resisting the temptation for another stop at the Aelpli Bar), we sat in the hotel by the airport lightening our bags with a last celebration of a few beers we've collected along the trip. Early in the morning – 5 am!! - we would catch our shuttle for the flight back to the US. It’s always a tough time for us, and while many people take their trips and are happy for the homecoming, we wish we could keep going. I don’t really get homesick, but maybe that is because my real home is not a place but rather on the journey. Home is the horizon, and the funny thing that happens when you finally reach that point on the horizon you have been staring at... another point comes in to view, and another journey on another horizon presents itself. That is where we go next....
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