Kitten news from Gengenbach and other Black Forest stuff

A very-at-home little kitten

Kitten news first, no I haven’t adopted though it would have been very easy. He went away while we ate dinner, probably as well as he was really interested in crisps, so what he would have thought of sausage and bean casserole I don’t know, but then I could see him under a bush. He didn’t take nearly as much enticing inside as the first time. I put him out at bedtime, I do think he lived somewhere as he’d been neutered. He reappeared just before 11.00 AM when we were about to go out, fortunately B was chatting to our neighbour, so I had plenty of time to play in the sun. We came back to Ted mid afternoon and he was back within moments. Not that bothered about biscuits, he just wanted to curl up and sleep on my lap, though he

What a difference a day makes - Saturday in Gengenbach

did have a few just before we went out again. Didn’t see him that evening, but he was back about the same time in the morning, just as the rain was easing off, starving, full of life and into everything. He came out when we took off the silver screen, but followed me back in again. He was a bit bemused when we drove up the slope to the dump station, opened the door and he wasn’t where he thought he should be. Obviously very confusing for a small cat!

And the day before. The Christmas market had yet to open and it was pouring with rain. How fortunate it was a blue sky day on opening day of the market

Finally I had a good cat fix, it’s only taken two months!

Gengenbach by night from our campsite. It looks like the church is floating

In between ‘kitten’ we spent the time in Gengenbach, home of the worlds biggest advent calendar. Christmas market started at midday so we spent a couple of hours looking at the old town, and walking up to the church on the hill beforehand. Interestingly, on the hill, we met kittens, grandma, or great aunt or something, they were definitely related! The market was lovely, though we are fast realising that every third hut, at least, is a gluewein, or food stall, or both! The rest of them are pretty similar to what we’ve seen at the Christmas market in Birmingham for the last few years.

Gengenbach from the 'floating' church

We went back for the 18.00 opening of the first window of the advent calendar, literally a window of the town hall, hence why it’s the biggest in the world! The artwork in the past has been done by the likes of Andy Warhole, though I don’t know who did this years. The theme is the story of ‘The Little Prince’ which I didn’t know. Having looked it up on Wikipedia, it’s a bit surreal, so no wonder we had no idea what was going on in German, in the little play, we weren’t expecting! We also weren’t expecting them to open the first four windows either! The man in the tourist information has explained they were starting on Saturday 30th as no one would care on the 24th December, but not that they would do four! It was lovely, anyway.

This old cat up by the church is definitely related to the kitten visiting us in Big Ted

The lovely old Engelgasse street in Gengenbach

Following morning dawned wet, and was meant to be a getting worse sort of day, so we’d already decided to give the Black Forest high road, past all the little ski resorts, where the rain would be sleet or snow a miss. Actually it would possibly have been ok, though the views through the cloud would have lacked a certain something, but happy to be a wuss! We were headed to Gagganau, just a regular little town with free parking. (parking location: 48°48'29.2"N 8°18'06.6"E)It was next to a little park though so we had a pleasant walk through the park, into town, to the Christmas market for the obligatory gluwein, and to buy our last piece of Black Forest Gateau. Sadly after much research, our first piece was the best, very disappointing!

Further down Engelgasse

This was actually a stall selling Gluwein

Today was Neustadt, again just a regular town, but with Aldi and Lidl next door, and next door but one. Hence the new blog on Lidl WiFi! (stellplatz location: 49°21'18.4"N 8°09'10.0"E) Plus we’ve stocked up on Christmas fizz, so Ted’s feeling slightly heavier. This is how the rest of the trip is going to go I fear as we are definitely on the home straight. One nighters, at not particularly exciting places, though hopefully many more gluweins, after slightly longer drives. Not much longer, we don’t want to push it, but aiming to be back in the U.K. in time to vote. Not that I have a clue who to vote for, they are all rubbish!

This is a panorama shot of the church. I told her not to move, but she did, so there's bits of her right across as I panned around

The inside of the church was rather magnificent

We climbed the tower shown in the first night photo above and got this rather nice view looking down towards the market square and the Adventskelendar Town Hall, just before the 6:00pm opening of window 1 (and 2, 3 & 4)

And down in the market square, this is the Town Hall after windows 1 to 4 had been opened, two on the left, one on the lower level just to theright of the pole and one on the upper level further right. The contrast was too great for the camera to pick up unfortunately, but you get the idea

Another day, another town, this is main street in Neustadt (which translates as New Town - not very new though). We rather liked the cat cafe sign

They'd got a small but really nice Christmas market in the square - and they were selling Gluwein. Well, it would be rude not to!

And they'd got an open air ice rink - and a penguin on an iceberg

After they told us the Town Hall in Gengenbach was the biggest advent calendar in the world, what do we find in Neustadt? Another Town Hall with windows converted into an Advent calendar (there's a number above each window, you can see them if you zoom in). However, we don't think this Town Hall is as big as Gengenbach's, so they probably do have the biggest