I promise we didn't hit the beer garden until the afternoon, but boy, it was wonderful. I'll ramble on more about beer momentarily, but first, I'll note that after catching up on a few blog entries we visited a local museum. Called the Schüttesäge, which loosely translates to "complicated pronunciation," this museum housed artifacts and exhibits about the local timber and tanning trades that supported Schiltach for generations.
It was a very small museum, maybe three rooms. There were also no English translations of anything. We wouldn't have known it was a museum at all if Lisa hadn't directed us there. Nevertheless, it was very entertaining. The lumberjacks of the Black Forest didn't just float all the logs downstream willy-nilly; they had to be organized and efficient--the German way.
They would lash the logs together into tremendous rafts, sometimes half a mile long, to be floated out of the country to sawmills. The scale models we saw in the museum made it seem like quite a sight.
Above: Huck Finn not included.
The tanning room of the museum was kinda creepy, by contrast, though still intriguing. Animal hides hung all over the room, and various placards with the occasional photo explained (in German) the process of curing and tanning the leather.
After our brief jaunt through the Schüttesäge, we were ready to hit up the beer garden outside Zur Alten Brücke, right by the stream. Walking that way, we stumbled on a group (Flock? Gaggle?) of ducks and some ducklings that were chillin' in the waters and along the bank.
The biergarten was everything I'd hoped it would be, and more. I'd looked forward to our time in Germany for this very reason: tasting excellent German craft brews in a serene outdoor setting. Annie and I were the only ones dining and drinking out there, so it seemed like we even had the stream to ourselves.
"Yea, beer!"
I ordered a Bavarian dish called Maultaschen (stuffed dumplings), topped with ham and greatness. Annie ordered some potato pancakes. Yes, I took pictures of food.
Above: Maultaschen with ham
Below: Potato Pancakes
We dined and then relaxed with our beers into the late afternoon, loving on the Moglers' dog Max, who was a great buddy and surrogate for our mutts we missed back home.
Eventually we retired to our room--though not for long, because we descended a couple hours later for another dinner at the Gasthof: turkey schnitzel for Annie, Maultaschen in tomato sauce for me. Sorry, no photos this time.
Above: Instead, have a photo of our "special" Annie.
It was after dinner, again, when we received more shocking news from home. Annie's dad, after a routine checkup with his cardiologist, learned that he had several blockages and would require bypass surgery first thing in the morning.
We were stunned stupid. Once again, we felt helpless and guilty being thousands of miles away on our honeymoon when our loved ones back home were hurting. Annie grilled her mother about Wayne's procedure, then spoke to her dad on the phone to feel reassured and wish him luck. July 15 was the anniversary of my friend Noel's first brain surgery, so the date will remain an eternally ominous one for me. The surgeons didn't seem concerned, from what we were told, but the fear of the unknown can be defeating.
We were set to depart Schiltach in the morning, but our anxiety about ailing family back home kept us distracted from packing, and awake long after bed time.
Schiltach July 14 Album:
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| Schiltach: July 14, 2011 |
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Location:Schiltach, Black Forest, Germany
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