Today we will explore the Black Forest, if the weather holds. It is dark and windy, with rain intermitly blowing in.
In the meantime we are waiting for the washing machine to be finished so we can do our little but of laundry.
When we arrived in the "Black Forest" we were not really surprised that it is in fact green. The denseness of the woods, the predominance of pine, cedar and fir, make it dark, especially on cold, wet, overcast days like this. These were great woods, like those of Minnesota. The stories of the Brothers Grimm were set here, full of trolls, wolves, witches and wood cutters, wherein children were taught the dark woods were a place to fear.
One thing you don't expect to find in this setting is camels. But here near Rotsfeld you will find Kamilhof, translating to Camel House. Why? We aimed to find out. The establishment is a sizeable farm, with dozens of all sorts of camels, all sizes, ages, colors.a And two hump camels are not camels, but dromedaries. Even llamas, the south American member of the Camelid family. If there is a llama or alpaca in the country, Maryvonne will find it. This is a big regional attraction. We started with the lecture and slide show. The title is: Germany, Land of Ideas. I thought this curious. many years ago the owner apparently simply decided to indulge his fascination with camels. He went all over the camel world and bought and flew them from everywhere. It was quite a challenge, quarantine taking a year in Poland, communist at the time; and needing to acclimate for a year of trial and eerie. Next he had to fight the town, the local people made big demonstrations to keep camels out. They didn't get the idea. Finally he won by showing that the animals could be used as a form of therapy for austistic children. The saga is quite a bit more challenging than out Olympic Game Farm.
After the petting and camel rides we took off for Stuttgart, and the second biggest Volksfest in Germany (first is Munich). A Volksfest is very much like our State Fairs, regional festivals that go on for 3 or 4 weeks. Think of the Texas State Fair, then add a few thousand more barrels of beer for those over 16 and you get the picture. The Midway is bigger, more crowded and noisier than you can imagine, there are dozens of beer tents that serve hundreds at a time. Beer is so central to these fall bachanalias that at any one time after 4:00 PM, there are more guys peeing along the side walk than there are at our county fair. A real treat for the ladies and kids who just gawked with a mixture of astonishment, disgust, indifference and humor.
Maryvonne was satisfied that we had experienced enough Volksfest, so we went home.
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