Germany - Day 4: The Day I Became a Blacksmith

Before I start, I must make a correction. Marcus informed me I was spelling his home town incorrectly. Hey, I correct him on his english, he corrects me on my Deutsch, right? Anyway his home town is Burgoberbach and not Bergoberbach. That may not mean much of a difference to an American, but it is a big difference in German. My apologies to the Burgoberbachians.

After sleeping in, I woke to a dry but much cooler day, cool enough where jeans were the choice of clothing. Erika had a breakfast of assorted meats, cheese, radishes, bread and coffee! After breakfast Marcus and I drove to Micheal and Renate's flat (Michael is Manuel and Marcus' brother...he is also the one who arrested me last night). Renate made a nice lunch of noodles, baked zuchinni, baked eggplant and orange and red peppers...delish! By the way, if you like eggplant but didn't know how to cook it, I got her recipe...the eggplant was awesome! Renate just got back from Italy and she brought Tammy and I a bag of Italian noodles...and I mean noodles made in Italy...that were in the shape of bikes...Thanks Renate and MIchael!

After lunch, the 4 of us went to the Frankisches Freilandmuseum in the village of Bad Windsheim. This is a museum of cultural heritage documenting the history of Franconian rural communities, how they lived, their crafts and how they built their homes. The buildings are either moved from original location to the museum or built on site. The oldest building dates back to the 13th century. Here are some pics...

(Michael and Renate...are they a cute couple!)

(kitchen from a home built in the 1800s)

(country-side around the museum)

(a window made of animal skin from a home from the 15th Century)

(home from the 13th Century)

(me and my castle...well..a hunting lodge)

One of the last buildings we visited was a blacksmiths shop. It was here I found my new calling...to be a blacksmith, check out the vid and pics...

Click on this link to see me in action...

http://youtu.be/k_nUdkSIL2Q

From the museum we went to the Franken Therme. This is a spa and hot springs. We met up with Manuel and Christina here. 

While we were waiting in the foyer, they had what they called something like "healing" water. I was told it had a lot of iron in it and drinking too much would give you...um...Montezuma's Revenge. I tried some. At first it tasted fine, but the second sip it was just plain nasty. 

After we changed, we went to the first in a series of 4 different pools. The first pool wasn't all that warm, it was a little salty, but it was nice. The second was a bit warmer and with a slightly higher salt content, but nothing unbearable and not enough where it would make you bouyant. In this pool, however, they had a series of jets along one wall of the pool where you would sit in front of one jet that was focused on your calves. When the jet died down, you moved to the next one which focused on your thighs. When that jet died down you moved to the next jet. This you had to make sure you were facing away from it as it was aimed a little higher than the previous one...if you know what I mean! The last jet focused on your lower back. It was a pretty cool system. The next pool had a much higher salt content, enough to make you pretty bouyant but not completely. The salt content was high enough where any scratches or cuts you had on your skin would start to sting...trust me...they stung! The final pool was a Salt Sea, partially outdoors. This pool was not heated but the salt content was much much higher...26.9%. There was enough salt in the air around the pool that salt deposits were on the railings leading down into the water and also along the walls of the entry way.

Afterwards we went back to the 1st pool to wash the salt off, then to a sauna. This was my first time in a sauna where the temp was 45C with a humidity level near 95%. This made it hard for me to breathe and after 5 minutes I had to leave. 

Unfortunately Tammy couldn't enjoy this because she was still in Oberjoch, so we took a picture of all of us being sad, like we didn't like it so she would feel better about missing it.

Erika had a great meal of Fleishgiekle and potato salad when we got back...yum! I talked to Tammy via Facetime after dinner. She had to climb a mountain to get dinner. Unfortunately she didn't bring shoes to do climbing because no one told her she would need them, so she had to walk up the mountain in her work/dress shoes. 

I'm looking forward to tomorrow as Michael, Renate and I are driving to Munich to pick up Tammy as her conference will be over...yeah!!!!