Monday April 28, 2008
The tour began just outside the front door as I explained what the chalk letters above the door mean. For those of you who are interested, we've been told that at Christmas time carolers come door to door and they mark the doors where they've stopped to sing. They put the first initial of each wise man C*M*B (don't ask me what they stand for. Caspar... someoneorother and Balthazar?) and the year. No one sang for us this year.
The building next door was absolutely COVERED in this flower. Sue later found out that it is Wisteria. Yes, as in Wisteria Lane. It's fragrance was so strong we could smell it in our apartment.
We took a quick look at the zoo from the bridge that passes over top of it (one of my favorite things to do!) and then headed up to the Schloss and Botanical Gardens.
Check out this picture of a bee!
Every guest MUST pose in front of the Schloss on Bridget and Toby Tours.
Next on the agenda was a visit to Durlach, considered to be the predecessor to Kalrlsruhe since it has been around much, much longer. In fact, Karlsruhe only came into existence when the Margrave of Durlach decided to make his palace in the woods north of Durlach. When he built his big yellow Schloss and moved in, Karlsruhe became the new seat of power and became a town.
So anyway, back to Durlach. It turns out that Toby's great-grandfather was born in Durlach! Can you believe it? We ended up living only a few kilometers from one of Toby's German ancestors!
Chris, Sue and I took the tram to the main street in Durlach and followed a guided tour from my guidebook. This is the city hall if I remember correctly.
There is an interesting fountain in front of the city hall called "Love in the City" with an embracing couple in the middle and then around the outside sculptures of animals, ahem, doing it.
We didn't actually know which house great Opa August would have lived in, so we'll say it was this one:
Nice view of Durlach from the cemetery-turned-park. There are still gravestones littering the park but in a cool rather than creepy way.
After our excursion in Durlach we were back on the tram to the west end of town where we had lunch at "Cafe Bleu" on of Toby and my favorite places for some cheap, filling grub and then off to check out a fly fishing store. Don't worry, we kept it fair, as Sue was able to pick up some funky "sushi" themed fabric at a Pfaff sewing machine store earlier in the day.
After this marathon sightseeing tour we headed home for a short rest before meeting up with Toby and some of his Calgary co-workers at Badische Brauhaus for dinner.
Colin, Dave and Mike happened to be in Karlsruhe for work so Toby had a busy week of visitors. It was cool that his coworkers got the chance to see him in action here in Germany.
Sue even tried my favorite drink (not pictured) - the grapefruit radler, which is beer mixed with grapefruit juice. Which reminds me... You doubters out there reading this and thinking "yuck" need to TRY it first, before you JUDGE it, OK? It tastes much better than it sounds. Just saying.
We color coordinated on purpose.
Whew, what a great day. These visitors are wearing me out!
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