Plan B

It's a pretty rare event in a foreign country when something goes as planned.  I'm still waiting for the first one.  There are always unexpected surprises.  Yesterday was no exception, except that none of the plan worked.  Usually, the activity at least resembles the plan.

A coworker had briefed me on a great spot to hike and a good chicken restaurant. (In the Wasson family, sometimes you need to be able to find a good chicken to eat).  So we set out with maps in our hands searching for a castle ruins that dated back to 1000 BC.  We approached the castle and could see it on the mountain top.  I can see why it was built there, because armed with a car and GPS, we could not find our way up to the castle.  We decided to drive around the mountain and approach from the other side.  After about 10 minutes, I'm guessing we were about 10 km further away from the castle.

Time for Plan B.  Plan B always invokes some interesting family discussions.  We approached a little town and saw a parking lot near a playground.  It didn't look like anything special.  Here is the mountain where we parked.

Parked cars with no people usually means good hiking.  Another car pulled up so we did what we do best in Germany.  We followed them.  When in doubt, follow the crowd (that's a survival guide to Europe by the way).  Another good sign was a van labeled "climbers shuttle" was parked in the lot.  So we scavenged some walking sticks and set out for who knows what (well, we did know it wasn't a castle ruins).  Here are some things we encounter along the way.

 

Did you recognize me on the rope climbing the cliff?  Me neither.

Well, we did pretty good with our improvised hike.  Time to hit the chicken restaurant.  One thing is for sure in my family.  You do not want to have hunger as a passenger in the car for very long.  No problem, chicken was a mere 10 km away.  We had much better luck finding the restaurant than the castle ruins.  Unfortunately our German language skills are good enough now to read the sign "closed until August 28".  Another victim of European August holidays.  Now we're in a little trouble with growling stomachs.  So, Lady G to the rescue (that's what we call our Garmin GPS).  She did owe us one for not finding the castle.  Points of Interest, Food, NEAREST RESTAURANT.  3.6 km to the unknown.  Lady G delivers.  Here was our destination...

It was another castle.  There was only one car in the lot, but a sign said "open".  We approached the castle to a large set of closed doors.  We take turns being brave in Germany.  Today was my wife's day to be brave.  There was a buzzer at the door and an intercom.  Talking to strangers in a foreign country requires a bit of nerves, but the worst is phone calls from unknown German speakers and talking without any context as a reference.  With no hand singals allowed, I wasn't about to push THE BUTTON.  My wife didn't even hesitate.  She pushed THE BUTTON.  At this point, I noticed a tiny peep hole slide in the large door.  We waited to see if someone would open the peep hole.  I felt like Dorthy approaching the Emerald City or R2D2 at Jabba the Hut's lair.  Nobody answered, but I give my wife props for trying.

My wife then noticed a sign and some stairs.  Sure enough, there was a restaurant at the base of the castle.  Just for some perspective, it is easy to drop about 21 Euros for a McDonald's meal here.  At this restaurant, 25 (which included a tip) Euros bought us 2 steak meals, 2 bratwurst meals, drinks, and a large piece of cake.

Not too bad Lady G.

Oh, I forgot to mention the plan for the next day was canoeing so we stopped to find out how to make the arrangements.  They did not have any openings for the weekend (August holidays again).  I'm excited to see what Plan B has to offer tomorrow.