.........with Emil Buhler, who owns and works about 300 acres of forestry, and wife Rita at Unterlangenbach near Wolfach.........and he was definitely OK!
Bea, Melanie and I arrived tired and late in the Langen valley on May 18th and realised the stables we were aiming for were still about 4 kms further up the valley and in the opposite direction from my direct route. So Bea asked the occupants of a lovely house by the road if they could help. These were Emil and Rita, and Emil immediately gave us a paddock to put the horses. Bea and Mel were leaving me here so Mike had to drive the horses home in the lorry, but this friendly couple took me in for the evening. With the help of a bottle of local white wine we had a most convivial evening in spite of the fact that our knowledge of each others' languages was severely limited! Among other things it transpired that Emil's father had been a chauffeur for one of the Germans involved in the plot to kill Hitler, and as a result had known about it himself!
My route to the German-France border now lay along the Kinzig valley, and I was able to follow the river for much of the way.........
Cycling is a priority in Germany, both for getting to and from work, and as a leisure activity. The country is well provided with cycle paths, which I have used for some of the time, occasionally to the surprise of the wheeled travellers. A cycle path near Wolfach......
A common sight on high days and holidays - the whole family out on wheels. In this case father on rollerblades and the rest on bikes....
Mike found us an excellent place to stay near Biberach on May 19th at the Schillihof guesthouse
http://www.schillihof.de/ (recommended!) where the horses had a grassy paddock again. We have been managing Zorbee's tendency to weave with increasing success, and have not seen him weave once since we left Austria. He is happiest when Bolashak is tethered on a grassy area outside while he remains loose - he never strays far from his Kazakh buddy.
Michael Schilli and daughter
Mike in bliss as he succeeded in negotiating cut price for a room which they had not had time to clean out - an excellent option when the alternative was taking his sleeping bag into the log shed. So we could both take advantage of the shower and have a sundowner on the balcony overlooking the Kinzig valley.
The following morning I came across the singular sight below of a hussar riding along the cycle path on his charger - rather incongruously for a warhorse, a Haflinger. The explanation for his unusual equestrian outfit came when he asked a passing jogger to interpret. He was taking part in a historical pageant at nearby Gengenbach and invited me to accompany him!
So after joining up with his impeccably turned out colleagues....
........I ended up as a rather eccentric and grubby addition to the back of a procession of mounted hussars and foot soldiers into the centre of town. However I was very proud of Zorbee who stood almost like a rock when the soldiers fired off their ancient muskets....
I chummed up with horseless female hussar Veronica (shown below), whose horses had unfortunately died recently. She bought me a glass of wine which Zorbee immediately knocked over.
Before Christmas the Gengenbach town hall with its 24 windows is transformed into a huge advent calendar, with a window being opened every day...
That evening we reached Schutterwald, where we were very happy to be hosted by the Riding Club Reiterverein Schutterwald. I am shown below with chairperson Reiner Oswald and family. When Mike and I returned from a Chinese meal we treated ourselves to, we found he had left a bottle of wine in the lorry for us! Many thanks Reiner!
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