Being Spoiled

I’ve had the good fortune to be spoiled for the past few days. 

Wednesday after work Arnaud met me at my Paris lodging. We agreed to take a walk then go to dinner. The walk turned out to be long enough that Arnaud escorted me to 8 caches and a few other interesting places. We met an interesting street performer at a cache in a tree, saw mosaic art in interesting places and were asked if we were playing a game sort of like geocaching. He then took me to one of his favorite local restaurants where I had my most French dinner so far: Boeuf Bourguignon followed by Crepes with Hot Chocolate Sauce. Truth by told, I actually enjoyed the beef dish (especially the fingerling potatoes) more….rather a surprise coming from a confirmed chocoholic. I learned about Paris through Arnaud’s eyes, and had the privilege of getting to know him a bit better. We got back to my lodging rather late, and I shudder to think about how late he might have gotten to sleep before going to work the next morning. 

My train trip from Paris to Basel was pleasantly uneventful. Andreas met me at the train station, we stored my luggage, paid an extortionate ransom for me to use the loo (I think it was 1.5 Swiss francs), and then took a tram ride into Basel where we had a very nice walk. We went to a church (and found the virtual cache there), then descended to the Rhine river where we took a ferry boat (and found the very old cache on the boat) across, walked through the town (caching), and eventually returned to the car. Then we went to the Vitra factory (a Swiss company though this location is in Germany) and saw some very interesting chairs and other products. 

Andreas and I then went to a grocery store which seemed to resemble a small “mega mart” (or US grocery store). I noted, but resisted the urge to purchase anything from, the large area labeled Schokolade. I did notice, and did not resist the urge to purchase, some English peas — my second of the trip! We also decided to test the Schokolade pretzel — a worthwhile but otherwise unsuccessful experiment. Andreas then prepared a delicious zucchini, carrot, tomato sauce couscous for dinner which was accompanied by salad and peas. We had a wonderful discussion and were up too late, compounded by someone (guilty) “needing” to finish her book before turning out the light close to 2am. It was only this morning that I realized he had given me his bedroom to sleep on the couch, and when I mentioned this he quipped, ”too late now”

Before the trip we had discussed what we might want to do today, and agreed that exploring the Black Forest would be the right answer. I looked at some maps and some to do lists a few weeks ago and ultimately told him that I trusted him to decide what to do. Smart move, London! Andreas put together a fantastic day. 

The quick summary is what I wrote on FB earlier: “Spent a fabulous day in the Black Forest. Drove along rolling green hills, hiked to a viewpoint where it was clear enough to see the Alps, went to a nice lake (where I felt the water keeping my feet dry and successfully skipped a stone a few hops), walked to Triberg falls, saw cuckoo clocks, one of us was the cherry on a Black Forest cake and the other sat on a pink tractor, explored several villages and a couple of churches, walked around central Freiburg, enjoyed spaetzle, had delicious chocolate sorbet, and even found a few caches.”

Of note, in the twenty-first century, and perhaps lifetime, I’ve entered more Catholic churches than synagogues.

And tomorrow promises to be more spoiling as Andreas and Urs (the remaining European who was part of the Geowoodstock house) have put together an itinerary to find caches in France, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, and Liechtenstein. Also known as how to turn a 1-hour drive (from just across the border from Basel to near Bern) into a few hundred kilometers. In other words, cachers doing what cachers do. And one of the things cachers do is spoil international visitors….for which I am both humbled and grateful!