Reunification Day

Sunday morning we all awoke and wished we hadn't. So many kilometres crammed into a few short days is hard on a body. We dragged our sore, over-worked legs and weary bodies out of bed and into the church pews. It was October 3^rd, a special day because it was the 20 year anniversary of German reunification. As far as we could tell there were no celebrations occuring in Pforzheim or nearby, so we had to remain content with inwardly acknowledging our excitement.

We set off for the wildpark after lunch at church. Since it was a holiday, and the weather felt like summer had returned, the wildpark was packed. I was extremely confused as to the differences between a wildpark and a zoo, but after walking around for a few minutes, the differences suddenly became clear. Unlike a zoo, where animals are kept in imitations of their natural habitats, in a wildpark, the animals actually are in their natural habitat, just with a fence around it. It felt very natural and far less gimmicky than a zoo, and I enjoyed it.

After escaping from the hundreds of children and their hundreds of parents, we drove a little further into the forest to the Roman Ruins. Hundreds and hundreds of years ago (which is the best I can do since I hardly remember dates), the ancient Romans had a settlement in the Black Forest. It was excavated in the 1970’s and the brick foundations are all that is left. They take up a substantial amount of space, consisting of many buildings and a fortress wall. Archaeologists can tell from the foundations what purpose the buildings served. The bath house is the easiest to interpret. The ruins are now a cleared space in the forest that serves as a park. Due to the holiday and good weather, it was also busier than usual. A family on a cycle trip barbequed lunch on one side of the park while a mother and daughter collected mushrooms on the other.