We worked our way up the mountain, and when we reached the top we saw a view that was absolutely breath taking. We pulled over for some pictures. Ina and I walked down a dirt road that led to the edge of the mountain we had climbed. Then I said, "I'll be right back". Ina knew what I was up to before I did and didn't even question me. I went to get the car.
OK, photo shoot over. I like the way that last one came out, but it really didn't capture the background beauty. I guess I'm not really a photographer.... Anyway we rolled on to Freudenstadt where we had another classic German meal. Ina went for the Tomato soup, I went for the schnitzel.
Back on the road, and before long we were closing in on Zuffenhausen way too fast. When we saw this sign, I knew my time was almost up.
One of the things that was really bothering me about returning my car was the fact that it was so far from clean. I used to work on cars and I would always treat a clean car better than a dirty car. A clean car sends a message. It says that the owner cares about the car and that he/she is aware of details. That always made me work extra careful on really clean cars. Germany has a serious insect problem. I cleaned this car after almost every drive. Even so, after a couple of hours of driving in the German country side, my car looked like this:
(These pictures were taken early in day 11. I washed the car on Day 10. So this is one day worth of bugs and by the time I was aproaching Zuffenhausen, there were twice as many plastered to the front of my car. OK, so now I am starting to understand why the Germans buy so many black Porsches.....)
This is one of the things I misjudged while packing for Tourist Delivery. I had a full bottle of Griot window cleaner at home, and I didn't pack any. I thought, "It's only two weeks. How bad will I need window cleaner?" Bad assumption. My windshield was covered with more carnage than the beach of Normandy. My car is responsible for killing hundreds of insects. That doesn't make for very good visibility. If you noticed that many of our pictures were hazy, that's because they were shot through a windshield covered in bug guts.