Permanent Tourist

My wife Jo and I make a point of travelling somewhere new for our wedding anniversary each year. This year’s trip was a day on the road, travelling a total of around 720 kilometres from our home in Switzerland to the Black Forest in southern Germany. It was my first proper trip to Germany and a good starting point to explorations north of Switzerland; we saw mad drivers on the motorways, the rolling hills north of the Swiss border, thick pine forests and dramatic views in the vastness of the 12,000 km² landscape. Much of the landscape reminded me of a more mountainous version of the area where I grew up in England, with tracks leading off through the trees, small deforested areas with odd, slender single stems still standing, and a great silence when we stopped the car for half an hour’s wander.