29 August 2008
More sightseeing
Tammy and I did our own thing today. After breakfast we grabbed a ride to Backnang and stepped out near the 1452 Totenkirchle. This was a Catholic church, then was a cemetery chapel but nowadays it is an unremarkable and small building in the centre of a parking lot with Doctors and other businesses. From here we resumed our "Metropolis on the Murr" tour. We climbed steeply on paths and steps past peoples little gardens and fruit trees. Dogs said hi as we passed. The highest point was at the old peoples home where we had a fine view of the town.

From holiday blog

Descending the other side we saw more of the quiet gardens and houses. We reached the main part of town and a tattoo studio advertised its trade by using a tacky mosaic embedded in the doorstep.

From holiday blog

Back near town there was a peculiar device almost hidden from view. This was a cable car system. It was small so it was no good for people but it must have carried goods up and down the hill. It zig-zagged upwards and away from a loading bay near the road.
We popped into Lidl just to compare. There was a big fresh bread section which UK shops do not have. As well as their own brand honey they had the branded
Langnese Bienenhonig glasklar

Langnese Bienenhonig

too. We got a jar of that.
Lunch was in a riverside café in an area must have been reclaimed or recycled from old industrial. I don't recall anything being there before. Now it is a trendy café and bar area. The lunch menu was very simple. There was one special per day and the menu ran a month in advance. You could eat for €3, €5 or €7 depending on how hungry you were. I didn't choose that but I had a meat salad which turned out to be mostly meat. I also had a trendy looking Bionade which was a sort of fizzy barley water. Such a combination was a bold experiment but I reckon that it failed and should be avoided.
Every 15 minutes a fountain sprang into life after a prelude of rumbling motors and gurgling water. We finished our lunch and went into town. We looked at Max Mayer and inside the grand department store now looked very shabby. It carried the same sort of tat that pound shops stock and it had eastern european staff, probably Turkish. I got a Uefa 2006 hat and a few other bits. We crossed the Murr by a wooden footbridge and examined the ancient town wall.

From holiday blog

We then climbed the leafy staircase trail that led back up to St Pancras church and back into the old town.
There was only one shop selling the sturdy metal framed canvas shopping baskets that we had seen being used to carry bakery goods. This shop was next to the ornate fountain in the old main street. The choice was a bit limited but Tammy went in and asked to see some others. Tammy picked a red one but just as the sale was being rung up she noticed a slight scuff of dirt on the side. The shop assistant immediately knocked €5 off the price so that was a nice bonus. There was a fancy hardware store in the middle of town selling fancy stuff like Royal Doulton china. Impressively she spoke English without a trace of German accent. There was a sugar pourer in there but at €20 we thought it was best to leave it there. We got a €5 sugar pourer from another shop.
Finally we stopped at another pavement café and this time it was a Spaghetti and Gelati place. We opted for the Gelati and the hazelnut flavour is still a vivid memory.

From holiday blog

Looking at the time I saw that we could just about make the next bus so we hurried along. In fact the last passengers were about to hop on so we smartly hurried in behind them in the nick of time.
As the holiday was nearly over it was time to return Christel's car so Westy and Dad went off to do this task. Pity I didn't tell Westy about the frozen ball joint on the rear view mirror as when the Mondeo came back it the mirror was no longer attached.
The evening meal was in the Sonne hotel. The younger elements leapt across the Bach. We took the car which was quite unnecessary for such a short journey but it was required later.