I am very lucky that Chrissy knows hundreds of cool spots and doesn't mind being my very own tourist guide. Today she figured out that we could go for a walk in the clouds near the town of Bad Camberg. The town, with the idea of increasing tourist traffic has built a forest attraction: Der Baumwipfelweg. It would be Chico's building dream, with massive wood pillars supporting a timber ladder and high path that meanders up and down the tips of the trees in a mixed oak and pine forest near town. It is a massive lumber structure whose ramps and stairs brings you 100 feet above the forest floor, where you can observe trees, birds, and insects to your heart's content.
To increase its educational value all along the trip, which must be at least half a kilometer long, you find little challenges to help you learn more about the forests of the world and their amazing inhabitants. My favorite was learning about mushrooms that can turn insects into zombies. One type invades the brain of some ants, and then controls them to seek a particular type of bush and tightly clamp their jaws into it. The mushroom then multiplies in the brain of the ant, kills it, and is able to spread into the right type of plant to continue its zombie-creating career. Another mushroom does the same thing with wasps, and thus propagates itself over long distances as the infected wasp flies to his death at a farther location.
The structure is so skinny and tall that it sways in the wind, giving you a bit of a start. The whole thing is kept within modest limits by guy wires of heavy braided steel, but I for one would not like to be up here during a storm. Outside of these brief moments of swaying it was a delightful experience to be so high in the forest, with magnificent views of the surrounding land.
Once you are on the region you feel compelled to visit Bad Camberg, another of the hundreds of medieval towns that sprung left and right in this part of Germany. The old town was built around 1665, but many of the houses were renovated in the 2000's and make a colorful mosaic to celebrate its old history. The right place to enjoy an ice cream cone.
For the evening we were invited to the birthday dinner of an old friend of the family, Christiane, offered to her and friends by her husband Michael. I was glad to see there my old friends Gaby and Dieter, and to catch up on their life as grandparents. Gaby is an architect, and is the fifth generation to run the Fischer architectural firm, which apparently has built most of the town of Dörningheim. Her daughter Sandra is now slowly getting ready to obtain her architect license and eventually will take over the firm. It is slow work because in the meantime she has married and now has two kids, who are the joy and constant headache of their doting grandparents. Dieter was a computer security consultant, but is now retired (in fact, except for me everyone at the table was retired, because Germany has a mandatory retirement at age 65. Folks can still work as consultants or on their own companies, but most chose to enjoy the break. Food for thought.
Now that he is retired, Dieter has taken on a very interesting hobby. He is a Formula 1 enthusiast, so he has bought a Formula 1 simulator that allows him to seat in the very narrow cabin, has hydraulic controls that simulate the stirring and vibration of the wheels, and the resistance of the pedals, plus video access to any Formula 1 track in the world. The simulations include horrendous accidents where he has to let the stirring wheel go or he could break a wrist. The simulator can also use other vehicles, so he can test new or vintage classics like Mustang or Camaro. Kind of fun, isn't it?
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