It’s still afternoon in my neck-of-the-woods, the day is barely half over, and it has been such a day!  An amazing day, an exhausting day, a camel-filled day!  Camels you ask?  Why yes, camels.  Somewhere in the mix, while searching for my lost car, I once again found camels wandering the streets of Germany.  I’m still completely unclear why camels are so popular in Germany, but I do now know that camels are the dolphins of the Schwarzwald.

Tess has been uber-busy with Choir rehearsal all week, and last week too.  Today was their big performance at the Landesgartenschau in Nagold.  I think it’s a little bit like the Dutch Keukenhof, our local answer to showing flowers, how to grow them and cool-things-I-really-want-for-my-garden.  I had no idea it was this huge, this close to our home.  I got so lost.

My GPS brought me directly to the front gates.  Of course, there was no parking directly in front of the gates.  While searching out parking, I got lost in the maze of little streets that make up downtown Nagold. Still, when I saw an open spot big enough for my American van I took it!  I tried very hard to memorize my location, but that is really not my forte.

Dane, however, had memorized where the front gates were to the Landesgartenschau, and happily led me there.  It wasn’t, unfortunately, the correct entrance, and after a little bumbling, a lot of asking, we found the right one and made our way over.  A full kilometer (plus) walk. Only to find we didn’t have tickets to get in, that gate didn’t sell tickets, and we had to go back where we started.  And then back again.

By the time we finally made our way in, and found where they’d hidden the choir, we were in time for the final applause and to see Tess take her bow.  I was hot, mad and so disappointed.  Luckily there was also a huge, big, wonderful playground right next to the stage and Tess & Dane were soon playing, and laughing, and it’s so hard to stay mad long with their smiling faces.

Our first effort to find back the car, led us across stepping stones in a small river.  It is impossible for small children to resist stepping of the stepping stones and getting their feet wet.  It is fairly impossible for large adults to resist stepping off the stepping stones and getting their feet wet.  I think the splashing in the river not only cooled us off, but caused a lot of smiles & giggles as well.

Our second effort to find back the car led us straight into the camels paddock.  Imagine our surprise to see camels standing there waiting to cart children around.  Dane & Tess each got their own camel and happily rode around in a big figure eight.  After we each got a little ball of camel hair as a souvenir.  The camels are raised by a local family to work as therapy animals, hence the “dolphins of the black forest”.