We found a peaceful parkup along the Rhine River which marks the border between France and Germany.
At least it was peaceful until these guys showed up. We assume it was a training march, and those packs look heavy!
I guess this is a good time to explain why it seems we’re racing through Europe. Many European countries have banded together and agreed to remove controls between their borders and allow free movement within what’s now called the Schengen zone, named after the village in Luxembourg where the original agreement was signed. That’s why there’s no longer passport control between, say, France and Germany. That’s a good thing. But the challenging part is that for non-Europeans like us, instead of getting a visa for each country and traveling from one to the next as you wish, a visitor is only allowed to stay in the entire zone for 90 days out of 180 days. There are now 29 countries in the agreement so that means we’re limited to 90 days in what amounts to most of Europe.
When we entered France, the clock started on our Schengen time and it won’t stop until we get to Türkiye, which is out of Schengen. So you can see why we have to keep moving. There’s a lot of ground to cover.
We have another challenge, and that’s the age of our van. Most European countries are serious about addressing global warming by reducing emissions. There are lots of cities or parts of cities where an old diesel-powered girl like Escape Velocity is not welcome. If we should inadvertently enter a low emission zone we could face some stiff fines.
And that’s why we took a circuitous route to our next destination, avoiding the green zones around Strasbourg, France, and Ulm, Germany. We didn’t mind so much, as this led us through the Black Forest on a beautiful sunny day.
We arrived at the banks of the Danube River at a point just before it becomes navigable. It’s from very near this spot that Jack’s ancestors began their long journey down river. I’ve always admired the forebears who made the decision to leave everything and travel to a place unknown in hopes of a better life. It took guts. It still does.
