Wednesday, December 13 What to do today? A trip to Basel, Switzerland? It’s not too far away. Wait, we can travel anywhere in Germany for free without tickets on the regional and local trains, plus any other public transportation with the D-Tickets were have. Hey, why not go to Baden Baden, in the Black Forest? We took a tram from Strasbourg to Kehl, which is a few miles away and just over the border. From there we took the train. First we went to the famous Baden Baden casino, but it was too early to get past the lobby area. We walked into the old town and checked out what was there. Then I remembered that Gengenbach, a small town i had heard good things about in the Black Forest wasn’t too far away. We wandered through the big Baden Baden Christmas market on our way back to the bus that would take us to the train station. We really liked Gengenbach. We admired the buildings and when it was 5:00 somewhere we had some Glühwein. Right by where we were standing to drink our wine there was a little stand that sold roasted chestnuts. I had been telling Marie that she needed to try them, so why not now? I bought a small packet and it was more than enough to share. When it was time to head back to Strasbourg is when the real adventure began. We had to change trains and I knew the name of the station and how long it would take to get there. At the stop I could see the station name so we got off. Turns out it was a big mistake. There are two stations with that name, but where we got out had an additional name after it. We had to wait quite a while until another train came along that would take us to the next station. When I say we got off at a station, it’s not really a station. No building or indoor space at all, so we were outside on the platform. Luckily there was a bus stop type overhang and a few seats, since it had been raining off and on throughout the day and it started up again. We finally made it back to Strasbourg and the plan was to go to the Christmas market with the good food and get some dinner. But…it was raining and there’s no covered place to eat. We ended up picking sandwiches up at the train station and to them back to our apartment to eat them. We called it a day and are looking forward to our last day in Strasbourg and France. Traveling doesn’t always go as planned, but it always works out.