Accursed cheese and Landeck

Today, while we were stuck in a traffic jam in the rain, Stefan inadvertently taught me another way to curse auf Bairisch: "So a Kaas." Literally, this translates as "what a cheese" ("so ein Kaese"*), but the tone of voice suggests cheese here is yet another metaphor for Mist.

We were on our way to Landeck, which was supposed to be a quick trip up the road just past Emmendingen. The good news, I suppose, is that I'm not the only driver in my family who gets lost on occasion. Or maybe that's bad news. In any case, it took most of the afternoon to travel, as the crow flies, 15 km and back, yielding what Stefan's mother Helen described as "eine wunderschoene Schwarzwaldreise." "Das Wetter wurde immer besser" ("the weather got better and better") she insists, describing the light drizzle that had turned into a heavy downpour by the time we got home.

Our destination was the Ruinen Landeck, which offered a good excuse for a rainy-day excursion with Helen. Like so many other area Burgs, Landeck was erected in the 13th century by the local nobility (in this case, the knight Dietrich von Geroldsecker) and trashed in 1525 by angry peasants during the Bauernkrieg. The remaining ivy-covered ruins include part of a church and part of the main residence, and the stonework and easily accessible location suggest the Burg was of the posh and expansive--rather than cold and isolated--variety.

*"Kaese," by the way, is another one of those special words that ends with an -e but is masculine rather than feminine, like "Name."