The countdown begins

We will be leaving Freiburg for Steinebach in ten days. We're happily taking advantage of Zoe and Michelle's visit to say farewell to some of our favorite places. This afternoon, we repeated the Ruins Paydirt Tour at Kastelburg and Hochburg. Despite the forecast for rain and clouds all day, we had some brilliant sunshine.

France still seems to be trumping Germany in the weather department. Clouds coming from the west glide gently over the Rhine valley and then collide with the mountains of the Schwarzwald, where they unpack their bags and settle in for a while. We're finally learning that the late autumn status quo forecast--"rain likely"--means anything from "get out your galoshes, it will pour all day" to "rain might fall for a few minutes sometime over the next 24 hours."

This summer, we also saw a lot of rain in Bayern, where temperatures were unseasonably cold. The weather there was so unpleasant for so long that forecasters started publishing predictions like "today the rain will be warmer."