It was quiet and lonely and I slowly walked through the streets to soak in the impressions of Alsace flair.
I went back to Colmar for a second opinion after I was a little disappointed the day before.
This morning there were less people around and I went to the "Little Venice" section.
Although the pictures are all nice, the city remained a disappointment. To me a city like this should have an all around warm and inviting atmosphere which was not the case here. Utrecht is the first positive example in my mind. A lot of pretty buildings and a few good positions for pictures don't make a great city for me.
Still I had enjoyed the morning very much and headed towards the German side of the Rhine. Before crossing the river I had breakfast on a playground just before leaving Alsace for good.
Breisach am Rhein was the surprise of the day with art all around the castle walls.
But now I was in full tree discovery mode, heading towards the black forest mountains to find Germany's highest tree!
The tree is in the middle of the forest, so after climbing up the road I had to use small paths and moving forward became increasingly difficult. I put my rain gear on as I occasionally had to cycle through areas that were hardly walkable.
The trees around me got higher and I was feeling something special coming. It was the same feeling that I had in California last year when I was chasing the word's highest trees.
After a lot of fighting through the woods I finally found the small sign that marked the position of the tree.
I thought I would not be much impressed because I had seen hundreds of trees that were much higher, but I was equally in awe when I looked up.
The name of the tree is "Waldtraut vom Mühlwald", it is a douglasie and it is 66.5 meters high. The branches only start near the top.
I spend a lot of time at the tree, looking at it from different angles with the changing light conditions.
It had become late, so I did not start the cimb to the top of the black forest.
There was a great campsite on the lower part of the hill, so I decided to watch the Argentina soccer game and spend the night there.
