Straight’n the curves in Ketsch…

Wolfgang mentioned to me recently that there’s a spot about 15 minutes from my house where the Rhein was straightened. Today I decided to lug the kids there, partially to give my wife some me-time after having abandoned her to go to Oktoberfest (which I hated). Anyway, I headed to the tiny town of Ketsch just to see what was do’n.You can see in the Googlemaps image below the current course of this mighty river and the remnants of its past, far more circuitous course. We parked the van and then crossed a beautiful wooden bridge to an information center.     It was an absolutely gorgeous day, actually warm in the sun.We walked a bit to the right and found a huge pen full of fairly docile wild boars. Folks were lobbing old bread over the fence to them. They couldn’t have been happier in their muddy abode, especially the multitude of piglets.We walked on and took in a nice view on the shore of the Bagger-see, one of the lakes left by the straightening project. We then walked about 15 minutes in the other direction to the Rhein. The kids waded in the rocky bank while I took a few pictures and shot a bit of video.

Fall is quickly descending on this area. Although it is beautiful, I’m highly ambivalent as I don’t think I can take another hard winter.