Just when you thought it was safe to go back to Berlin this happens: Man Arrested with Severed Head Says Was Provoked. "A man arrested after walking through town swinging the severed head of his sister-in-law by the hair told police she had provoked him, German prosecutors said on Wednesday," reads this story in part.

Took the train up into the Black Forest. Passed through the highest train station in Germany, Feldberg-Barantal, at 3204 feet. The highest mountain in the Black Forest is the nearby Feldburg, at 4882 feet. Continued on to Schluchsee, located on a glacial lake several miles long. It a highly developed spick and span little place chockablock with hearty German tourist types. Lots of gravel-paved hiking trails - actually roads, cars could travel them with no problem, with informational signs about every 300 feet. Despite this most of the hikers are in full “Alpine Hiking” regalia, heavy books, two hiking sticks, day packs bigger than I would take on a 28 day trek in the Himalayas. The women all seem to have legs like Olympic shot-putters.