The Danube is a long meandering river that wanders through several European countries before it reaches the Black Sea. But at the start, it gives off an air of “no need to hurry” which if you are in the area, infects you. The river even vanishes at times underground due to limestone and is a slow-flowing river. It’s a perfect area to go to in the summer, where you can relax and take it easy. The days start off lazily with a long breakfast, several cups of tea and reading books, so by the time we leave for our activity, it’s nearly 10am. But no matter as we are in no rush.
We are heading to the town of Donaueschingen, in Germany, where the Danube river starts. It’s a lovely little town, filled with what appears to be a hundred different ice-cream shops. There is classic Italian gelato, soft serve, to frozen yoghurt. There are so many choices of different flavours. I tried several, all while umming and erring, but finally settled on a rather unusual flavour combination, lemon and lavender.
With my pale purple ice-cream in hand, I walked to the Danube spring and sat down to eat it. Lavender is one of those difficult flavours that can be too overpowering and give you the feeling that you are eating a bar of soap or an old ladies underwear draw. But this was delicate and light. Gentle floral notes hit your tongue and then are cleaned away by the lemon, ready for the next bite. There were even little bits of real lavender flower, giving it texture and bitterness.
It was a very hot day, but it was cool sitting next to the crystal clear spring eating my ice-cream. I enjoyed watching as swarms of little bubbles danced through the water from the ground. Sadly I could not dip my feet into the spring as a fence separated us, but the ice-cream did a lot to help cool me off and I got to enjoy a delightfully floral flavour and see the source of the lazy Danube River.
Rassasy 