Black Forest (part 1)

Sunday 28^th Titisee

This morning we crossed the river Rhine at Rheinfelden and left Switzerland for Germany. We spent the morning driving through the Black forest. We pulled off the road for a coffee and were joined by a man with two daughters in their car and caravan. Unfortunately after their break they were unable to get their vehicle to start. We offered help, but lack of language and mechanical skills meant we left them in the company of a German motorcyclist to sort out their problems. I hope they were able to sort something out as there was very little shade at that stop. Just before we arrived in Titisee Mike spied a Lidl so we stocked up on some food knowing we would soon have electricity to boost the fridge. We then found a wooded campsite which was right on the edge of the lake and we set up camp. I had seen in the German newspapers that Germany was experiencing its highest temperatures this century reaching 39C.  It was obviously too much and that afternoon the weather broke with a massive storm which put paid to any ideas of having a BBQ. The rain continued to fall throughout the night and was still raining when we awoke.  We were very glad to be in Buster and not a tent.

Monday 29^th Freiburg

The rain continued to fall heavily all day. The campsite was rapidly deteriorating into a very soggy mess. We decided to leave so Jacqui went to pay. This took over half an hour mainly due to the very elderly man who was doing the accounts. Maybe he owned the site but they really needed a more efficient person on the front desk as the queue in the rain was steadily growing and people’s tempers were shortening.


On the way out we checked the campsite next door in case we returned here with Millie.  It looked better organised but it did not have lakeside access.  First we drove into Titisee.  It looked worth exploring in more detail when we had Millie; a large outdoor pool, an aquapark and some interesting shopping streets but not today as it was too wet. We continued for 30Km reaching Freiburg at lunchtime. We stopped in a side road  and heated up some tomato soup that Jacqui had made yesterday. We had this with german granary bread and cheese. We then put on our waterproofs and walking boots – we had mistakenly thrown out our wellies as we thought we would no longer need these – and set off. Friboug is a university city and this always seems to increase the liveliness of a place. Its main sight is a 13^th centrury gothic cathedral (Munster) built in a reddish purple stone.
 It also contained some lovely stained glass windows, sculptures and paintings. The town is also famous for its ‘bachle’ tiny medieval canals that run down the middle of the streets.  Today with the rain there were mini torrents in each.  

There were some other attractive buildings to view but it was incredibly wet and so we headed back to the van after a short walk round. We drove to McDonalds to spend an hour catching up on e mails, post redirection etc and then headed back to the B500 –the Hohe Schwarzwaldstrasse. Unfortunately the low cloud affected some of the views and we decided to pull of the road around 6.30pm hoping that this scenic route would be better tomorrow.

Tuesday 30^th July Black Forest tour

We had our breakfast in the very pretty surroundings in our picnic area on top of a hill on the B500.  A couple of vehicles and bikes pulled in to take photos but otherwise we were left undisturbed. We even managed to get our awning out to dry it off.

Once ready we set off for Triberg, a small town where three mountains meet. It also contains Germany’s highest waterfall. We stopped here first on our way into Triberg and went for a short walk but then decided it would be a good place to come with Millie in a few days time. We managed to find somewhere to park and then set off for our real destination- Café Schafer the home of the original recipe for Black Forest gateau.   We walked past the tourist shops selling wooden goods and visited the ‘house of 1000 clocks’. The café was at the far end of town but it was worth the walk.

From Triberg we continued north, through lovely countryside until we reached the pretty town of Schiltach. Here there was dedicated parking on the riverside for motorhomes where the two rivers the Kinzig and the Schiltach meet. It was a lovely spot and we took our lunch to a sunny bench by the river.

 We then wandered through the attractive town that was full of colourful half timbered buildings and even included an apothecary’s museum.  Jacqui had a quick chat with the curator and then back to the van for the next leg.

We were now heading towards Kehl which is where the Burstner repair centre lies. We wanted to check everything was in order for the planned repair date of the 5^th August. We arrived at 4.30pm only to find that they shut at 4pm. However they opened at 7am and there was facilities for us to park overnight free of charge. That evening we drove into Kehl to find a McD to send some e mails and then we walked through the town and along the Rhine where we could see Strasbourg, France on the other side of the river.

Wednesday 31^st July Baden Baden

The first part of the morning was spent with Burstner going through the list of repairs. It was good that we had come a few days earlier as they only had the one window replacement on their worksheet. We then drove to a camping centre at Offenburg to pick up some toilet chemicals – an essential purchase!

After this stop we headed for Baden Baden. It was more difficult to park in this town with lots of ‘no motorhome’ parking signs. We found a leafy street that looked the equivalent of Harley Street and paid to park for an hour. This gave us time for a quick walk around the town.


 It was very attractive but we found it rather sedate. We had a pleasant walk down Lichtertaler Allee , which had a shallow stream and some lovely trees including some large weeping beeches.  We picked up some bratwurst and brotchen for lunch, which was very tasty, and then continued up to see the Roman Baths which we could only see through the window as they were closed. We were now running out of time so we headed back to the van through the main market squares.

Our next stop was Hofen an der Enz.  This was a small Black Forest town and our only interest here was the fact that Caroline (Mike’s sister) had worked here in the Hotel Oschen in 1978. Although this was many years ago it was still owned by the same family. It was now a short drive to Sindelfingen on the outskirts of Stuttgart. Our main reason for being here was that we would have an easy journey tomorrow in picking Millie up from the airport. We spent the evening doing a small shop (fridge problems again), skyping Millie and catching up on e mails and then back to our car park spot for an early night.