Monday 4th May, Day 5 - Black Forest Walk

Looking down on Titisee Lake on the first part of our walk

We woke to the sun shining, so it was breakfast outside with the view of the mirror flat lake. The plan today was to go for a walk. Unfortunately, OS Maps only works for the UK, so we had to search for other options and found Komoot.  Peter did a mashup with our trusted Maps.me and came up with a route about 4 miles long.  

The first part was really steep, up through the woods climbing about 570 ft until we reached Rotkreuz, a sort of junction where bus, cycle, road, and walking routes all sort of meet up.

The trees opened out into a large meadow where we could see over the hills over the southern Black Forest.  Blue skies, green meadows and deep green forest in all directions.  Absolutely gorgeous.

And from here, we could see the clouds of pollen almost exploding from the trees - drifting in the wind to settle onto other parts of the forest hundreds of meters away. We sat and watched as clouds kept emerging from the forest, like steam rising on a hot day.

Our walk then went back into the woods and downhill towards Titisee town.  Despite being mostly pine, and a managed forest, the trees were usually quite well spaced which meant the floor of the forest was covered in a variety of plants, shrubs and flowers, I noticed wood-sorrel, wood anemone, cowslips, and violets amongst them.

Out of the woods we walked past the quaint, traditional houses and buildings of Titisee.  We decided that whilst we were here, we'd try and found a supermarket.  Unfortunately this part of town was purely for tourists, and we struggled to find anywhere selling food.  Eventually, (thanks to Google), we found a grocers where we bought fresh fruit, and on the  way back to the lake, a speciality butchers, so we bought sausages and fresh bread rolls.  That's tea sorted then. 

The last stretch of the walk took us around the lake.  The pollen was obvious here too, as the edge of the lake was covered in it, bright yellow washing up onto the shore. 

Back at the van and relaxed, we've started to think about our next stop, Garmisch-Partenkirchen in Bavaria.  This is what I planned we should see from the start, and I'm hoping it's as good as I remember.

Sunday May 3 - Titisee in the Black Forest, Germany

Peter posing - our pitch at Titisee

We had to have a little conflab this morning to decide where we were aiming for next.  We were to visit the Black Forest, with Freiburg im Breisgau football stadium (100 aire places) as a central point.  But I knew that there were loads of aires and places to stay a little further east, right in the forest itself, and they would make a better central point for the visit.  I remembered Titisee from my earlier research,  Peter found plenty of aires and campsites, and that was our decision made. 

So we said goodbye to Strasbourg (lovely place, would be very happy to come back), and headed south east, crossing the Rhine which makes the border between France and Germany,  towards Titisee-Neustadt.  The first site we looked at was closed, the 2nd didn't make us want to stay, and then we found this one, Sandbank.  It's on the edge of the lake Titisee, and Peter liked the way the pitches were set into terraces up the hill. After the shock of finding out the 51 euro per night charge, we decided to stay a couple of nights anyway.

The last two places we stayed at were jam packed full.  We think that might have been because of the Labour Day BH and the fact it was a weekend.  This site is only about half full, which is nice.  When we arrived, it was really warm and sunny, and one thing that almost became a problem was pollen.  We noticed that everything quickly became covered in a yellow dust. I can only think that it's coming from the surrounding forest, there aren't any trees close by.  A shower of rain later seemed to ease it. 

View over the lake

We've had a lovely relaxed afternoon, sorting out domestic stuff (like cruises), checking out the facilities (the loos and showers are AMAZING), a nap, reading the news, I cooked dinner etc, etc, and it's been lovely.

For info - Lake Titisee is 840m (or 2756 ft) above sea level, which is higher than quite a few of the fells in the Lake District.  Tomorrow we plan to go out for a wander as there are so many walking trails here.  I'm really quite looking forward to it. 

Night time view - camera doesn't do it justice

Saturday 2nd May - Strasbourg, France

So we woke this morning, quite late but well refreshed in Camp Gritt, Ingledorf, Luxembourg.  After yesterday's heat, (I didn't mention how hot it got, did I?), it was nice and cool.  We didn't rush, and left the site at 11 o'clock.  Google said the drive to Strasbourg was about 3 1/2 hours, which would give us time to have a wander around the city once we got there.  With a mental check to drive on the right, we set off.

T'internet said that fuel was cheapest in Luxembourg and Austria and looking at the pump prices, we worked out diesel was £1.65 a litre, so Peter filled up.  To get to Strasbourg without having to use one of France's many toll roads meant we drove into Germany, which is where we had lunch, and then onward to Strasbourg.  Everything they say about European roads seems to be true.  They were distinctly empty in comparison to the UK, with hardly any litter.  Yesterday France and Belgium had been distinctly flat.  Today we were driving through hills and forests, it was really quite pleasant.

We got to the site about 4pm, quickly checked in, set up and then went out.  Strasbourg has it's own Notre Dame Cathedral and we wanted to see it.  We could've taken a tram but we chose to walk.  The cathedral works out about 40 mins from our City Kamp site, and there was plenty to see on the way. 

Strasbourg is a really lovely city, full of gorgeous historic buildings, quaint squares and cobbled alleys, the cathedral is magnificent and there is the river of course.

We decided it was France's answer to York, to the point where Peter said he expected to turn the corner and find The Shambles, and guess what.....

We almost sat down to eat in the city.  But after allocating us a table, the waiter didn't come back to give us a menu.  After 5 mins we decided we couldn't be bothered and set off back to the campsite where we ordered pizza instead.

Tomorrow we're off to the Black Forest.  A lot less driving for Peter, and a bit of what we love, walking, hills, forests and nature. Fingers crossed it goes as well as today.