Where's Bertie? He's in a car park in the village of Falkau (exact location: 47.86789, 8.12555).
Weather: Wall-to-wall sunshine for much of the day, clouding over this afternoon.
Getting up this morning, after a very quiet night in our car park (excepting the car with 18 doors, all of which needed slamming, that parked next to us just after lights out), I suggested that we should have breakfast at our destination, as it was only a few kilometres away.
It would have been a good idea if things had gone to plan! However, we got to our first car park, for the Todtnau waterfalls, to find that there is a €2 per head charge to walk the short path up the falls, and whilst this was more reasonable than the €5 per head at Triberg last week, my reasons for not paying for viewing waterfalls still stand.
Breakfast was deferred again, whilst we drove 15km along the road to the car park for Feldberg, the highest hill in this region (1493m). I expected to have to pay €5 to park there, but we arrived to find that the charge was now €12, which exceeds what I am willing to pay in order to walk up a hill.
Harrumphing (and hungry) we drove back down the access road, and spotted the free car park across the road. Finally breakfast, then (eventually) a walk up our hill.
There is the option of paying €10 to catch the gondola up the main ascent, which also includes a visit to the Black Forest Ham Museum*, and its viewing tower (although the viewing deck is currently closed due to construction work). We walked - in Mick's case at quite a lick (possibly because I was carrying the pack today), with me toiling sweatily in his wake. We may have been up at 1400m, but it was still remarkably warm.
The number of people milling around the monument at the top of the gondola, and walking along the ridge to the summit, was surprising, even for a sunny Monday. I hate to think how busy it would have been up there over the weekend.
Our pause on the top was long enough to take in the views and take a selfie (as evidenced above), but neither of us was ready for lunch. Thus the flask of coffee and box of sandwiches that I'd carried up got carried back down again. Laziness prevailed - we did take a different route down, but didn't opt for the 12km circuit for which I had downloaded a gpx file.
Having managed to go an almost unprecedented (when on the road) length of time without a supermarket shop, a visit to Lidl came after lunch. There I managed to muster enough German to explain that I had been overcharged, but struggled to convey that Mick had followed me back into the shop with the trolley and was now the wrong side of the checkouts. A whole queue of waiting customers was abandoned by the cashier whilst the barrier of one of the closed tills was opened to facilitate Mick's escape. Ooops.
In a day of short-hops, another few kilometres along the road brought us to this parking area, at some parkland, with forest trails behind us. I'll likely go and investigate some of those in the morning.
(*A museum. Of ham. On top of a big hill. At a ski resort. Struck us as an odd choice of location!)
Weather: Wall-to-wall sunshine for much of the day, clouding over this afternoon.
Getting up this morning, after a very quiet night in our car park (excepting the car with 18 doors, all of which needed slamming, that parked next to us just after lights out), I suggested that we should have breakfast at our destination, as it was only a few kilometres away.
It would have been a good idea if things had gone to plan! However, we got to our first car park, for the Todtnau waterfalls, to find that there is a €2 per head charge to walk the short path up the falls, and whilst this was more reasonable than the €5 per head at Triberg last week, my reasons for not paying for viewing waterfalls still stand.
Breakfast was deferred again, whilst we drove 15km along the road to the car park for Feldberg, the highest hill in this region (1493m). I expected to have to pay €5 to park there, but we arrived to find that the charge was now €12, which exceeds what I am willing to pay in order to walk up a hill.
Harrumphing (and hungry) we drove back down the access road, and spotted the free car park across the road. Finally breakfast, then (eventually) a walk up our hill.
There is the option of paying €10 to catch the gondola up the main ascent, which also includes a visit to the Black Forest Ham Museum*, and its viewing tower (although the viewing deck is currently closed due to construction work). We walked - in Mick's case at quite a lick (possibly because I was carrying the pack today), with me toiling sweatily in his wake. We may have been up at 1400m, but it was still remarkably warm.
The number of people milling around the monument at the top of the gondola, and walking along the ridge to the summit, was surprising, even for a sunny Monday. I hate to think how busy it would have been up there over the weekend.
Our pause on the top was long enough to take in the views and take a selfie (as evidenced above), but neither of us was ready for lunch. Thus the flask of coffee and box of sandwiches that I'd carried up got carried back down again. Laziness prevailed - we did take a different route down, but didn't opt for the 12km circuit for which I had downloaded a gpx file.
Having managed to go an almost unprecedented (when on the road) length of time without a supermarket shop, a visit to Lidl came after lunch. There I managed to muster enough German to explain that I had been overcharged, but struggled to convey that Mick had followed me back into the shop with the trolley and was now the wrong side of the checkouts. A whole queue of waiting customers was abandoned by the cashier whilst the barrier of one of the closed tills was opened to facilitate Mick's escape. Ooops.
In a day of short-hops, another few kilometres along the road brought us to this parking area, at some parkland, with forest trails behind us. I'll likely go and investigate some of those in the morning.
(*A museum. Of ham. On top of a big hill. At a ski resort. Struck us as an odd choice of location!)
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