Saturday 7 July - Bonndorf and Blumberg

Where's Bertie? He's at a Stellplatz at Blumberg. It costs €7 per night, plus €1.50pppn tourist tax, plus €1 per day for electricity. Exact location: 47.83957, 8.54225.
Weather: Mainly sunny, but with some dark clouds drifting in every now and then.

Last night's parking spot was rather nice. This morning's breakfast spot was less so, but it was practical: the car park of Lidl in Bonndorf. The plan was: breakfast in a location with a phone signal, then whilst I shopped, Mick would go and check out the town, to make sure there was somewhere to watch the football before we paid out for the Stellplatz.

With both outings successful, we then encountered a problem: the Stellplatz was closed.

There was an easy Plan B - the one that had already been in place for the event of there not being a sports bar in town: we would go to Blumberg instead.

There was almost a late change of plan when, en route, we considered taking the turn for Donaueschingen instead. It's now 12 days since we left that town, but today we found ourselves passing 9km to the south of it, so it would have been an easy option to return there for the free Stellplatz, a smoke-free bar to watch the match, and a known route for me to run tomorrow morning. On reflection, maybe that would have been the wisest choice.

Two road closures were encountered on our way here (one with a well signed diversion, one without), and it was the second one that was later to cause a bit of an annoyance.

We had parked up in the Stellplatz and walked to the town, only to find that the closure of the town's main street was for an art festival. Specifically, a pavement art festival. Entry was €4 a head, which wasn't unreasonable if your purpose was to soak up the atmosphere of the festival and enjoy all of the pavement art, but €4 each was unreasonable when your purpose was simply to visit one of the businesses along that street. Harrumph!

We managed to obtain entry without paying and as it happens the only place we found for the football was outside of the payable zone. Everywhere within the zone was focussing on music today, not on having their TVs on. I imagine that would have been different had Germany been playing...

Relieved to have found a football viewing location, it looked for a while like we were going to get away relatively smoke-free, when there was just us and the (smoking) bar man in the place. Then it started to fill up, and I'm coming to the conclusion that the only people who go to bars in this region are smokers. At least this place had ceiling fans and an open window, so it could have been worse. Of course, it was worth it for being able to witness England progress to the semi-finals of a World Cup for the first time in a while.

Friday 6 July - Schattenmühle

Where's Bertie? He's in a car park at a place called Schattenmühle (Exact location: 47.84327, 8.31925).
Weather: Rainy start, then gradually clearing to give some sunny periods later this afternoon, interspersed with threatening skies.

Our car park for the last two nights, up in the woods by Schluchsee was delightfully peaceful, with the main sounds being tweeting birds and the occasional cowbell drifting on the breeze. Comings and goings of cars were relatively few. So, whilst it was surrounded by trees and boasted no view, we would happily have stayed there a third night, to return to Schluchsee (the town) tomorrow for the football, except that by elevenses time this morning we were going to run out of drinking water*. And if we were going to move to find a tap, then we may as well move on.

Via a quick stop in the motorhome Stellplatz in Schluchsee to fill and drain Bertie, we headed the 20km to where we are now sitting.

All I knew about the location prior to arrival was that it was a car park, located by a gorge and that there were nearby walking routes (although I'm not sure it's possible to park in this region and not be near to a walking route). That the car park was fairly full when we arrived was a good sign - to attract this many people there must be something interesting nearby.

The presence of an information board with a map setting out the local walks was handy, as we had no mobile phone reception at all to download maps or routes. Of the European countries we have visited, Germany stands out as having the poorest mobile phone service - a complete contrast to Spain, where I can only think of one occasion when we couldn't get a signal, and it's almost always 3G. In Germany, except when we're in a town, it's normal for at least one of us (and very often both of us) not to have 3G.

The walk, whilst 2km longer than advertised, with a bit more ascent, was good and interesting. I've written more about it over at http://gayleybird.blogspot.com.


Engineered walkways and a modest waterfall as we made our way up the gorge

A field of cultivated wild flowers was buzzing with bees and aflutter with butterflies.

Crossing a river before following an undulating path alongside it, on the retirn leg of the circuit.

By the time we got back to Bertie the first of the day's World Cup semi-final matches had kicked off and I gave Mick the option of decamping to the nearest town so that he could either find somewhere to watch or follow along on t'internet. The decision made was to stay put, but I did manage to find a French-speaking radio station, on which one of the two commentators spoke clearly enough for me to be able to get the gist of what was going on.

This evening two other vans have joined us in the car park (which is, otherwise, now empty), and there was a brief visit by a man and a woman, both dressed in work clothes, who arrived in separate cars and disappeared off up the footpath for a while. There could have been many an innocent explanation for the meeting, but I stand by my first assessment of "They're having an affair!".

^{(*As we have owned Bertie from new and can peer into his water tank to check there's no algae growth, it's questionable why we don't just drink water from his tank. Colin had no such access to look inside his tank, and he had been a hire vehicle before we bought him, so we always carried separate drinking water in four 5-litre containers. We've continued the same regime in Bertie.)}

Thursday 5 July - Schluchsee

Where's Bertie? He's exactly where he was last night, in the car park on the SW side of the lake at Schluchsee.
Weather: Rain until 2 or 3pm, then increasingly fine.

Heavy rain, drumming noisily on the roof, disturbed us at around 3.30 this morning. It did eventually slow down to a more normal pitter-patter, but I'm blaming the disturbance for not waking until 9.30. If there's going to be an accidental lie-in, today was certainly the weather for it! Alas, it was also the weather to scupper our planned pedalo outing on the lake.

The rain continued all morning, but at noon I finally changed out of pyjamas and into running gear. Then I had a dither and checked the weather forecast in the hope that it would dry up this afternoon. No such news was forthcoming, so out I went and 4.5 miles later I was really quite wet.


When we passed this point on yesterday afternoon's stroll, finishing touches were just being put on the scaffolding on the building plot. I said that there would be a house there in two days time. When I ran past the first time this lunchtime (it was a 2-lap run), the ground floor was up, complete with doors and windows. When I ran past the second time, a tarp had been erected over the top to keep the rain out.

Such were my intentions for the rest of the day that, on returning to Bertie, I put pyjamas back on. Then the rain stopped and Mick needed to get a little exercise, so we nipped out for another circuit ... except that a short way in I decided that the sky was looking ominous and I didn't want to have another set of wet clothes and shoes to get dry today, so I turned back. As it went, the rain didn't return, so instead of returning 'home', I walked back and forth, up and down the road/forest track off which Bertie is parked, until eventually I met Mick on his way back.

Gosh, it's all exciting action at the moment, isn't it?

Wednesday 4 July - Schluchsee

Where's Bertie? He's in a car park at the end of a dead-end road on the SW side of the lake of Schluchsee (exact location: 47.80416, 8.17443).
Weather: Plenty of sunshine, lots of cloudy periods, a few spots of rain, rumblings of thunder, warm.

We came out of the pub late last night stinking of smoke. It was bad enough last weekend, sitting outside of a smoking establishment. This time we were inside, but it was a choice of putting up with it or not seeing England snatch victory against Columbia in a pentalty shoot-out. Is it only just over a decade ago that smelling like that every Saturday morning at home (assuming you'd been to the pub the night before!) was a normal thing?

This morning's run, which featured two unexpected long staircases (and one not-so-long), was hard. Because of the late night in a smoky atmosphere? Because I didn't have any carbs with my salad for tea last night (accidental omission, not an intentional dietary decision)? Because it's so humid? Psychological? Who knows? Whatever the cause, it gave me the inclination to spend the rest of the day doing nothing more energetic than pottering.

There was a walk into town so as to find some wifi to download a week's worth of newspapers...

The temporary office
...whilst Mick wandered off down the street to find a bakery, returning with pastries almost as big as my head:

I did only eat half today, even though the other half will be stale by the time I eat it tomorrow.

Our ticket at the Stellplatz expired at 2.30pm, and it was just before that we rolled away from town, continuing to roll a whole 7km to our new location (which, as the crow flies is under 1.5km from where we were).

We did stir ourselves to walk a circuit through the woods and along the lake side this afternoon and, as we have come to expect of this area, it's all lovely. The number of guesthouses along this road suggests that we are not the only people to think so.

Looking up the Schluchsee from its south west side.

Tuesday 3 July - Falkau and Schluchsee

Where's Bertie? He's at a Stellplatz at Schluchsee, where the parking charge is €10 per 24 hours. Water and electricity are available at an extra charge (waste is free). Exact location: 47.81506, 8.18102.
Weather: Glorious start, soon clouding over, followed by rumbles of thunder, then periods of rain.

Just behind where Bertie was parked last night was a stand of trees, except many of them were no longer standing, having been blown over in some recent storm. Today was the day that those blow-downs were to be processed, by two men with chainsaws and one man in a tree-trunk-moving machine. They started work at 6am. There was a small amount of grumbling in Bertie; we hadn't wanted to be awake that early.

I'll blame the interruption of my slumber on why I felt so sluggish on my morning run, although that may also have been explained by how much of it was uphill (something I hadn't appreciated until I started descending).

A walk came after breakfast, following signposts for a circuit taking in the local waterfall. When we reached it, it was somewhat underwhelming:

The walkway down to the viewpoint was damaged and the bridge over to the continuation of the circuit was completely missing, so we returned the way we had come. A good choice, as it was also the shortest way back to Bertie, where we arrived two minutes before the rain. The thunder had started rumbling as we stepped out the door to set off, so we were lucky indeed to dodge getting wet.

It was another short hop from Falkau to the town of Schluchsee, where we popped Bertie into some free parking that sits immediately next to the pay-parking and the motorhome Stellplatz. We weren't prepared to commit to the fee for the Stellplatz until we had established that there was somewhere in the town showing the England match tonight, and we weren't going to walk into town until the rain had abated.

Schluchsee (Lake Schluch) after which the town is named

The weather eventually obliged. A football-showing venue was found (an Irish bar). Thus, Bertie is now in the official parking area and our fee has been paid.


The back of a floral peacock...


...and floral walking boots.

Monday 2 July - Feldberg and Falkau

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!)}

Sunday 1 July - Above Todtnauberg

Where's Bertie? He's in a car park above the village of Todtnauberg (exact location:47.85940, 7.93933).
Weather: Some cloud, but mainly sunny and warm.

Last night was too hot with too much noise, not just at the full Stellplatz, but around the town in general. As a result, it was a hard task to drag myself out of bed at 6.30 this morning, but I was soon glad I had: most of my 7-mile run was undertaken before the sun got high enough to heat things up. Moreover, it was still quiet out, with just a few handfuls of other runners and a few dog walkers. As I ran along, with the river on my right, I was treated to the sight, in the field to my left, of a buzzard, a heron and a stork.

Clear blue skies, but the sun is still low

By mid-morning we were gone from Freiberg, with Bertie hauling us slowly around the hairpin bends and over the mountain pass that lies to the SE of the town. Confusion reigned with some diversion signs as we approached our destination, but we found our way around the roadworks on our second attempt, and fortuitously found a level spot free in the otherwise busy car park.

Dozens of people came and went as we had elevenses, then lunch, after which we decided to find out why this is such a popular location for a Sunday stroll.

In our experience to date, you never need to take a sit-mat on a walk in Germany. There will always be some seating available, sometimes in the form of a picnic spot, complete with a shelter.

If it hadn't been obvious from the map, it was apparent almost as soon as we set off that this is a cross-country skiing area. There's quite a bit of 'up' in that 'cross' too, as we ascended some distance up to the top of a hill that may or may not be called Stübenvasen.

Passed on the way: an enormous tree trunk on which sun loungers have been built, complete with stairs to get up to those on the thick end of the trunk.

Not a bad view in front of which to sunbathe!

The summit of our hill was a rounded hump of a meadow and quite unremarkable, although a short side-trail did take us to views. I think this is Feldberg, the
highest hill in the region:


Completing a circuit, the final approach back to Bertie was unshaded and hot, however, it wasn't as unbearable as we knew it would have been in Freiberg today. When we left the town it was already 27 degrees out; when we arrived in this car park (which sits at 1140m) it was only 25 degrees. About an hour or so ago, the sun went behind a stand of trees that sits off to one side of the car park and it's already down to 23 outside (27 inside), which is cooler than it was at any point last night.

I've already tested the sleeping potential of the car park, having got the bed down and caught up on some Zzzzs after our walk this afternoon. Hopefully it will be quiet tonight, after the walkers and footballers (there's a football pitch sitting atop a mound to one side of the car park - it looks such an unlikely place for a pitch, but it's currently in use) have all left.