Into the Schwarzwald (Black Forest)

Sat :  21^st June, 2014.  This morning brought an email from Emirates, advising us that our departure time from Heathrow at the end of next month has been changed.  Our flight, which we chose because of the shortish changeover time in Dubai, will leave 1hour 45 minutes earlier than originally scheduled, which means we will now have nearly 2hours extra to hang around in Dubai airport.  Needless to say, we are thrilled to bits about that!

We weren’t terribly impressed with the campsite we stayed in last night (#1583 in the ACSI Book) and when they asked for 3,50 euros to fill our water tank, on top of the camp fee of 15 euros, we told them they were dreaming and left, to fill up elsewhere.  From Contrexeville, we drove along the D3 to Epinal, paying a brief visit to the American War Cemetery,

then on to the N57 and N66 south east through gorgeous alpine country and following the Moselle River to St Maurice sur Moselle.  Here we booked into another ACSI campsite and are parked beside the Moselle, albeit only a stream at this point.  I think that half of the population of Holland is here!

Sun : 22^nd June, 2014.  A quiet, peaceful night followed by hot showers and once we’d packed up we were off to nearby Bussang, where we believed the source of the Moselle to be.  We didn’t find it but we must have been very close.

Then we enjoyed the drive through the Col de Bussang and down to Mulhouse, shortly afterwards crossing the Rhine into Germany.  After 15 minutes we spied an Imbiss (snack bar) so swooped in for a light lunch before continuing on to Freiburg where we had a choice of sites, unlike last year when we stopped here as there was a huge rock concert on and the place was packed.  We rode the bikes into town and wandered around for a while but found it very quiet compared with our previous visit, tram lines are being replaced so there were a few roads closed off, there was other construction work in progress and being Sunday afternoon, most shops were closed so no big crowds.  We rode along the cycle way by the river on the way back to camp and spent the rest of the day doing very little, in the shade as it was bordering on hot this afternoon!

Mon :  23^rd June, 2014.  Although we usually try to avoid returning to places we’ve previously visited, we decided we’d like to revisit the Schauinslandbahn Freiburg, a cable car ride which we took 5 years ago with Rob and Laurie.  It’s a twenty-minute ride each way with stunning views

and we treated ourselves to coffee and Black Forest Cake in the café/restaurant at the top of the mountain…yum!

We had a plan for the rest of the day, some of which eventuated, some didn’t.  The Black Forest Open Air Museum in Gutach was on the plan and we spent a couple of interesting hours there, wandering through the numerous historical buildings from various regions of the Black Forest (www.vogtsbauernhof.org ) which was well worth the visit.

By the time we’d finished our tour, it was time to drive to our overnight stop and we found ourselves going around in circles trying to find the most suitable…it was all a bit of fun and we even had to stop for a few cows at one place!

and backtracked a little but we’re now in an excellent reisemobilpark in Konigsfeld, where Mike cooked dinner on the barbecue. 

Now it’s raining and bedtime.

Tues : 24^th June, 2014.  Although we had rain all through the night, it was fine but still overcast this morning when we woke.  A little walk before breakfast and showers and we left the very comfortable reisemobilpark at about 9.30am for a drive-through the gorgeous Black Forest, stopping in Dunningen to buy a rotisserie chicken, travelling through several lovely villages until stopping again at Baiersbronn where we ate some of the chicken for lunch which was followed by a short walk into the town to a café where we partook of coffee and rhubarb/apple cake.  It must have been ruhetag (rest day) in Baiersbronn as most of the shops and businesses were closed.  The highlight of today was the drive through the spectacular Schwarzwald-Hochstrasse (Black Forest High Road).  Unfortunately the photos we took simply don’t do justice to the scenery which was absolutely breathtaking!

At one of the viewpoints, we met and chatted to a couple from Sydney.  Anne Marie and Geoff live in the St George area where Mike spent some of his youth, Anne Marie used to teach at his old high school and Geoff worked some years ago for St George County Council, where Mike was working at the time of our nuptials!  It’s a small world!

On to Gernsbach, near Baden Baden where we are spending the night by the River Murg.  After a very pleasant hour spent in a biergarten 5 minutes down the road, watching the swans on the river whilst sampling the beer, we called it a day.

Wed : 25^th June, 2014.  Before leaving Gernsbach this morning, we visited the lovely gardens and the old town, 

crossing the river and back again by bike, then up the steep hill behind the stellplatz with Boris to Eberstein Castle, built in 1272, which now houses a small, luxury hotel and has fantastic views down into the valley.

From there, our route took us through the outskirts of Baden Baden to the Iffezheim Barrage Dam on the Rhine River, a joint European project consisting of a sluice, power plant and weir.  This was our lunch stop while we watched a couple of cruise boats go through the large locks, a popular pastime.

Then, across the Rhine and back into France, but only briefly as 15 minutes later we were back in Germany, travelling through beautiful wineries, farmlands and forest till we arrived in Dorrenbach, a beautiful little village where we had planned to stay for the night.  Unfortunately, the stellplatz was a steep climb behind the village, with stunning views

but no services and was a dustbowl, so we drove to nearby Bad Bergzabern where our home for tonight is in a winery overlooking the town.  We’ve walked down into yet another lovely old town

and patronised the railway station bar before climbing back up the hill to retire for the night.

Thurs : 26^th June, 2014.  We drove down to town this morning, parked Boris while we visited the chemist, who was such a lovely, friendly and helpful young woman we would have liked to take her home with us.  She lives in Dorrenbach and told us a little about the village, so we drove back there, stopped just outside as there is no parking in the tiny streets, and walked in.  Once again, we found that the village was closed, we seem to have a knack of visiting places on their ruhetag!  It’s still a lovely village though!

We spent the rest of the day meandering through the National Parks of Pfalzerwald and des Vosges du Nord on our way to Waldfischbach where we are spending the night.  On investigating the noise coming from the campsite bar, we found a crowd watching the World Cup game between Germany and USA on a big screen…Germany won 1-0 much to the delight of the predominantly German crowd.  The genial young man behind the bar spent last year in Australia, chiefly on the east coast from Byron Bay to Cairns and in Perth working in a window factory in Joondalup, loved being there, would have liked to stay longer but had only a 1 year working visa so was happy to reminisce with us about the places he’d visited.

Fri : 27^th June, 2014.  Today we drove the fast road to Saarburg and spend a couple of days there, chiefly for some R&R and to catch up on washing and a few little odd jobs, as well as a bit of bike riding.  We stopped at Mettlach on the way for a wander and a lunch break in a beer garden and are now parked by the Saar River which runs into the Moselle, have ridden to nearby Aldi for supplies, had some very heavy rain which resulted in us scampering indoors and are now thinking about an evening meal.  We’re looking forward to the next few days in this lovely region.