A short hop along the south bank of the Rhine to Burt Bacarach and a front row pitch at the Stellplatz at Camping Sonnenstrand. We sat for a while watching the huge vessels chug up and down this mighty river before setting out to explore. An interesting town, and well worth the bimble around, plus we scaled the incredibly steep vineyards above the town to admire the views.
Dinner was a very nice Jaegerschnitzel in the campsite restaurant overlooking the Rhine. It was here, however, that we discovered how pigging noisy the Rhine is at night. With a railway line on each side of the river, and massive barges chugging along all night, the sound reverberated in the valley, almost shaking us out of bed.
In the morning it was a quick dash back down the high street as, after a couple of weeks suffering severe withdrawal symptoms, she needed to buy a pair of shoes!
In the morning, after a fairly late start, we finally found the Burstner showroom in Kehl and spent a little time wandering around the new models. We then asked for the location of the spares shop as we wanted some grey fridge covers. We were given directions of a sort, but told that it would close for the typical German lunch break of 10 hours in about 10 minutes. We headed off and searched...and searched, eventually finding it just after it closed for lunch. Doh! We did see loads and loads of interesting "stuff" at all the various workshops about the place though. Given that we had a longish drive, we didn't bother waiting for it to open but headed off, hoping to stop in Heidelberg. However, Heidelberg was hell and we kept being diverted down tiny streets and, unable to find any stellplatz to park for the night, we gave it up as a bad job and headed towards Bingen. Again, Bingen was packed so we followed the signs for the stellplatz, which is a good few miles out of town, and settled down for the night without actually seeing any of Bingen or Heidelberg.
Heading North out of Titisee we followed the back roads through some stunning scenery to find Germany's highest waterfall at Triberg. The final descent into Triberg down a very steep road was a bit hairy, and following our experiences through Austria last year, we went very easy on the brakes and stopped half way down for them to cool. I suppose it is not surprising that a large quantity of wine plus a large, heavy brick of a motorhome is not going to compete very well with gravity!
Having found somewhere secure to park we set out to explore the waterfall and had a good time wandering about the place. The paths were very steep so we were pleased to have had lots of hill training in the Alsace and we whizzed up and down like mountain goats. After firing loads of photos we went to have a look at the House of 1000 clocks and admired all the cuckoo clocks therein. Some were tacky, others very pretty and some commanded price tags of 1,000's of yoyos! We decided that a cuckoo clock in the bus would probably only survive 1 night before being chucked out of the window so we departed, again heading north the 60 miles or so to Baden-Baden (why is it named twice?).
Finding the Stellplatz-Stellplatz we walked-walked into town, which turned out to be a 2.5 mile trek, but we really liked the town. We bimbled around and had a beer in the overpriced Lowenbrau beer house, where we were surrounded by Brits obviously in town for a conference. We both agreed that Brits on a conference in town all dress and speak the same way and we likewise agreed that we were glad that we no longer had to suffer that experience.
The following morning we decided that we would like to see a bit more of the town so we caught the bus-bus back in, walked through the lovely gardens, laughed at the conference attendees with their braying voices and shiny suits, had some delicious apfelstrudel, did some food shopping and went to the bus stop to figure out how to pay for the journey back. Luckily there was a very well dressed lady at the bus stop who said "Pay boy on bus" so that was OK.
Back at the bus we headed off again to find the Burstner Factory in Kiel, which is on the Rhine and just over the border from Strasbourg. We found the factory, and saw thousands of Burstners of all types lined up waiting for despatch, but we couldn't find the showroom. Time was getting on, so we quickly crossed the border and booked into the excellent new Indigo site at Strasbourg, where we enjoyed a very quiet night despite wandering around for hours in the dark trying to find a fresh water tap.
Over the Rhine, through Freiburg, along some very pretty roads in the Black Forest and a patrol around Lake Titisee to see where we could stop for a night or two. Eventually we found Sandbank Campsite on the southern shore, which closed for the season on Sunday 18 Oct, so we had a good choice of pitches. Of course, we chose one right on the edge of the lake next to the footpath that runs right around the lake. This meant that hundreds of nosy Germans would stop and peer into the bus as they walked past.
We walked the 20 minutes or so into the small town of Titisee, which, in itself, is not unattractive, but we had been spoiled by the stunning towns and villages of the Alsace and so it seemed a bit bland. There are quite a few tourist shops selling Black Forest specialities and cuckoo clocks, and loads of tourists milling around, so we had a large chunk of Black Forest Gateaux (it's the law that you have to eat this at least once) and then wandered back to the campsite where we had a few beers in the nice bar on site.
On the morning of the 17th I woke up, looked out of the window and the world was white. It has snowed in the night. We had no snow chains and we totally unprepared for freezing weather so we were panicking a bit in case we got stuck, but luckily it all cleared very quickly. We made good use of the site washing machines and nearly-dryers to catch up on the dhobi and, as the dryers hadn't, we had to spread clothing all around the bus to let it dry. The innovative use of clothes pegs and handles was a triumph!
Part of the campsite deal was free travel throughout the Black Forest, so we caught the train to the next town, Titisee-Neustadt. Big mistake: a) it was a Saturday and what shops there are were closed and b) it is a dump. We quickly went back to the station to catch a train back, only to realise that the Germans are worse than the French for long lunch breaks and there was no train for over an hour. Accordingly we retired to the very weird station bar (they still smoke indoors in Germany apparently) and had a beer at the incredibly cheap price of 2.20 yoyos a pint!
Eventually we found a train to take us back to Titisee, had a nice schnitzel in a restaurant and walked back to the mobile laundry basket to settle down for the night.
In all, Lake Titisee is very pretty indeed and we could see why it would attract so many tourists. We have, however, now seen it and entered it on the list of places that we probably wouldn't revisit.
