Lake Constance to the Rhine and a visit to France for a day

Lake Titisee

Lake Titisee was our next stop, and I had high hopes of a book exchange, as we were to be attached to a campsite. It all felt a bit of a let down however, the book had said there was electricity, there wasn’t, though we didn’t need it if we were only staying one night, there was a book exchange but hidden away up some stairs, it had one English book, so I had it. The showers/toilets were very good, and very, very warm, but €15 felt like a lot. Campsite location: 47°53'11.3"N 8°07'51.1"E

Proper Black Forest Gateau

The afternoon was lovely however, so we walked round the lake, to Titisee itself with it’s cuckoo clock shops, possibly originating in China as were most of the tourists. We weren’t going to go into the tourist information, a we’d done the walk, and seen the town before we got to it, but for some reason we did wander in, firstly into the attached cafe, where Brian’s jaw dropped at the sight of the Black Forest Gateau (why do we call it Black Forest Gateau, rather than cake? It’s not French...) We had to have a piece (we are eating cake most days, so can only share a piece, or we’d have exploded by now!) it was fabulous, kirsch in the cream, cherries, chocolate..... he hasn’t stopped going on about it, but it was delicious. 

A sawmill in the forest on our walk. We saw a number of these, no longer used but all now preserved

The saw and ratchet mechanism inside the sawmill

The lovely lady in the tourist information, when we finally made it in there, must have watched all this as she recommended some good walks, and gave us a very useful little booklet. So we moved the following day, slightly back on ourselves it has to be said, which is never good, particularly as we still hadn’t actually gone north at all, still only west. We parked up at Hinzarten station and set off. It was a great walk, not much up as it followed the river and railway, some old historical saw mills, a glass blower and shopping outlet, a viaduct, under which they were setting up ANOTHER Christmas market. (We’ve seen so many little huts, but we are just too early.) The return was up the river, beautiful falls and little bridges. Really something for everyone.

An information board in the sawmill showing how water power operated both the reciprocal motion of the saw and a ratchet feeder mechanism to push the log along while cutting

The glassblowing and shopping area on our walk

On to our parking for the night, right next to the railway line, which actually wasn’t a problem, lovely view, cheaper than the previous night, with 8 hours of electricity for €1! We were toasty warm! Most of the electricity has been by the kw/hr and I have to admit, we’ve rarely paid. Someone has left half a kw/hr so we just mop up. That is enough for us to top Ted up, charge the laptop while doing a blog or watching a movie. The gas is much more efficient for heating and water, though blowing the air around does use a bit of electricity and the electric ring is really very slow. Stellplatz location: 47°51'29.9"N 8°06'56.6"E

The railway viaduct on our walk, apparently a highlight of the walk. The huts underneath is a Christmas Market just setting up - we're too early!

The best part of the walk through a gorge

We didn’t rush off in the morning, it was raining, so we got sausage and beans cooking in ‘the Dog’ and set off for an hour and a half journey. An hour in, in traffic, in Freiburg, I saw a sign saying their Christmas market had been open two days..... whipped out the parking book, it was five minutes away on the route we were going so change of plan! Funny place, had a reception, though not for an hour or so, but when it opened had a cat and a book exchange! Happy days. We went to the market, had a cheese fest of stall food, and even an ice cream! Stellplatz location: 47°59'58.4"N 7°49'30.5"E

Lots of walkways, little waterfalls and high cliffs in a deep gorge

Artwork in Frieburg. We both quite liked this

This left us with a whole half hour journey on Thursday to Ile du Rhin, an island in the Rhine, on the French side! We tried an old historic French town, but it poured, so we popped back into German to look at Briesach between showers. Before returning to the island for the night. Very odd having to think “bonjour” rather than “Morgen”. Aire location: 48°01'14.7"N 7°34'47.6"E

Finally, in Freiburg a Christmas Market that was open!

Panorama in Freiburg of the basillica and market square

Rain all overnight, and today, on the whole we have been very lucky with rain, but today we bought an umbrella, in Gengenbach. Stellplatz location: 48°24'06.5"N 8°00'26.5"E. We didn’t see much of the town, gave it up as a bad job, but tomorrow is sunny, the Christmas market opens, we’d had hot chocolate and cake, and had a blog to write. Am I glad we came back? Kitten came to visit. He took a bit of winning over in the carpark, but now we are best of friends. He’s eaten all the biscuits and is being remarkably soft. How long will he stay is the question?

We finally got let down by Doris, our Sat-Nav. This was in Neuf Brisach, just inside France and is an old fortified town. We'd programmed in the location of a free Aire (parking area) where we thought we'd stay the night. We have put our motorhome dimensions and weight into Doris and, up to now, she has always told us when we're too big or heavy to use certain routes, but on this occasion she wanted to take us over that bridge (3.5T limit - we are 4.5T) and through that gateway. To be fair, the sign did say maximum height 3.1m and that is exactly our height, but that opening is arched and our roof isn't. We managed to turn round just on that zebra crossing and beat a hasty retreat!

The very nice German border town of Brisach, just the other side of the Rhine to the French Neuf Brisach. We took a self guided tour of the town using an information leaflet from the tourist office and its a splendid medieval walled town that has been almost totally destroyed twice. Once in 1793 by Napoleon as he didn't like the imposing fortified town overlooking France at a crossing point, and again in 1945 when the Allies se<<|

One of the town gates at Brisach. The ducks under the bridge by Jackie paddled over hoping she had some food 

View from the Aire on Ile du Rhin just inside France that we stayed at. On the skyline is a Rhine cruise liner just navigating through the locks of the Rhine canal which makes this part of the river navigable to suck large boats

This is the Town Hall in Gengenbach on a wet Friday. The Christmas market is set up and opens tomorrow (we're staying for it) and the windows in the Town Hall act as the worlds largest advent calender as each window is open on each day. The first one opens tomorrow, a day early as no-one will be there on the 25th. We'll be there at 6:00pm tomorrow when apparently a band will be playing as it opens. Number 1 is the bottom left window. Watch out in the next blog entry! 

The lovely town of Gengenbach. used as a set for part of the film Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Hopefully better photos tomorrow as the forecast is for sun and blue skies

Walking back to our campsite in the rain. Gengenbach is only 1km away along the river Kinzig, on the right

But when we got back and the rain stopped Jackie saw a pussy cat. It took some coaxing, but finally it came over for some biscuits...

...had a lot more biscuits....

...was encouraged into the van by you know who...

...and is now, some two hours later as I finish this blog, into everything! He already walked all over the keyboard deleting a load of photos I'd put on and is fully 'at home'!