Our stay in France has ended with a couple of intense but nonetheless interesting architectural sessions. We are now ready to move on to the next country: Germany.
Once the Orange data card ran out, we didn’t bother to buy a new one, it wasn’t that fast after all. This enabled us to catch up with posts. We have about twenty posts ready on to the website but, to do so, we need to find free wifi. McDonalds or, even better, Decathlon will do.
Likely, there is a Decathlon megastore not far from the German border. Here we come with our computers, phones and a large list of things to do online, such as contacting the motorhome dealers to discuss Dora’s sale. We have allowed five days in the UK to turn Dora around; the more we can arrange in advanced, the better.
Time flies when we go online. It is already 16.00, we better start heading off to Germany.
As soon as we cross the border, the sky turns grey, gloomy, cold, rainy… Winter has suddenly come. That is not a very nice welcome!
Finding an overnight stop in Germany is not a problem. This country is the most motorhome-friendly in Europe after France.
What are we planning to do in Germany? Spend some time in the Black Forest, stopping in a few cute, quaint German villages on the way, and, perhaps, do a couple of vie ferrate we’ve found around this area, if the weather permits.
The first town we will visit in Germany is Freiburg. A tolerated car park is just outside the town, conveniently close to a main road, from where we can get a bus to the town centre.
The morning awakes humid, cold, miserable, not the perfect the day to do sightseeing. Freiburg is quite pretty, Gary says. He was here twenty years ago. You have been everywhere, I exclaim with envy. (After this trip, so have you. GDR)
In Freiburg we also look for a data card to now work on Google Earth to update our driving and trekking routes. This time, we are not going to make the same mistake we made in Switzerland, we will go for a big network operator, with extensive coverage in Germany. The main ones; Vodafone, Orange, T-Mobile, ask for astronomical amounts for just 500MB or 1GB per month.
Thanks but we will keep looking, we say to the guy.
‘Don’t look any further, if you want reliable, guaranteed Wi-Fi everywhere in this country, you have to go for T-Mobile’ he shouts on our way out, with a dictatorial, intimidating tone of voice.
We finally try an O2 shore. Here, they offer a SIM card with 7GB for €45. Although still expensive, I am sure in the long run, it would be cheaper than spending time and money looking for free Wi-Fi.
It carries on raining in Freiburg.
But the town is vibrant, animated. Germans don’t get put off by rain, unlike Italians or Spanish, who hate it. Perhaps Germans don’t have any choice; if they got moody with bad weather, they wouldn’t go out at all.
We continue, reluctantly, with our sightseeing session. I am not used to this miserable weather, despite having lived in a wet country for 20 years. I am very Spanish in that respect.
Although our stay in Freiburg won’t last very long. There are hardly half dozen of buildings worth visiting. The first one, the cathedral and the best thing to do here; going to the top of the tower.
This window has been perfectly placed to admire the view of the main nave guarded by two lanky Gothic towers. Fantastic.
The views of the town are more pleasant, as the day seems to start brightening up.
The ticket seller highlighted the size of the bells, which he keenly recommends us to see. Not bad, but we’ve seen them bigger. Remember the tower we went up to in Split, Croatia?
The biggest one is not much bigger. What should I say if he asks on our way out? I could tell him the truth and disappoint him, or I could lie. I may do the former. On the other hand, he may not remember us.
The tower structure is simply supported by thin arches. I have always been impressed by the physics of arches, their strength and ability to sustain tons of heavy building material without collapsing under the power of gravity.
The way down through the narrow, spiral staircase is rather awkward, specially when people stop half way through to rest. With space enough for one person, we don’t have a choice but waiting until they feel like carrying on.
After on hour of walking in the rain, we return to Dora. Our next stop is Triberg, a town well deep in the Black Forest.
But before leaving Freiburg, we stop at Lidl, have lunch at the car park and try our new data card. It would be worthwhile testing it before we drive off, in case there is something wrong with it so we can take it back. But, fortunately, it won’t be necessary, it works.
The weather is not getting better. I have not seen raining so aggressive for so long, we can hardly see the road. Unfortunately, Dora’s windscreens wipers can not go any faster, so we just have to drive at 40kms per hour, which slows us down, we arrive at Triberg an hour later than expected. We head off straight to the aire. A sign warns us; motorhomes are welcome to spend the night but they must leave at 7.00am. I am sure people won’t mind if we leave a couple of hours later. Besides, it is almost empty. It looks like not many people use this aire.
How wrong I was. We get up in the morning surrounded by cars, some of them so close that we cannot get out. We will worry about it later, let’s go and see Triberg.
I was quite looking forward to seeing the Black Forest. Its name is, of course, symbolic. It is not Black because of the black colour of its evergreens but for its density. However, today, being so grey and obscure, it well deserves its name.
Triberg is a nesting ground of the world’s biggest cuckoo clocks. Cuckoo clocks used to be a trendy item to have at home back in the seventies.
My parents used to have one hanging on the wall adjacent to my bedroom. This irritating, noisy, little thing that wouldn’t shut up, even at night. It took me a few years until I was tall enough and grown enough to work out how to stop it at nights. Then, there was a never-ending battle between my mother and me; she had to reset it every morning, I would stop it before I went to bed. Interestingly, she never followed my suggestion of moving it to her bedroom. (The battle commences! GDR)
The next main touristic attraction in Triberg: Germany’s highest waterfall. The trail starts next to the Tourist information office and it costs €4. Goshh, it is still miserable, and I feel so.
Niagara they ain’t but, in this weather, the waterfalls hold some form of romanticism and mystery.
Even in nature, there is always space for the German efficient engineering; a solid, robust, safely fenced footpath has been built next to the waterfalls to enable people to get closer.
People must have used to stand on this rock to take photos. This must have been seen as incredibly risky and potentially fatal. How to solve this problem? Building a thick iron platform on the top of the rock to enable people to stand on it without losing their balance. I still think it is not safe enough. Where is the handrail and the stairs to get on to it? Surely cushions should be placed all around, just in case. Maybe a ramp to enable those unable to walk to get to it, or an escalator or lift.
There are various trails to choose; long or short, easier or more demanding. We want to make the most of it, we go for the longest. Being in front of the highest waterfalls in Germany doesn’t happen everyday.
So far, so cute but the highest one must yet be to come.
Even with my super-hot down jacket, I feel incredibly cold. The cold that penetrates your bones and stays there for a while, even after warming up.
We continue to go up and just around the corner of this waterfall, we come across the ticket office.
Sorry, you have reached the edge of the park, says the officer with her hands up. Is that all? Quite disappointingly, we go back to town on a different path
and continue to admire the mystery and bleakness of the Black Forest.
The fashion around here may not be that found in Paris or Milan, nice shorts though. GDR
We still have to enjoy the last but not least attraction in Triberg: Black Forest Gateau. This town is heir to the original cake recipe. I am not particularly fond of it, it is the bitter flavour of the cherry that puts me off. But I wouldn’t miss having a piece of this mouth-watering cake here, in its hometown, for anything in this world.
It is also very good value for money, two giant slides for only €4. We are not hungry right now, so we save it later with a nice cup of tea.
Back in the car park, a few cars have already left, which allowed us to manoeuvre Dora and get her out without much difficulty. We leave Triberg in search of the next cute, quaint German town in the area; Schiltach.
Still raining.
SM
17/09/2015
