Whew, what a hot night! We seem to be sweating and drinking continuously and never feeling cool - shades of our Danube cycle tour. We had a relaxing morning of breakfasting and chatting before downsizing our luggage to two smaller bags. It sure beats lugging around large suitcases and we won't need a lot of alternative clothing while biking. In the afternoon Marc delivered us to Konstanz where we couldn't find a park or the hotel. Going by the GPS we got as close as we could and Marc returned home. We headed off in entirely the wrong direction and after a couple of people if they knew our street and young German man accompanied us back the way we came and through a chaotic market to the Munster. From there we followed a map and ... read more

I didn't bother to write up yesterday as it was another train trip to Freiburg following up places we hadn't been to, doing some shopping and getting very hot again. Today is our last day in the Black Forest and we chose another fairly long hike for the day. The hike was the Black Forest Highlands Heritage Trail (Heimatpfad) which took in both heritage and historic spots. We took the train to Hinterzarten about 5kms from Titisee and set off on the route marked with water wheel symbols. The first part of the trail goes down alongside a river in a narrow gulch to several mills with water wheels mainly used for sawing timber and milling grain. We crossed under the main road and to a location that used to have rope makers, millers, barrel makers, ... read more

Today was a day out of the Black Forest mountains and to the city of Freiburg about 40 minutes by train from Titisee. Our Visitors Pass gives us free travel on trains, buses, boats etc. What a surprise we had at the Bahnhof to find a wonderful bread and cake shop within it. There were amazing looking cakes, tarts, croissants, pastries and breads of all sorts. A pity we hadn't picked up the location earlier as it's only about 200m from where we're living. The train after leaving the Titisee area goes through steep hills and deep gorges before arriving out in the lowlands to the west. I'm not sure about the Black Forest name but there are 1000s square kilometres of forest intersperced with medieval villages. Freiburg is the largest city in the area. It ... read more

There was a major event going through Titisee all morning. Thousands of cyclists (over 4000) on mountain bikes passed through for several hours competing in the Black Forest Ultra Bike Marathon. There are five classes of race ranging from 117kms and 3150m in height to 43kms and 900m in height. The route includes both road and off road with various categories for age groups and teams. They were certainly flying as they hit the downhill into Titisee. Fortunately the streets had been shut off for the race or pedestrians would have come off second best. All of this coincided with buses and trains disgorging hundreds of day visitors so the town soon turned into crowded streets of people wandering, shopping, eating or drinking. The more energetic ones set off on hiking trails of which there is ... read more

Now we're thoroughly aquainted with the area, it's nearly time to move on. Today was the last day in Saanenland and it's been a very good choice. Yes, we've passed this way before but only fleetingly. There is so much more to discover when you stay a while. Today we stayed in the valley and walked in the morning from Schonried (about 2kms away) to Saanenmoser. It is an easy walk through grassy paddocks behind houses and down in the valley. We had expected to have lunch at Saanenmoser but nothing was open. It does not pay to arrive anywhere after 12 midday as they shut and go home then reopen later. Back in Schonried we did find somewhere open but with ridiculous prices for lunch so we had a coffee and went back to the ... read more