Guttentag from southern Germany

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We are back in Germany and on the last leg of our trip. Had a great 3 days in Lausanne just relaxing and biking along Lake Geneva. Weather great, but decided to move on to Germany. Easy to tell we are back in Germany because there are bicycles and bicycle paths everywhere. We are in Freiberg in soutwestern Germany just north of Basel, Switzerland and just a little souteast of Strasbourg, France. Small university town of about 200,000 in a beautiful valley surrounded by mountains and on the edge of the Black Forest. Weather is great - 90's in the day, but onlz about 35% humidity and in the 60's at night. This is probably not listed as one of the main tourist stops, but should be. On Sunday we biked about 24 kilometers through the valley (a network of bike paths and small country roads) and up to a tiny village of about 8 buidings (Altell) on the edge of the Black Forest. Stopped at a small cafe and celebrated with Black Forest Cake very yummy before biking on. Yesterday we hiked to the old section of town which was damaged considerably during the war, but has been restored. Phenomenal what Germany has done to restore historical sites and buildings damaged during the war. Anyway, to get to town you can either walk down the street from our campground - about 15 minutes - or you can hike over the mountain and through the woods - about 45 minutes. You get a panoramic view of the old town and then hike down into it. We did this both ways so got our exercise yesterday since the first quarter of the hike is very steep and coming back the last part is very steep downhill. The staff at this campground is one of the best we have found. Very helpful, have maps of hiking and biking routes, etc. Told us last night of a 45 minute hike up the same trail, but opposite direction to a small mountain village with superb restaurant so plan to do that hike today. Originally planned to leave tomorrow, but enjoying the area so much we may stay longer.

They have a solar cooker here which we used the other night to cook our white asparagus - last of the season. Very interesting system. All of Germany and France are big on recycling and this campground extremely so. They have separate containers for 3 types of glass, another for plastic and cans, another for all paper and one for food/organic trash. Campsites are spotless and when people leave there is not a single piece of paper or trash left behind.

Have not decided whether to spend the rest of the trip covering southern Germany and primarily biking and hiking or take a few days to go to Berlin. There are some things we would like to see there although a little burned out on big cities. We will see how we feel the morning we leave here. Will keep you posted. David and Barb

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