Roadtrip!

After we'd had a brief look around Basel with Andrew and Rob, we set off toward Germany. We were stopped at the border, and our passports checked, which was exciting. Robyn had left hers in her case in the boot and had to spend some time rummaging for it. We were waved through finally and drove on, with an audio commentary from the GPS ("in 200 metres, bear left") (not that kind of bear. That would be silly). Our first stop was in a tiny village where we patronised the gasthaus for kaffe and apfelsaft (a nice apple juice drink). The room we were in had a big ceramic heater just like we'd seen in the Tyrolean Museum in Innsbruck, which was cool. We then drove up into the hills and stopped at a clearing to stretch our legs and take photos. The scenery was gorgeous - hills and valleys with dark shaggy trees and mist and cloud rolling between them. Cameras were kept poised and ready for action the whole way.

The guys had booked accommodation for the first night in Freiburg, and they'd treated us to a hotel! (For their benefit as well as ours). Bob and I were very impressed and, as soon as we got up to our room, simeltaneously squealed "ooh, a bath!". It was terribly exciting, and we swiftly made sure we would be in for the evening to indulge. There were even little packets of sweeties on the pillows! We wandered down to have a look at some of the town before finding a place for dinner. The munster (cathedral) was very impressive, and there were some lovely buildings along the streets of the town. Also an odd thing - small ditches of water running along one side of every street. Nobody fell in, though it wasn't for lack of trying. We found a lovely little eatery in the food area of town where we all tried spätzle - a German speciality. It's a kind of extruded pasta/gnocchi type substance, and was presented to us in individual little cast iron pans with cheese and other flavourings. A good comfort food, we decided, and very nice. Back at the hotel we had our baths (bliss!) and went to bed (only slightly delayed by an acute attack of giggles I had in the elevator), revelling in the hotel-y-ness of it all.

We checked out bright and early the next morning and headed off for Lake Titisee. It's a holiday destination lake, and is very pretty. The weather wasn't that amazing, so we just parked the car and had a little walk, stopping in the town at a little general food store to get some lunch supplies for later on. We carried on driving up country and found a lovely look out point to stop for lunch and a sermon (Robyn had to restrain herself throughout from taking photos of the mist through the trees). Further on we came to an industrial town called Schwennigan, where we found a little clock museum. It was really interesting, focussing not on the clocks themselves so much as the production of them. There was nobody else there when we arrived, and an English speaking chap came out and gave us a personal guided tour which lasted for about an hour and a half! He was very enthusiastic and showed us how all the different machines worked and told us about the history of the industry in the area and the uses of the time clocks and various other things they made. At the end we got to try out a 'build your own clock' kit, which actually worked (once we'd put it together the right way). After leaving there we made straight for Baden-Baden (actually a town nearby where we were booked to stay). We asked for dinner recommendations at the hotel and were directed to a family restaurant with a great range of local cuisine. We had a fun dinner with lots of giggles and tasty food.

On Monday morning we decided to go to France for breakfast. We drove to Strasbourg (after extricating ourselves from the revolving door at the hotel - two people with two suitcases is too much for one compartment!). Parking in a mall, we had a nice pastry breakfast and went for a stroll towards the cathedral, a large pink structure. We didn't stay long, as it was drizzling and not much to do, and headed back into Germany and the Black Forest. We enjoyed our scenic drive and were intrigued, on stopping by the road for lunch, on finding an old Nazi bunker entrance in a hillside. Quite random. Afternoon tea was had at a scenic (spying wind turbines and a cable car through the clouds) spot, sampling Black Forest Gateau. Seeing as we couldn't really explore anywhere we went back to Basel and had a short stroll, before we caught a train down to Bern and the boys returned to the airport and London.