We had another spectacular thunderstorm last night. Bouts of rumbling thunder and bolts of lightening followed by torrential rain; Colin slept through the entire spectacle! We were right at about the night being very warm and stuffy.

What an embarrassment as I tried to check out this morning, I couldn't remember the pin number for my credit card and had to swap cards! I have been accumulating a large number of receipts as all the hotels go on 1 card, petrol and meals on another and then any money drawn out of the bank is on a different card; which is why I had a mental block this morning and had visions of all my cards being stopped! I have remembered it now but it was embarrassing.

I'm surprised that we managed to arrive here without getting wet as it was quite overcast all the way which made the journey cool; we have only had 3 overcast days during our entire trip.

Our ride here brought us through parts of the Black Forest and many small towns and villages. I commented to Colin about the huge proportion of houses and farms we've passed that have had all or almost all of their south facing roofs covered with solar panels, far more than we've seen so far on our travels. Colin says I am becoming a wind turbine spotter and insists that once we get home I stop!

Our hotel here is on the edge of the Black Forest and is quite lovely; the rooms are spacious and beautifully kept. We went for a walk in the forest to the next town Fruedenstadt and what another little gem that turned out to be!

It is one of the main towns for people doing the Black Forest route it has been fully restored to it's original 1599 grandeur after WW2 when it was almost totally destroyed; the church still bears the scars of many bullet holes.

Originally the town was built as the capital city for Duke Friedrich Von Wurttemburg. He had the largest market place built with arched covered walkways enabling the ladies of the court to promenade come rain or shine. It boasts a grand total of 240 shops and I went in 1 and that was the bakery to get coffee and cake for Colin!

We picked up a leaflet for a town walk from the information office and decided to follow it. We finished up at a a lovely park with a sandstone tower viewing point, there were 148 steps up. By the time we reached the top our calves knew about it! When we had descended we went into the most lovely cafe where the owner was most delighted to talk to us about the area and was very interested in our tour. He told us that not many English people visit this part of Germany it is mainly Italians.
As we left he gave us a map on how to get back our hotel through the forest and a complimentary post card.

Returning back through the forest we marvelled at the thought that once again we were supposedly in a prime tourist area and we had found a spot that was free from other tourists!

As we went down to our evening meal we saw lots of people outside looking towards the hotel, as we turned the corner on the stairs we saw a fire engine with its ladder extended, I asked Colin if we'd missed the fire alarm and every one else was outside! It turned out that the hotel had an infestation of 'special mosquito's that were nesting in the eaves and had to be removed. The fire brigade had the specialist equipment to do this!