Today we say goodbye to Switzerland and say hello to Germany. We woke to an absolutely glorious day - clear skies, bright sunshine, crisp cold air. It promised to be one of our better driving days.

As we climbed higher away from Lucerne towards Basel (and the border), the
roads became enveloped in thick fog, and there was evidence of thick
snow falls on the slopes. Soon we were nearing Basel and the border
crossing. We felt for sure that the German crossing guards would pull us
over to at least inspect and stamp our passports - no such luck. we
pulled in and stopped, waited for five minutes before it became apparent
that no one was interested - how disappointing.

Just over the border, the skies cleared once again and the presence of snow
became less apparent. We thought we had left the snow behind in Switzerland - wrong!!

Once again we began climbing towards our first destination of the day - Freiburg. Snow falls were once again evident on the roads and fields. It wasn't long before we were going thru Freiburg.
From Freiburg we turn east towards Villingen on the eastern edge of the Black Forest area. It was to prove to be one of the best drives we had done so far.
What a truly magic drive it turned out to be. we turned off the main highway
onto a road less traveled. A narrow alpine road which wound its way up
the valleys and ridges (highest point reached today was 1010meters)and
across high alpine plains. This is what we were looking for throughout
the Alps - thick blankets of snow covering the fields, rivers gushing
with snow melt, farmhouses with steeply pitched roofs covered in snow.
The landscape was quite surreal - no signs of life anywhere, just an
endless view of fog and snow with the occasional stands of forest trees
with their branches covered in snow. Navigator Julie & I are quite
enchanted with the whole scene. Quite simply, the highlight of our
driving experience so far.
From Villingen we head northwards to Freudenstadt where
our hotel is. More of the same magical drive. A lot of small villages to
pass through slows us down somewhat but in no way does it diminish the
experience. At any moment we expect to see Santa and his reindeers pop
out from the trees.

A small hitch when we get close to our destination - the GPS keeps steering us to a dead end road, some 400m from our destination. After a bit of basic map reading, we soon
worked out which way to head to solve the problem, and in no time we are
presernting ourselves at the reception of the hotel. Once again we have
struck gold with the quality of the accommodation. The hotel is small
and modern run by a very friendly lady who soon makes us feel welcome.
Did I mention the view? Quite breathtaking - standing on the balcony we look out over the snow covered valley and slopes.

Freudenstadt proves to be a real gem. Its a medium sized ski town. Lots of alpine
chalets, lodges, and restaurants. We spent the next two days just driving around to the myriad of small villages that cover the valleys of the Black Forest region (and by the way, the "Black Forest" cake we get at home - not even close to the real thing). We even found a village
which is Julie's ancestral home (or so we think) - Lossburger.

The whole region is like something out of a Hans Christian Anderson
fairytale - we keep expecting to see Hansel and Gretel come skipping
down the road.