It was a bittersweet goodbye to Langenwald this morning, which has been so lovely. We had blue skies again, though cooler than it has been. The drive south was beautiful. Lovely autumnal colors and true black forest landscapes with rolling hills, thick dark coniferous forests and verdant green pastures dotted with homes, valleys with towns nestled in them. We stopped briefly in Gutach, at the end of the Gutach valley, to see the church which has stood there sinc...

Not quite so cold last night so a better sleep. A bit cloudy today so we decided to backtrack a little and do some sightseeing in the car. We left fairly early and got on the Alpine High Rd to Baden Baden, stopping only at Mummelsee. It's a deep but compact glacial lake high up on a ridge. Lovely to look at, even on a dull day, you can stroll the dirt path around it or hire pedal boats. There's some legend about mermaids and mermen, as due to it's high altitude a...

A very cold night last night, was freezing even cuddled up. Both girls were burrowed down in their bags, and poor felix woke up so many times I lost count. Will wrap him in the big blanket tonight. We were all so tired that we kept napping on and off till about 9:30 when it was warm enough to get up! Once outside, it turned out to be another beautifully warm and sunny day. After 'brunch' the kids played in the playground for ages. Is a lovely campsite, nestled in...

Well what a blissful nights sleep! Such comfortable beds. And the luxury of a long hot shower, and breakfast prepared for you. That's the life! The hotel location was amazing so once we checked out we were right in the town square ready to get some tourist info from the bureau. But whaddya know...they're closed! Ah of course, this Monday turns out to be a public holiday - some kind of independence day celebration the reunification. So after finding this out from ...

A trying day today, of spirits. I woke utterly exhausted so Jason kindly did the kids pancakes outside for breakfast and took them to the 'beach' so I could lie in. Felix loves pancakes as well so is a popular breakfast. Apparently the beach the owner was going on about is a little strip of muddy sand beside a rather brown looking lake. Not too appealing. It was shaping up to be another day of blazing sunshine, and we got hot taking the tent down. After checking ...