A Walk In The Black Forest

decoration on the outside of a house in Freiburg

carvings at the entrance to the Cathedral

The Alps seen hazily below the cloud

me at the summit of Mt Belchen

Malcolm on the viewing tower, walk 1

coffee with a view, alpine meadow, Black Forest

Malcolm finds a friend

waterfall - walk 2

"I am not lost!"

German sausage!

Black forest view

A walk in the Black Forest

Well three actually.  First we drove into Freiburg which is in the valley between the Rhine and the mountains of the Black Forest.  This was an interesting town.  We enjoyed looking around the market in the cobbled square surrounding the Cathedral, lots of flowers, fruits and vegies and crafts.  Then we went in the Cathedral.  The entrance door was amazing, the statues were painted and gilded.  Inside it was quite dark but there were lots of stained glass windows.

Then we went into the Black Forest for our first walk which was a tower at the top of a high mountain.  You could see the alps in the distance, hazily.  Then we went for a stroll at another place to see a waterfall.  But the biggest walk was to the summit of Mt Belchen.  You could get to it by gondola but we walked up (2.5kms).  The views at the top were amazing, across to the Alps in one direction, down to the Rhine the other way and the lower mountains of the Black Forest on all sides.  Since this walk was unexpectedly long we had a big drink (coke) at the restaurant at the top and a typical German lunch.  Malcolm had sausage with bread and mustard, I got ham salad which was smoke cured ham, bread, gherkins, sauerkraut, salad etc.  Then we walked back down again.  It was hot, too hot for jeans really - but we had them on because it was cooler yesterday!

Finally we drove south into Switzerland.  I missed out on the gateau.