Titisee

Although it sounds like a porn convention, it is not! Titisee is glacial lake in the middle of the black forest which is on the south western edge of Germany next to the border with France.

The lake is very picturesque but well on the beaten track for hordes of old age tour groups which really took some of the joy out of it.

Getting away from the tour groups we did an hours walk around in the black forest beside the lake before escaping but not before buying some really delicious chips from a fast food stall.

The black forest is a bit of a misnomer because it really isn't black; it's the same colour as most other forests and it also isn't a continuous forest. There are fields and towns everywhere with bits of forest separating them but the combination of fields, forest, hills and towns does make for a very pretty countryside.

The ice-cream vans list of ailments has grown by one. In addition to a VERY ANNOYING high pitched squeal when it is cold or wet and a very uncomfortable jerking motion when the gas isn't on hard; we now have the shakes every time we brake. We hope it doesn't deteriorate any more until we get back to England.

We had read about the biggest cuckoo clock in the world and decided to go and have a look even though it really is something that was created purely and simply to attract visitors. A relic! Having steeled myself for kitsch I got more than even I bargained for. The clock, below, is genuinely huge and built with wooden gears but the merchandising section through which one had to walk to get to the exit was much, much bigger and filled with the kitschest souvenirs that only the desperate would buy.

This wasn't the only annoying thing about the clock, there was an audio presentation which we paid but 1/4 of the way through a huge group of Dutch tourists filed in and the proprietor stopped ours and started one in Nederlands which had both of our noses instantly out of joint. She said that she would restart ours but never reappeared to do so and we eventually thought, fag it. That was when we had to walk through the merchandising section.

Driving back to Stauffen, this is what we saw.

Yup, our own little thunderstorm above our campsite. It just made Caron's day!

Going a little bit back, to Titisee; this is what happens when people have way too much time on their hands during the winter months, not to mention chainsaws.

How is this for a sign to a restaurant, need I say more!


I wonder if there is some kind of link between the severity of weather and innovation. Where the weather is really bleak there is little innovation because everyone is trying so hard just to stay alive; where the weather is uncomfortable but not quite so harsh people actually have time and motivation to try and think up ways to be more comfortable. Where the weather is benign, why innovate when one can live quite comfortably without any of this thinking and development. Just a thought.