Corona virus Black Forest

So the alarm went off at 7:45 and the delights of struggling with the locals to get bread and hot water out of them started all over again

by the way the use by dates on today’s milk bottles is 21/12/20!!

Anyway after a quick visit to the local shop to grab a sandwich we departed at spot on 9am with 774 km (481 miles) To go

a quick stop at a German motorway services to fill up with fuel as we are not allowed to stop in the Netherlands (if we do we have to quarantine for 14 days) and finally a service station serving a proper Bratwurst

none of these white floating things today !!!

6 1/2 hours later we arrived at the Port of Rotterdam and the P&O Ferry terminaL

boarding commences in 20 minutes so perfect timing

so here we are again back full circle, this time room 9190, I hope the people in our cabin on the outward journey 10190 don’t jump up and down and keep us awake. So Kingston upon Hull suite and a different layout, this time with a separate bedroom

A meal booked for 7pm so it’s out onto the sun deck for a pre-dinner drink

We were awoken at 7:45 with a gardener blowing leaves outside our window, after 10 minutes Donna got up and shouted at them ! They stopped !

Just dozing off again and 3/4 hour later at 8:30 a knock on the door and housekeeping wanting to come in an clean the room .... AAARRGGHH

Breakfast was a trying affair, everyone gets a tray on hams and cheese and assorted pastries, but the waitresses still seem to want to go “down their tick list” and ask you everything. Then it takes ages to come, and when it did no white bread rolls, just croissant and heavily seeded brown. I asked the waitress for some white ones, 10 minutes later she cam back and asked if everything was ok. I asked about the bread rolls. “Oh I forgot was the reply”

I love the “fresh” orange here. That reminds me it must be Donnas birthday soon as that is when the use by date is

Heading back to our room at 10 am we then had to wait outside for 10 minutes as housekeeping was now in

When things go wrong, they all go wrong at the same time..

Now where is that Roman baths...

Another 3 hours - the South Atlantic current as we have nicknamed it was great - basically you lie in the water and get pushed along, and the standup jacuzzi was very powerful, so powerful that you get knocked off your fee when to try to enter.

The interesting bit however is upstairs which is sauna land, where it’s no clothes. There are around 10 different saunas including ones outside in a forest setting. Interesting !

Late lunch of soup and Black Forest Gateaux was at our favourite bean cafe, which we found out today is not bean but Beek !

A very delightful holiday, it’s just so nice to sit out in shorts and T-shirt at 10pm on a night and not even feel cold

Meanwhile back at Scarbirough, it looks like a party has been going on....

Barden-Barden is very similar to both Harrogate and Scarborough so we should feel at home here. All three are spa towns.

Here there are Roman hot springs so it’s would be a shame not to indulge (especially when we get a discount voucher issued by the hotel)

So for 3 glorious hours we sat, swan, paddled, dipped our feet in a multitude of hot spring water rock pools and baths raging from water temperature of 16 to 38 degrees

Lunch saw us at the “been” cafe just outside... yes you all say “we don’t want to know what it’s been, we want to know what it is now”

After lunch we walked along the Lichtentaler Allee which is similar to the valley gardens in Harrogate and has a formal rose garden (yes like the one outside our house in Scarborough)

Evening meal was a fun affair, Robin does not have a good track history with Sausages. A few years ago we visited Greta in Italy and I ordered what sounded like a great sausage dish. I ended up with one sausage on a plate, that was in edible

What can go wrong in Germany, famous for its sausages...... well it arrived in a bowl with a lid. The waitress removed the lid and said “ta da” to reveal 2 white sausages floating in a watery chive stock !

We called at the Lindor chocolate shop (as you do for desert)

And as the saying goes “now for something completely different” here is a random photo found on my phone !

Our stay in the south of the region has come to and end and with pinched pack lunch from the breakfast buffet we set off north.

Stopping at a local bakery to pick up 2 slices of Black Forest gateaux

We called in at the worlds largest cuckoo clock near Triberg

We travelled the scenic route stopping off for our picnic and eventually joined the “Black Forest highway” and dropped into Barden-Barden via B500 and mummelsee

Our next hotel has delightful views of quiet hotel gardens

But is actually right in the middle of the old town

We wandered the old town and stopped for an evening meal in a quiet square and then sat having a late drink whilst the sun set and it went dark

And on day 7 we slowed down !

Well nearly, we went local today and headed out of the village where we were staying (Altglashütten) and headed 10 minutes around the corner to Lake Schluchsee and arrived into the village with the same name. The miniature land train was supposed to depart at 10:45 and so after having a very confusing conversation in the railway station car park in which we understood that car parking charges were suspended and we needed a disc that would give us 5 hours we joined a queue at the required point

The departure time came and went and I even asked someone else in the queue was this for he train ? Ya was the response

Suddenly it dawned on us, there were notices up saying the station was closed from 2nd September to 23 December, hence the free parking and the person next to me was correct she assumed we needed the replacement bus instead of the train

We left the queue to find due to coronavirus the land train was cancelled

Instead we hired an electric boat and had a very delightful hour (if not very hot) cruising the lake

We then went for a drive around the lake via St. Blasien and following the L146 across some amazing countryside. Near Hinterdorf we came across some more wasserfalles (waterfalls for those not following yesterday’s blog closely)

Now I did say that today was relaxing so this is where it began, we tried three cafes on the way back to the hotel, to find no outside tables free, so we arrived back to our hotel to find free food (Shredded dumplings in cheese and apple pie !

Then we relaxed - did I say in addition to the outside pool and sauna, there is a further inside pool, jacuzzi, 2 more saunas, relaxing water beds and plenty of warm chairs. So we relaxed all afternoon

The water bed capsules all heated were amazing !

And best of all NO ONE around, our own Spa and relaxation centre all afternoon, we are now chilled. In fact so chilled that we did not fancy any more food, so a light bite of a bowl of soup (carrot and ginger), a salad and a bowl of chips.

And here we are at nearly 9 pm sitting in our favourite seat in the bar and although the weather has been in the high 20’s all week our waitress has just informed us that this is exceptional and normally at this time of the year it rains ! Long may this heat wave continue for a few more days

Tomorrow we leave this heaven and move to the North of the Black Forest and Barden-Barden