Germany 2025 - All Cuckooed out by a Torrent of Water

Saturday 27th September - Triberg

In the end our site was very good. I did a load of washing in a spotless laundry/washing up room. I was charged €3.50 for the wash and dry.  Richard also said that the toilet emptying place was extra clean too. 

We seemed to have a problem when it was time to leave, the new driver couldn’t reach the steering wheel let alone the pedals!

Our first port of call was Lake Mummelsee which was shrouded in cloud when we got there but by the time I had wandered round the gift shop it had lifted a bit. The lake is a cirque lake, one of only a few in the Black Forest.  A cirque lake is one that forms in a bowl-shaped depression carved by a glacier.  Sadly, with the low clouds, we couldn’t see the 100 metre face of the Hornisgrinde which rears up behind it.

The drive to Schiltach was stunning. We were either deep in the forest or in a green, very green, valley. Schiltach is a very pretty little town with a river running through it. There must have been a lot of rain as all the rivers are almost in flood. We had a wander through the town which is under a preservation order to keep it looking like a traditional Black Forest town would have looked.  The wooden houses in the narrow streets suffered from outbreaks of fire over the centuries and the area the area around the market place and the church was destroyed and rebuilt on a number of occasions.

We then drove onto Triberg - the home of the cuckoo clock. I had booked a place (I can’t call it a pitch) in the centre of Triberg. It is really an aire but it does have toilets and showers. We backed on to a raging river (sounds good but I guess usually it’s no more than a stream), it could be noisy tonight!  

We were right in the centre of Triberg so we went off for a wander. We were very disappointed, to say the least 😢. The best part was about 6 shops right at the top of the high street which were gifty types of shop but one of them is the home to 1000 cuckoo clocks with the largest cuckoo clock in the world on the outside.  The cuckoo inside is 14 feet long and weighs 330 pounds.  Further down the street is the smallest cuckoo clock in the world.  It is 5.1 inches tall and weighs 6.6 pounds - the same weight as my son, Robert, was when he was born!!

I went in, no dogs, and wandered around. There were cuckoo clocks everywhere, not my scene but they were pretty amazing. If I had wanted one I wouldn’t know which one to buy. I bought a fridge magnet and selecting that was bad enough!  Apparently the most expensive is €25,000!

We walked up to the waterfalls which were fantastic after the heavy rain. They are Germany’s highest waterfall at 535 feet.  The walk to the top is apparently quite treacherous, so we only saw the bottom, but the best bit, of the falls.  I love waterfalls and this one made up for the disappointment of Triberg. 

We found a take away pizza place not that far from us, so we thought we would give it a try - excellent.  

I forgot to say that as we drove into Triberg there was a house on fire!  Well there was smoke coming out of the roof and the second floor windows.  I’m not sure if there were flames as there was a fireman at one of the windows.  There was quite an array of fire vehicles present.

67 miles

Sunday 28th September - Lake Schluchsee

We weren’t sure what sort of night we were going to have as the river was literally behind our heads and with all the rain, it was raging. We decided it was either going to be a very noisy one or one with white noise - white noise it was 😃  

We left Triberg and headed south. The scenery was stunning. We were in a green valley and the forest started about half way up the hill/mountain sides.  North of Triberg we had noticed quite a few hotels that were empty and almost in ruins, but today they were all up and running. We saw a couple of ski jumps but I only spied one ski lift.  I’m sure there must be more somewhere.

We were heading for Lake Titisee, another glacier lake. It is a real tourist trap, and even on a Sunday at the end of September, it was busy. We had a coffee on a patio overlooking the lake, it was glorious. I was getting desperate for Black Forest Cake 😩 and went in all the foodie shops, but all I got were two bread rolls and some cheese!  I can’t believe that we still haven’t had any and today was probably the last chance.  Honestly, coming to the Black Forest and not eating cake was not on the agenda!!  By the time we got back to Kiwi the sun was shining - yay!!  

We stopped for lunch in a lay-by down a quiet road.  The photo below shows the view from the door and we could hear cow bells.  However there was a rather unpleasant smell which, Richard discovered, was coming from a slurry pit right next to us!

Our final stop was Lake Schluchsee, another lake that was formed by a glacier but in 1932 a dam was built doubling its size and making it the biggest lake in the Black Forest.  In addition to its natural inflow water is pumped up from the River Rhine. Strangely enough the water from Lake Titisee flows into the Upper Rhine. 

We had the choice of two stops, one on either side of the lake. The first one was a car park which was quite busy and the second was a Stellplatz (like an Aire) which we had to pay €12 for. We chose the overflow of the Stellplatz and had a lovely view of the lake. 

We were parked close to an entrance to the Forest so we went for a walk.  It was beautiful in there, with views over the lake between the trees.  Rio just loved it.

61 miles

Monday 29th September - Haggenschwil, Switzerland 

A nice quiet night - we were a bit worried about the road noise but it was fine. 

We drove to Seebrugg, parked up and caught the train to Titisee. It is supposed to be scenic, going passed 3 lakes, but it was rather overgrown so we didn’t see much. We had an hour to kill before the return train so wandered into Titisee and had a coffee. I also had a piece of BLACK FOREST CAKE 🤣 Train back and we set off for Switzerland.  

The first part of the drive was tedious, up and down, round and round. Richard was very grateful when we got up to a plateau, but that also meant the end of the beautiful Black Forest.  The drive was rather boring after that. I wanted to go along the side of Lake Constance - it is huge., so took a scenic route.  

Lake Constance is, in fact, three lakes connected by the River Rhine.  It is 39 miles long, 8.7 miles at its widest point and covers about 207 square miles.  At its deepest point it is 827 feet and is the third largest lake in Europe.  The actual location of the country borders within the lakes are disputed, with Austria, Germany and Switzerland all holding different opinions on the matter.  

We drove through the town of Constance and as we turned a corner there in front of us was the Swiss Border. It all seemed rather strange.  The only difference we have noticed is that the road markings are different at junctions and we don’t really understand them.  

We found our stop over for the night. It’s on a farm and we are in the middle of a field!  We have the wedges under our front wheels but are still sloping downwards, I just hope we don’t slide out of bed!  Frau speaks some English but Herr doesn’t speak a word, but with some arm waving we worked out where to go. 

There was a lovely sunset.

I was lulled to sleep by cow bells, which I assumed were attached to some cows.  Why, at midnight, weren’t they fast asleep!

88 miles