July 31 –
We awoke to blue skies with white puffy clouds and proceeded to enjoy a wonderful breakfast courtesy of our hosts. We then hit the road to explore the great outdoors around us. We headed first for a hike in Shauinsland, a peak of about 1243 m with a beautiful view for miles around. We drove part of the way up (on nice twisty roads that made Frank happy) and hiked the rest of the way up. To the west was clouds over France (told you it was wet!) but to the south east we could actually see the Alps!
After the hill hiking, we headed for Todtnau and climbing around a waterfall. At 97 m, it is the tallest wasserfall in Deutschland – at least that’s what my rudimentary translating skills made of the nearby sign! The kids had a great time scrambling over rocks and trees and Frank must have taken about 200 photos – none of which we’ve had time to go through yet but we’ll definitely bore you with them at some point!
On the way down the hill from the waterfall, we stumbled on a glassblowers workshop and restaurant – what a combination! So we had lunch which was wonderful – especially the Schwarzwald kircher torten or black forest cake. Yum! After lunch, we wandered into the glassblowing workshop and watched the artisan make a vase from start to finish. It was amazing! We decided to buy two small vases and hope they get home in one piece. I opted not to buy the adorable glass moose 😦 because I knew it wouldn’t get home in one piece.
So we had some torten to work off and we went off to explore the Schluchsee – a beautiful lake nearby. We rented peddle boats and Frank and I burned off a few calories while the kids hung out on the back. Of course, they wanted to do it themselves so they went back out just the two of them after our first half hour was up. We stopped by another local lake – apparently more famous – called Titisee but it was much more commercialized with lots of shops selling cuckoo clocks. I couldn’t stand the ticking so we got in the car and headed home.
Dinner tonight was at the hotel restaurant and was excellent. We had great food, fantastic local wines and homemade desserts that wonderful. Frank and I then sat up chatting with the hosts until this very late hour. Now I *really* need to get some sleep because I think I need to run 20 miles in the morning to make up for today!
/san/
[Pedometer: 13,142 or about 6.5 miles although Gillian and Duncan probably clocked twice that with their rock climbing!]
The Cannon Family's travel blog 