If anyone mentions the Black Forest in Germany, my mind immediately goes back to our holiday there and a tiny village called Wildberg that we visited on our bikes. The village was set on a hill with the church halfway up. We pushed our bikes up past the church and came to some steep steps with a sign saying Schloss. We were debating whether to go up when a German couple stopped and told us that there was a ruined castle up there with very nice gardens and views. We struggled up and as we neared the entrance a German man came out of his house and spoke to us. We got talking to him he spoke some English and we could understand a little German. He was an ex-policeman and the house had been his parents. He told us about the castle and how it had been destroyed in World War Two by British bombers. We admired his garden and the view and chatted about the forest.
We moved on into the castle ruins and explored the gardens. After a little while he came into the grounds with a bunch of sweetpeas from his garden and gave them to me. They were beautiful it was such a nice guesture.
A few days later we moved southwards to Alpirsbach. It was a lovely little town with a well-maintained park and a local Brewery. We missed the brewery tour but they only did it in German so we probably would not have understood much of what was explained. We did try the beer though and it was delicious. The town had a large church which unfortunately was locked. It had huge ornate doors at the front with large handles.
They have a small weekly market but there were not many stalls the week we visited.
Our next campsite was at a village called Shiltach. The campsite was alongside the river which had an important part to play in the history of the village. Many years ago huge rafts of wood were taken from the Black Forest all the way to Holland. There are two museums in the village which explain how the rafts were formed and show the tools and skills involved.
We had an interesting session with one of the museum guides who spoke very good English and had spent time in England.
One evening we went for a walk up a hill in the woods and found a large war memorial cross.
We headed for Titisee stopping at Triberg on the way. We followed a tourist trail up alongside what was billed as the highest waterfall in Germany it was pleasant but not particularly impressive.
Titisee Lake is one of our favourite places. The village itself it very touristy but the area around is beautiful. We usually stay at a campsite at the far end of the lake from Titisee itself.
There is a lovely walk beside the lake all the way to the village and you can also cycle right around the lake if you use the roads on one side. We have visited this area several times on our travels it is a bit of a crossroad and you meet people of all nationalities. It is an excellent area for anyone who loves the great outdoors.