The Titisee

Another exciting weekend in the life of Nate and Steph coming at ya.

Well, Nate told me on Thursday night that he wanted to be spontaneous. So... he came home early on Friday and we bought a train ticket for Freiburg. Freiburg is a neat little town near the Black Forrest that we thought might be fun to visit.

On the way to Freiburg we read in our Lonely Planet guide about a bike trail called the "Kaiserstuhl". Hmmm, we thought, what fun it might be to take a bike tour. So, after spending the night in Freiburg, we took a train to Breisach, rented bikes, and ventured out on our first bicycle tour. I will mention here that due to Nate forgetting his bank card PIN number, we had only fifty euros on hand. And, having any money was thanks to the kind man who rented us the bikes. He usually made people give fifty euros per bike as a security deposit, but when he learned that we had very little money he took pity on us.

The theme of this trip became, very quickly, "Seeking the Lost". We were off the trail within about ten minutes I think. Finally, we made it back to the trail and took off through orchards and corn fields. After a while we wound through some pretty little towns, woods, and then came to the Rhein River. It was sparkling and clear, the sun was hot, and energy abounded... for the moment!

We stopped several times for pictures and water breaks, until we finally came along to a nifty little road side stand. Two sausages later we were on our way. About five minutes later we came to an intersection and realized that we had no idea which way to go. Luckily, an older couple came up and asked where we were going. We told them, and they said "oh just follow us!" This part of the journey was by far the best. I spoke with the woman, Ilse, for probably a good fifteen to twenty minutes... all in German! AMAZING! I was so proud of myself.

We went through cute little towns, stopped in churches, and splashed ourselves off in water fountains before coming to Reigel. Reigel was the town where we had spotted a "campground" sign on our trusty map-- we were hoping to sleep there. However, our plans changed quickly as our guides insisted that we eat dinner at their house. Hey, have we ever turned down a free meal?!!! We dropped our things off at their house, and then Hans, Nate, and I took a walk while Ilse prepared the meal.

We walked up a steep hill to a church with a great view, and just stood there for a while in silence. Then, Hans was thirsty so he took us down to a small cafe for a bier... or two, in his case!

Supper was fantastic. We ate a bunch of "Black Forrest" specialties, and swallowed it all down with two different types of Black Forrest wine. The after-dinner Schapps was good, but eventually we had to turn down Hans. He kept pulling bottle after bottle of various liquors out of his cabinet!!!!! Quite the jovial German! Anyhow, it was also at dinner where Hans and Ilse discovered that we had no tent, but planned to sleep in one sleeping bag somewhere out there in the wild. Ilse immediately offered for us to stay at their place, and again... how could we say no to a bed, and a free one at that?!!!

We watched this funny TV show called "Verstehen Sie Spass?" (Do you understand fun?), and then slept like two rocks on the comfy futon.

Breakfast was also an elaborate spread. Sweet breads, rolls with jam, hard boiled eggs, ham, and the like. This is when Hans and Ilse told us of their plans for the day. Let's go for a trip to the Titisee, they said! And so, we drove about a half hour to a beautiful lake ("sea") / tourist trap! We took a ride in a paddle boat, shopped the tourists shops, and hiked.

Somewhere in the middle of this all, Nate and I felt like our brains were going to burst. All the German was becoming quite overwhelming. I don't think I've ever felt a stronger urge to just speak English before! So, when we got back to Riegel, we took off immediately on our bikes... and... got really, really lost. So much for speaking English. We asked about five people for help before finding our way back to the trail!

Despite the backtracking, we made it back in time to return our bikes, make the train to Freiburg, and get home to Stuttgart by 10:30pm. Not too bad. And pretty spontaneous, I might add... at least for us!