Wednesday June 5th

This morning after Breakfast we had a little walk around the tiny village Reiden am Forgensee before our long drive to the Black Forest.  We waved Goodbye to the mountains, although we followed them, a little further because we were pretty much right on the border with Austria.  Actually there was one moment when we DID go into Austria, although we turned around and went back into Germany as soon as we could.  We just weren't sure if the car was insured for going into another country or not...!  Anyway, we found our way, eventually to a place called Lindau on the edge of Bodensee, a large inland lake.  It was then that we realised just how many roads had been closed - for reasons we were totally unaware of except one where it indicated there had been a car accident - as we kept having to find alternate routes on the map!  not that we were any good at it though, as the road map we had didn't show the best detail (i.e. not all the villages were on this one..!).

However, we arrived at Lindau and made our way to the edge so we could walk onto the Insel or Island.  I have to say that coming into Lindau wasn't very exciting at all, and we weren't convinced.  But as we left the car park we were given a map of the island for free (!) and when we walked across the bridge, suddenly we were in the old town, the original part of the town with colourful buildings with balconies, carved wood and paintings all over the walls.  A typical tourist destination yes, but it was a really nice little place to be.  We agreed that the guide book didn't give it enough credit.  We stopped off for a moment and thought about lunch, although we weren't particularly hungry.  But today it was really very warm indeed, and you know that that means?  ICE CREAM!  I wasn't particularly hungry either, but I rather fancied an ice cream.  So I had three scoops (yes, three), one each of hazelnut, vanilla and one which turned out to be chocolate chip.  I know, not too adventurous, but not all of the names were obvious!  Anyway, the hazelnut ice cream......delicious!!  I'll have to have some of that again sometime.

Moving on, we managed to get ourselves through many closed roads with diversions which were partially signposted, and eventually found our way to Alpirsbach.  We had left Bavaria in the south east and were now in Baden-Wurtenburg; south west Germany.  We were welcomed in person by someone at Hotel Rossle who had emailed me to let me know the restaurant was closed tonight.  I knew this, but at the same time I had not checked my emails before we set out in the morning.  She showed us up to our room, have us a map of the town and the other places where we could eat, and told us when breakfast would be ready in the morning.

Our room was spacious enough, with a balcony outside just like all the other hotels we had been in so far, although this was the first private one and the first one we actually used as it was nice outside in the evenings.  We went out to get some food and ordered something called Alpirsbachen Leckeler.  We knew what was in it but we still have no idea what the "Lekeler" part referred to!  We had pork covered in molten cheese with a "kind of gnocci" which was REALLY nice.  After wards, we strolled around the town and admired the old buildings, finding the chocolate shop (appropriate!) and the monastery, which had a garden.  Apparently there was going to be a free music concert on Friday evening so we thought we might stroll around to investigate.  Mathew said that "If it's yodelling the we can go back to the hotel!".

Back at the hotel, we chilled out on the balcony before going to bed, closing the shutters down over the outside of the windows.  Our curtains were just flimsy net curtains, we have no idea why there were no actual curtains in the room..!  Well it was a good job I brought my new eye mask with me then!