After a mini disaster with the chemical toilet disposal facilities in Kehl I needed a shower and we decided to stay in Germany and find a campsite with some cleaning facilities.

Many people consider me to be a planner, and sometimes I am, but when it comes to travel, I might as well stick a pin in a map.  I looked at a few campsites online, picked one and just like that we are in the Black Forest.  I didn’t even know it was that close.

First impressions of Germany sound general and cliched but the Germans seem to love their stuff working well and precisely.  Let’s take the campsite for example, it’s spotless.  The lake it surrounds is spotless, each pitch has been designed to maximise lake views.  The guy handed me a roll of complimentary dog poo bags on check in. The toilets are flawless with décor from an oligarch’s bathroom and when the Germans finished showering, they all used the provided squeegee thing to wipe the floor, I heard them all doing it as I showered.  In England it’s just another spot to hang your towel. 

Although, we also had our first experience on the Autobahn, yes the cars were going fast, seriously fast.  But we also saw a serious accident in the first thirty seconds so, you know, shit happens here too.  

We’d been enjoying so many new sights that we never realised we’d been two weeks on the road without taking a break.  And with our dog still lame it was time to have a day off.  Our campsite was on the banks of Lake Titisee (Yep, real name) and this seemed as good as place as any to recharge the batteries.  We spent an amazing morning wandering through the local village, which was for all intents a Black Forest version of Keswick with the outdoor stores and trinket shops.

We had coffee with a dollop of cherry Kirch and a Black Forest Gateau while the blossom trees scattered their petals everywhere in the delicate breeze.  The afternoon was little more than book reading and a couple of Furstburger beers to finish the afternoon in the campsite bar on the lake side. It was what we needed.

We also decided we were dallying a bit, three month seems like a long time but side trips to Luxembourg and other stopovers were in danger of putting us behind schedule.  We had to get brutal once we realised Italy covered twice as many miles as we’d already done, so we veered South to Switzerland and to a place I remember fondly from 1999 when I was a fresh-faced backpacker visiting one of my teachers who was doing an exchange year overseas.

Lucerne. It was as magical as I remember. But now that we left town and have parked up in the country, all I hear is goddam cowbells.