Black Forest adventure (a little more than we bargained for!)

 Friday morning's sunshine was welcome for our driving tour of the Black Forest. Ready bright and early, we hopped the bus to head to the car rental only to realise we were heading in the wrong direction. Hopping off we walked some distance to a stop on the next street... which was out of service due to construction. Walking onward we found the temporary stop, boarded the bus and made it to the rental. Once we figured out how the car worked, we were off! (We should have picked up on the misdirectional omen.)

Our first stop was an excellent market filled with local products, and we grabbed everything we needed for lunch. Continuing the journey, we wound up the mountain road, passing cyclists who are far braver than I and occasionally catching glimpses into the valley. 

Planning the itinerary we included the much-hyped Mummelsee and kept joking that "Mom'll see Mummelsee" - which, it turned out, was decidedly underwheming. Perhaps we'd been spoiled by Lake Louise and Emerald Lake back home, but while it was as pretty as any other typical mountain lake we didn't understand the massive traffic and tourist shops at the site.

Up next was the Lothar Trail in the Black Forest National Park, a short hike described as an "easy boardwalk trail" - the boardwalk sections were great for my almost-80 mom, but no mention had been made of the sections with boulders and rocks to clamber around and the stairs to climb. Mom managed it with a little help from her cane (which we've named Charlie).

Back in the car we wound down the mountain and rolled past lumber mills and farms, occasionally driving through small villages, toward the glashutten in Wolfach where we enjoyed a picnic lunch before watching a couple glass-making demos, wandering through the tiny glass museum and buying a few pieces to bring home.

Adjusting our itinerary on the fly we went straight to Triberg to see the cuckoo clock maker - who was unfortunately not working on their craft. After admiring the hand-carved clocks we headed to the waterfalls. Finding the trail too steep, Mom decided to wait out this segment, but charmed by idea of feeding on squirrels from a bag of peanuts Sarah braved the heat to come along. Cooled off by the mist of the falls we trudged up a few levels - but never saw the promised squirrels. 

Hot and tired, we plodded back down to meet up with mom and enjoy a treat - the traditional Black Forest cake!

It was time to head home. Little did we know that the real adventure was about to begin.

Figuring that we'd want a stretch break we set the GPS to take us to Gengenbach which boasts medieval gates. Rolling along the road, at some point I misread the electronic map and took a wrong turn. The GPS recalculated and we kept chugging along. And then we came across a road closure due to a serious accident. (We hoped everyone was unhurt.) Turning off the main highway, we waited for our GPS to recalculate - and seemed to just miss the turn it wanted us to take. We turned down another road - again the GPS struggled to keep up, and we ended up on another wrong street. Laughing hard by this point. And perhaps another. I've honestly lost track because it got worse. We pulled into a parking lot and a kind German driver stopped to help us. Still unfamiliar with the rental car I accidentally rolled down the back window. I was laughing too hard to speak with them so we said we were ok. As Julia Roberts said in Pretty Woman - big mistake. Big. Huge!

My mom suggested that we just go back to the first street that the GPS directed us to. So we turned around and drove back. As we turned onto the road, Sarah saw an oncoming car and shouted "It's a one way street!!". I swerved to the right and let the car pass, and then not seeing any signs indicating it was one way (or anything else) we carried on. It soon narrowed to a single track with a field on one side and a ditch on the other. Other drivers, thinking we knew what we were doing (we did not) had followed us by this point. And we were all behind a cyclist. The driver immediately behind us grew impatient with the slow pace attempted to swerve around us and - either noticing the cyclist or the likelihood of being swallowed up by the crops - quickly changed their mind.

As we carried on we were getting odd looks from cyclists going in both directions and started to wonder whether we were actually on a bike path. On and on we went, at a gentle cycling pace, leading our parade of lost cars. We kept waiting for a cross roads but no luck. Only a narrow bridge that was clearly intended for something smaller - like a bicycle. Yup - bike path. We were laughing somewhat hysterically when Bohemian Rhapsody came up on my daughter's playlist and we started laugh-scream-singing "if I'm not home this time tomorrow, carry on, carry on. Nothing really matters..." which seemed apropos.

And then it got worse. Cars started to arrive from the other direction - and it was still a one lane path with cyclists just trying to stay alive on their Friday afternoon jaunts. We found a pullout and let some cars pass. Just when we thought it was safe to continue and left the pull out ... more cars. So now we were driving backwards, shouting at the (previously impatient) driver behind us to back up too. And Bohemian Rhapsody was blasting "we will not let you go. LET HIM GO!". 

At last we drove forward again and came to (thank God!) some sort of hotel or restaurant with a parking lot filled with cars (and cyclists). We parked for a few minutes, used the GPS to get back on track and pulled onto a road (we hoped!).

By the time we got to Gengenbach we were DONE and just wanted to get back to our accomodation. So we pulled onto the highway (with no speed limit, say a prayer) and zipped back to Baden-Baden with me trying not to giggle all the way home.