Anybody know where we are?

June 23, 2025

We spent our last morning at Gertrude's air bnb and our last morning in Austria. We did our best to savour the view one last time, Kate dodged another egg at breakfast and we said our goodbyes. Gertrude is one of those people who takes being a good host very seriously. Our thanks to her was heartfelt.

The first hour or so of driving kept us in the alpine scenery and off the big roads. We have noticed that, whilst in France, every village has at least three hairdressers, in Austria, every village has a fire station! There must be a lot of call for their services. I suppose the houses do involve plenty of wood in their structure. Either that, or cats are continually getting stuck up trees...

The inevitable happened at 11am. I needed coffee. We spotted a great big coffee shop. It was closed! At 11am! Is that even a thing? Then we hopped over the border into Germany and coffee shops abounded. What's more, the coffee was half the price.

And what's more, we stopped at a service station that made its own coffee. No, I mean it actually roasted its own beans. The public are allowed to wander through all the production rooms on a gallery which looks down on the process. I was intrigued to notice that the room that contained the finished product, boxed up and ready to go, had a disco ball hanging off the ceiling in the middle of the room. Welfare consideration for the coffee, perhaps? 'Happy coffee is good coffee' an all that.

Later, we stopped for food. This time, I didn't have Schnitzel! I had something called a 'Schnitzel box, Texas style'.

After seven hours of driving, we arrived at our digs near Stuttgart. I say 'digs'. That's a little unfair, but there is an arty vibe here. It is totally the other end of the spectrum from our previous bnb.

The previous bathroom was a perfect composition of all things brown. Toilet, shower, basin, towel rails, tooth mugs, light switch, sockets. Everything coordinated. Here, you go through a sliding, rough hewn door and every fitting is a bit funky. I shall attempt to send a video of a demonstration of the lamp shade. How often have you heard that?!

When we had arrived and sussed the accommodation out, we drove to the nearest town a couple of miles away. The whole area is steep wooded hills with roads reminiscent of the Austrian roads. It's all very beautiful. After a while, Kate, who is always more observant, said, "There seems to be a lot of reference to the Black Forest".

After a bit of digging, we deduced that we are in the Black Forest. We knew that really. Honest we did. Really.

Parking in the little town of Schömberg, (not Schoenburg, don't worry) was interesting. You needed a parking disc. We could see people's discs on their windscreens. They look very different to a Harrogate parking disc but we reckoned it would do. It just tells the time after all. Having said that, I'm trying to imagine a Harrogate parking attendant accepting a German one. And failing.

This accommodation is really cheap. One of the cheapest we have used. We have an ensuite. There is a kitchen which is so well stocked that we could knock up a roast dinner. (Well, Kate could anyway) There is a large dining room. We have our own terrace. There are bottles of Aperol on a shelf in the corridor which seem to be for general consumption, though we won't test that theory, and to reach all this, you walk up steps which basically climb the mountainside.

It has been 32° all day, but we have been air conditioned throughout that time. We had one stormy squall which, with wipers on full speed, still reduced us to less than 40mph, which is positively glacial on the autobahn and the car is still behaving itself. We have a shorter journey tomorrow which gets us closer to Rotterdam. I don't yet know the area which tomorrow night's accommodation is in. The Dordogne?

Perhaps I better look it up before tomorrow so that I sound all knowledgeable...