A Big Mac combo

Today we combined a little bit of the city with a lot of the forest!

Starting off mid morning we caught the tram (very efficient service) into the city which allowed Sherry to have a poke around in a few of the shops she was interested in and after a different (but nice) lunch we stepped out the back door of the central city and took to the forest - I say back door as the Black Forest is literally across the road from a street no more than approximately 500m from The Munster.

Initially there was very steep climb until we reached the Schlossberg which afforded a nice view of the city below

Having regathered our breath we then “strode” out towards St Ottilien which, according to the signposts was a further 4.5kms in the forest

A typical signpost in the forest which everyone relies on for directions.

Thankfully the slope we traversed was no more than gradual for the majority 

and after around an hour we arrived at St Ottilien which turned out to be a restaurant & cafe surrounded by the trees in all directions.

We enjoyed a refreshing drink before starting the trip back down, this time we took a different route which got us down to the valley floor faster but was someway from the city and this allowed us to walk back into the city alongside the river.

The humidity was high and the river was too inviting not to dip our toes onto it to bring the body temperature down to something which felt a little more normal

and we then plodded off into the city for dinner which we enjoyed in a restaurant on the Marktplatz; what we didn’t enjoy that much was the ringing of the Munster’s bells twice, the second time for at least 12 minutes - if the bell ringers were playing a tune they failed miserably!!!

As we waited for a tram to return home around 7pm the number of people still in the street brought home to us how dead Auckland is at the same

Kms driven to date 875

Kms walked to date 148.5

Spend on diesel to date €65

Spent on tolls to date €0