Just as we were about to leave a bike pulled in next to us, and in my best English I asked for directions out of town onto route 31.  To my surprise-and relief, the couple who got off the bike spoke brilliant English and pointed us in the right direction, and wished us well, which was nice.  It was getting really hot now, going faster didn’t make any difference as the wind was hot, but we struggled on.  10 miles out of Frieburg and you start to climb into the mountains, BIG hairpins, short straights, more hairpins, you get the jist.  Once we cleared the top the view was great, a nice wide open road and sensible drivers who don’t sit by the white line blocking you, they all see you coming and let you through, a quick wave of thanks always helps.  On the right hand side came the Ski jump at Hinterzarten, it is massive, I’ve stood at the top of one in the Harz Mountains before but it was nothing like this one, it’s frightening.

                                                               The rest of the 31 passed slowly, you never seemed to be getting closer to the end and it was still getting hotter.  Eventually we made it to autobahn 81 heading south and shot off at speed trying to cool down, but it wasn’t working, after about 15 minutes we got to a services and pulled in.  Pop was out for Les and me now, we wanted water and we got it, 2 bog off big bottles of it  and sat in the shade filling out postcards and unwinding a bit.  By now we were only 51 kms from Konstance, so hopefully we would be at  a campsite within the hour, all we had to do then was set up and as they say-Bob’s your uncle, Fannies your aunt.

As usual, whenever your going somewhere it seems to take forever, and this was no different.  Eventually we got to a campsite at Singen but that was full, 3 miles further was a site at Markelfingen and although the sign was up saying full, I asked anyway.  The lad went missing for 15 minutes and came back having found us a spot in the shade of the trees.  It only took 30 minutes to get set up, shorts on and we were on our way to the lake 100ft  away, after negotiating the stones into the water we dropped like stones, and it was wonderful.  It wasn’t cold being quite shallow, but just the water on your body was nice and refreshing, the showers to rinse off were completely the opposite-bloody freezing to the extent they took your breath away.  That night we ate at the site café as we couldn’t be arsed cooking, a couple of ice-cold beers, and bed.

Sunday 3^rd August---A day of doing bog all!  First thing though was to get some dobey (army talk for washing) done, we hadn’t been able to get any done anywhere else and we were running short on clothes.  Easy job, give it to the woman and she does it for you-sorted (and it wasn’t Les).  We went out to try and get some food but everywhere was shut, except for a bakery in the village so bread and jam was on the menu, and off we went back to the lake, and in went the kids.  You couldn’t sit in the open because of the heat, so we relaxed in the shade of the trees and watched the kids exerting all the energy.  You could hear Shaun so you knew he was ok, and Danny was just mucking about.  The air beds we had in the tents doubled up as floats for in the water, and I ended up in with the horrors buggering about, putting all 3 beds on top of each other, kids on one end and me jumping on the other.  I was knackered after an hour so I left them too it.  That night we were back at the café for Currywurst and a couple of drinks before hitting the sack about 10pm.  There’s only so much you can do in the dark, so we weren’t up late.

Monday 4^th August---We left the bikes at the site and jumped on a train to Konstance, quite cheap really at £8 for the 4 of us.  You get off the train next to the harbour, which is very picturesque, and directly opposite is the town.  We’d been warned that it was dearer due to it being a tourist area, but we’d gone for a look round not to buy anything.  Breakfast consisted of pasties for Les and the boys and a choccy croissant for me, followed by a walk round the town taking in all the old buildings and statues, and a rest sitting by the lake watching the cruise boats going up and down the lake.  While walking round we saw a barrier in the distance and a Duone sign, so we walked down for a closer look.  It turned out to be the old border crossing with Switzerland so, as you do, we went through, no border personnel or anything, just a guy cutting the grass. 

About 2pm we headed back to the campsite and the lake, the kids were in straight away, while we just dossed under the trees again.  We’d bought some scoff while we were in Konstance so tea that night was pot mess cooked by Les, it was ok, nothing special but it filled a gap, and this time we had real cow juice to put in our coffee instead of the powdered cack we’d been using. 

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