Day 4 Into the Black Forest for Lunch

 Staying with friends in Basel is fun, especially when they suggest their favourite restaurant for lunch. ‘Have you got your passports?’ they ask and then it is off to Germany to the Black Forest for lunch. And to be honest lunch takes up most of the day!

Of course the menu is all in German so we take advice from our friends. Wendy orders a meal, which basically includes fish, and Richard braves the local seasonal delicacy, venison. Our friends warn us not to order starters as we are in for a few surprises. Firstly, the bread is almost perfect, and is followed by a bowl of piping hot Cream of Vegetable soup which must be bad for you because it tastes so good. Then a fresh crisp salad arrives accompanied by a dressing that looks like mayonnaise but is so much lighter and more dreamy. Then the main course arrives and Wendy’s meal includes about four different varieties of fish. Richard’s venison is rich, and accompanied by a wonderful mushroom sauce. As is our normal practice we swap meals half way through, but the venison meal is so large that we have to take some home in a doggy bag. That leaves just enough room for dessert which is again is sublime, with Wendy eating French vanilla ice cream with hot chocolate sauce and Richard a Tartufo. Of course we again swap. It is the sort of meal that dominates a day.

Our drive home winding through the Black Forrest includes a slight traffic jam as we pass through one of Germany’s most popular ski resorts. At the highest point of our journey we actually emerge above the cloud and the most perfect blue sky appears, but only for about 15 minutes.

Our host has one more treat in store for us and insists that we stop at the tourist village of Titersee. A walk by a frozen lake is followed by a stroll though the markets, which stock amongst other things famous German, smoked ham. Finally we are compelled to do, what must be done in the Black Forest, eat black forest cake. Surprisingly it is much lighter than we expected but hardly low in calories.

Arriving home we sat down for dinner, which was just a cup of tea and was frankly was more than we really needed.