May 11 - Into the heart of the Schwartzwald

We woke up and had frustuck as soon as we could and hit the road. Heavy rain was predicted for the afternoon, so we wanted to get some mileage under our belts. We headed straight south out of Fruedenstadt on a small road. We had a 2-3km climb through the forest, then rolled along for about 10km, then a fierce descent into an open meadow and small town.

After exiting the town, we had a gradual, flying downhill through a river valley. The sun came out, and it was glorious! We hit the town of Schramberg at market time - around noon - and decided to push on toward St. Georgen.

The sign said 18km to go. We thought it would be mostly downhill. But, alas, it was mostly uphill the whole way. In face, we ended up at a higher elevation than Freudenstadt at the end of the day. We found a Hotel Adler in St. Geogen and checked in. It was serviceable for 76 Euros, but not great. Unfortunately, it was 2:30 by the time we got out for lunch, so we had a bakery/gelateria lunch. We had a couple pastry items and Hawaiian toast and coffee - followed by a small serving of "malaga" - my favorite flavor of gelato.

We had a brief walk around town followed by a nap and laundry changing rotation. Dinner was at the hotel. We both wanted the ox tongue in Madeira sauce, but they were out. So, we had pork dishes. Rick had medallions, and I had schnitzel. Yum! We skipped dessert, as we'd had a double-dessert lunch.

I'd managed to turn a vacation into a hill-climbing vacation yet again. But, we were both enjoying the Schwartzwald ramble much more than the Rhine valley. The goal from this day on was to milk as much mileage out of the black forest as possible.