Sunday is overcast with little rain and I spend most of the day recovering from my previous two days walking. But in the evening we go to a new restaurant Wivica says I need to see.
It is in fact a new extension to a huge nursery-garden supplies-decorations place in Schallstadt, just South of Freiburg. I went there 3 years ago and purchased several home decorations to take home to my children.

The newly built restaurant attached to it is huge. A high, modern, all glass building containing several trees including palm trees.   Its name, Vinolivio, suggests Italian and they do have some pasta on the menu, but also flammkuchen, a typical South German (pizza like) dish and other dishes. We both have a pasta and much enjoy it.

Monday Wivica and I drive to Schwarzwald City a wonderful shopping centre in the heart of Freiburg.
As I walk around there the following question comes to my mind :
If you had to describe Germany with just one word, what would it be ?     Quality !!
The contrast, after arriving from Darwin especially is enormous.   Homes, cars, IT, food, restaurants, fashion (especially ladies clothing) and jewelry (!!!) all ooze quality as well as style.

A surge of regret goes through my mind every time I look at ladies dresses display in a shop window, for there is no-one in my life at present I could buy something for.
I have a somewhat lesser pang in my heart when I look at jewelry shop windows. The jewelry here is stylish and exquisite, but mostly too expensive for me to splash out on as a pensioner.

But something I can enjoy by myself are the wines. The wines in Germany are highly underrated elsewhere in the world. Perhaps this is because they only export the cheap stuff and drink the good wines themselves.
I discovered this first in Altenahr on the Ahr river and at the start of the "Rote wine Strasse" (Red wine street). Herr Mannsteadt, owner of the Hotel zum Schwarzen Kreuz introduced me to my first sample of the famous German Spätburgunder red wines. It was a real eye opener.

Then that same year (2008) I visited Bernkastel-Kues on the Mosel river, where Peter Nelius (wine maker and hotel owner) gave me a guided tour through his "Schatskammer", the cellar underneath his hotel with wines from as far back as 1934.
In the week that I was there Peter and I had many discussions and ended up drinking Brudershaft, still an important ritual of close friendship amongst older Germans.
Here you find some info regarding the seven quality levels of German wine, both white and red, I recorded in my Blog at that time.
Peter also has a beautiful collection of Ofentafeln displayed in his hotel which I photographed and included in my Blog.

Tuesday & Wednesday, September 19 & 20, 2017 (diary)

The weather is definitely nothing to write home about at present : mostly overcast with intermitted rain.
So Tuesday I stay inside and work on my laptop. I promised myself I would convert my on line music lessons (more than 80 at my last count) into eBooks.
But it is a very boring and not really creative job, so it may not eventuate as long as I can find something else I can write about.

Something is working itself out way back in my brain. In time I will be able to gradually extract it just by starting to write.
(An amazing process, similar to novelists where the characters they created take control of the writing).

On Tuesday evening Wivica picks me up with the car and we have a pleasant dinner at the Jägershaus Restaurant in Sankt Peter. They have a nice pfifferlingen dish which I much enjoy.

The forecast for the rest of the week looks positive. So today (Wednesday) I walk to the bus stop to catch the bus and train to Titisee. The sun is occasionally getting through, but it is still pretty cold (11°C). When I arrive at Titisee (nearly 900 m asl) it is even colder. I promised myself I would do some walking exercises, but within reason.

Titisee is probably the most touristy place in the Black Forest, but its shops are somewhat unusual. Lots of cheap clothing shops competing for attention with quality butchers with an enormous range of Black Forest meats : bacon, hams, sausages, prime cuts of meat, even deer. And of course more cuckoo clocks (in all shapes, sizes and prices) everywhere than you can poke a stick at.
Near the lake the shops get more serious, catering especially for the numerous Japanese tourists visiting here. You can spend lots of money here on watches, jewelry, clothes and the likes. Hogo Boss, Cartier, Frey Wille (enameled colourful jewelry I absolutely love). An Omega Constellation watch (like George Clunee's) will set you back a cool €76,000.
A range of Omega de Ville watches are also on display. I bought one for my 60th birthday (solid 18 carat gold) in Maroochidore. Twenty years later it is still going well. Could not spot what they would cost now, but I imagine at least double the $3,000 I paid for mine at the time.

I find the Bistro zum See, where I had a Himbeertraum# three years ago. It is not on the menu, but the waitress assures me they still have it. So I order one, together with a Glüwein and their Wienerle with Kartoffelsalat. Afterwards I find it somewhat of a struggle to get back to the Railway station, but do manage it and eventually arrive back home.

#
I can't help myself, perhaps especially here in Germany. After I receive my Himbeertraum, which bouquet smells delicious, I get others at two nearby tables (I have become involved with talking to) to come and smell it too. They happily oblige and with a big smile agree with me : delicious !