The First of Two Lakes

In my previous post, I showed you the (admittedly not very impressive) view of the two lakes near Bärental, the small community where we were based for our week away. In fact, Bärental is ideally located with almost exactly 6 km distance to each of the two lakes as well as Feldberg, the highest mountain in the federal state of Baden-Wuerttemberg.

On Wednesday (8 May), we walked round the first of the two lakes: Titisee. The name is a little odd to German ears and eyes, and there are various theories about its origin. One says that the Roman emperor Titus once camped in the area, giving the lake its name. Another one is based on an old dialect word for little children, claiming that people believed babies came from the lake, just like in other parts of the world people told the tale of the stork bringing babies.

In any case, it is a beautiful lake, and thankfully, lined with a small town by the same name only on one side - most of the land around it is meadows and woods.

You can read more about it on Wikipedia.

The day was a mix of sun and clouds, and it was rather warm in the sun but as soon as we were in the shade or the wind picked up, we were glad of our jackets.

We took the train from Bärental to Titisee, the fare being included in our Guest Card (everyone who stays at least three nights in the area receives such a card), and the ride only taking about 10 minutes.

Bärental train station (not really a station anymore)

From one of the booklets I keep with suggestions for walks and hikes, we had chosen the Titisee Round Tour, which sounded (and was) rather undemanding at only 7.4 km with only a few uphill bits, none of them too steep or rocky.

The small town was busy, but once we were past it, only small groups of other walkers were left, and further on even these thinned out.

The small lake here is an ice pond just off Titisee - always the first to freeze over in winter, and in former times, its ice was harvested and stored in deep underground cellars to keep the beer from nearby breweries and other goods cool. Also, it was here that the very first ice hockey championship in Germany took place some time in the 1920s, according to an information board next to the lake. I hope you are duly impressed!

This one is for Kay! I found this rock embedded in the path; it was about the size of my hand, and I just left it where it was.

As usual, the views from the highest parts of our walk were much more beautiful than my pictures make believe.

Back at the starting/finishing point of the circuit, we attempted to find a place in town to sit down for a shandy. But it was so busy that squeezing in at a tiny table in a crowded street café didn't really appeal to us, and so we walked back to the camping grounds at the other end of the lake that we had passed on our way in. There, we found a relaxed place for food and drinks with a large lake-facing patio, good service and lower prices than in the tourist traps in town.

After we'd had our shandies, we decided not to return into town a second time for the train home. Instead, we walked back to Bärental, which was surprisingly easy and quick - altogether, we had about 17 km under our belts by the time we arrived at the hotel for (you guessed it) coffees, the sauna and then dinner.