Titisee and the Black Forest

When we were looking for somewhere to visit in the Black Forest and Titisee was mentioned, I readily agreed.

I imagined a charming lake in a remote part of the forest with a nice walking trail around it where we could spend a couple of hours ambling and a pretty town where you could stop for tea and cake. That was the dream.

Turns out I know nothing and Titisee is in fact a commercial-driven tourist-hotspot. Queue much disappointment from me…

First things first, it wasn’t all bad. The lake itself is a stunning 2.5km-long glistening body of fresh water nestled between the lush dark green pine-covered mountains of the Black Forest. It’s not that big and we took a 25-minute boat ride around the lake to admire it from every angle.

I also had a wonderfully fresh and enormous goat’s cheese and walnut salad at a lakeside café where we stopped for lunch.

The salad consisted of goat’s cheese, walnuts, tomatoes, cucumber, lettuce, carrot, sweetcorn and strawberries with a balsamic vinegar dressing. Despite the huge portion size, it was so good I ate every last morsel.

The town of Titisee on the banks of the lake, however, is very touristy with large resorts with cordoned-off private beaches along the lake and lots of dare-I-say-it tacky souvenir shops selling slabs of black forest ham, cherry liqueur and the infamous cuckoo clock.

The town was also heaving with coach-loads of rude tourists, which only added to my disappointment.

There’s nothing wrong with the town per se, it’s just that it’s a bit cheesy and once you’ve been in one or two of the souvenir shops, you’ve essentially seen them all. You also can’t stroll around the edges of the lake as I’d have liked because of all the private beaches.

After our visit to the lakeside town, we went for a drive through the Black Forest, past the towns of Munsterthal (above) and Staufen (the spot where Doctor Faustus allegedly sold his soul to the devil).

The scenery was spectacular with breathtaking views of the pine-covered mountains, deep valleys and pretty chocolate-box alpine chalets.

We also passed loads of mountain goats, in some cases perched very precariously on the side of the mountain, and cows sporting cowbells around their necks. It was a glorious drive and a great end to a not-so-great day.