Not a great night’s sleep, just so hot and sticky but it’s nice to be where we need to be for the day without a morning drive. The black forest open air museum is a selection of old houses from the area all decorated as they would have been in that specific time period.

Although some bits were only in German most information was given in English which was helpful and all the staff / actors we’re super friendly and happy to involve the children in all the activities.

As adults we found plenty to interest us as did the kids, there were wooden play parks, water areas, secret lofts full of olden day toys and farm animals.

The houses were designed such that a single building was used to house the family, any servants along with the cattle and any storage for products made.

One thing the kids really loved was visiting the woodworking shop, best thing was you could buy a kit and assemble it in the workshop and it was cheaper than buying the ready made version and we got to personalise it. Out of all the options the kids chose to make a cuckoo door knocker. Along with screwing the pieces together the kids got to try sanding it down and then using the wood burning pen to write their initials.

They also used some of their holiday fund to buy a spinning wooden whistle which the lady then personalised for them by adding their names.

We were fortunate enough to also see an 1980s house that had just been added and opened in July this year. There were very fascinating pictures showing the process of taking down and rebuilding the house.

Just one of the houses was originally in place and dated back to 1610. There was so much to see and being inside the different houses saved us slightly from the heat, we ended up being there for 6 hours. We couldn’t leave however without getting a slice of the homemade black forest gateaux, Al’s all time favourite cake. Robert was happy to get stuck in too of course.

Constantly covering ourselves in suncream isn’t helping with the heat and stickiness and we find a local swimming pool just 10 minutes up the road so decide to end the evening by cooling down there.

Its a relatively local pool and I don’t think they get many tourists which is great as its really cheap for us all to go and has plenty to do. Liliya has really grown in water confidence since we’ve been on this trip which is handy as some how we’ve lost / misplaced her armbands but she’s not phased and uses it as a reason to practice her swimming. Robert continues to be a daredevil and even attempted a dive target than just jumping off the 3m board. They’ve also got some diving blocks in the indoor pool so whilst Liliya and I sit in the hot tub or play in the kids splash area Robert’s working on some dive practice.

As we are leaving the kids spot the cafe serving fries so we get them a little snack to push them through until we’ve done the cooking in the van and I get to have a post swim mojito, it’s all very civilised at these open pools.

Al has found a little picnic spot to have our meal so I get a quick German run logged (which was brutal as it was a very steep uphill for the first half and too steep to run at full speed on the way down).

We find a picnic bench to eat our meal and notice couples getting into a nearby small pool, walking around 3 times then getting out. Google translate tells us this is a foot pool with cold water that it supposed to be good for you. I’m roasting again after my hill running so it’s the perfect antidote. Robert is a fan, especially of the ‘stork walk’ we should do as per the translated instructions, by raising ones legs out of the water on each step you don’t get as used to the cold and each step should be just as bracing. Liliya gives it a go but decides it’s too cold.

Our original plan has us staying fairly close by but since we’re yet to do any driving today we decide to get a head start on tomorrow’s morning route. This means we’re actually sleeping in France since the most direct route to our next stop in Germany is through France. We get slightly worried driving through Strasberg as every car needs a sticker relating to it’s emissions status and of course you need to apply for one and have it posted to you!! Luckily the automatic camera enforcement system isn’t in place until next year so we decide to chance it and just hope we don’t get stopped by the police.

Our pitch for the night looks to be in a cute little French village from what we can see as we drive through and there are several other vans at the free to use spot, it’s such a useful thing to have these places dotted around.