My wife is the first to admit she has a talent she would rather not possess. I too find it annoying at times.

If we are climbing a hill (and some days it seems that is all we do), whichever path she chooses will invariably turn out to be the steepest.

Such was the case on our recent visit to Schluchsee. She wanted to see what the view was like from the observation tower outside town. I reluctantly agreed.

Reluctantly, because it was midday and we had already been walking for a couple of hours. It was 30 degrees and the sun was blazing – climbing a hill was not on my list of priorities.

Still, marriage is about give and take, and if she wanted to climb, I would climb. I just hoped the view would be worth it.

That you can judge for yourself from the photographs. In the distance we could see the Swiss Alps, though they don’t show distinctly in the pictures. The view of the town and the lake were very nice.

The climb though was as expected. Steep, hot and sweaty.

There were people at the summit, and Vivian asked them about routes up the slope. Sure enough, we had come the most difficult way.

In her defence, she did ask some locals we met on the street before starting our climb. We followed their instructions.

The trail signage also left a bit to be desired, something I have found happens pretty frequently here. There are lots of signs, but don’t rely on them for accuracy, sometimes they are more hopeful than reliable.

Still, despite the heat, it was fun to climb to the top. Schluchsee had hundreds of people by the lake, only a handful at the tower. That means we got to see something most people don’t, which is always nice to share.

Schluchsee is one of those towns Germans visit, but I didn’t see too many foreigners. Maybe I’ll explore why that is on a different day. Today is about the view.