Black Forest!
Trip Start
Jan 06, 2009
1
13
21
Trip End
May 05, 2009
Triberg, Baden-Württemberg, Germany
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
I was very excited to go to the Black Forest. I took a class last year in Oxford called German Folk Lore and Fairy Tales in which we read a few stories originating from the Black Forest, and the area just really intrigued me for some reason. It's just so old with a sort of mysterious history about it, so I was super excited to see it.
We got into Triberg at a little after 8:00 and checked into our little hotel in the center of town. We quickly discovered that Triberg is similar to Luxembourg in the sense that everything closes early, but we did find this little cafe that was still open and got some waffles. Afterwards, we went back to the hotel, watched a little CNN (it was the only English station), and then went to bed.
Saturday morning, we got up early and ate a very good breakfast in our hotel. The breakfast room overlooked the town and had a beautiful view of the forest out of the window. After breakfast, we headed to the Black Forest Museum just up the street. It was pretty neat. It took you through the history and culture of the Black Forest all the way from cuckoo clocks to bobsledding to mining. I liked it. After the museum, we did a little shopping (well, really looking) in the many cuckoo clock shops in town. We eventually made our way to the forest and Germany's tallest waterfall. The waterfall was neat, but I was a little disappointed because we were unable to hike any further into the woods due to the treacherously icy paths. After the waterfall, we decided to walk about 1 kilometer to see the world's largest cuckoo clock. Thanks to some poor directions given to us, it took us a little while to find said cuckoo clock. We eventually did, took some pictures, then walked back. In the evening, we went to a little family-owned restaurant across from our hotel. Since it was Friday and being the good Catholic that I am, I could not try any of the local specialities all of which contained a great deal of meat. So, I had spaghetti in Germany. After dinner, we really wanted to get a piece of Black Forest cake in the Black Forest. However, since it was past six o'clock, all of the cafes were closed. Luckily, Jingyi saw a woman inside one of the cafes and knocked on the door. The woman said that she had one piece of cake left, so she wrapped it up for us and we took it back to our hotel to enjoy. We then watched some more CNN and then went to bed.
Sunday morning, we woke up early, had another delicious breakfast, and then boarded the train for Heidelberg.
I really enjoyed Triberg and the Black Forest. Like I said, I was very interested to visit this region, and it didn't disappoint. I was sad that I didn't get to hike (plus it was a little cold), but overall it was a very relaxing trip. Enjoy the pictures, and then check out part two of my Germany trip from Heidelberg.
