The Black Forest

We continued our way north to spend some time in Germany’s Black Forrest or Schwarzwald as it is called in German.

We drove through the countryside – a mixture of hilly farms with classic farm houses and barns and dense pine forests (which gives the forest its characteristic “black” name”

We arrived in the town of Titisee, a small lakeside town, and found our accommodation at Camping Bankenhof a little further around the lake from the main part of town.

After some lunch we went back towards town for some exploring (and in search of a Black Forest treasure – more later...). There were quite a lot of tourist shops along the main strip of town as well as more Christmas shops – its Christmas all year long in this part of Europe it seems.

Indiana Sandison! Dave in his Bavarian hat

Christmas Heaven

Surprisingly we had also run into a Japanese “tour pocket” as well. These pockets pop up randomly from time to time often in less well known places instead of the big capital cities where you would expect.

This region of Germany is quite famous for a type of cured ham and every shop you looked in had a full supply.

Lake Titisee

Done with cruising the shops we decided to try our luck piloting a paddle boat on the massive glacial lake. The boat was a tinny with 2 sets of pedals that drove the water wheel at the back and was surprisingly quick (Dave wants to make one when we get home). I decided to be the driver, letting Dave have a go of navigating (and also allowing him to be the chief power producer).

Our pedal boat

PEDAL POWER!

Out on the lake

Paddling round was quite a work out and so we decided to reward ourselves with a little treat – the treasure i mentioned earlier – the Schwarzwald Kirschetorte or more commonly known as Black Forest cake. We found a cafe with a view of the lake so that we could enjoy on the cherry, chocolate and cream layers – yum!

Yum blackforest cake!

The next day still in the Black Forest we continued our tour of the little villages.

First for the day was Triberg. As we descended the valley towards the village we arrived at the Triberg waterfall – Germany’s highest waterfalls. Although not the powerful rushing of water we had seen in Switzerland, these falls were still quite impressive. Combined with the forest setting they were very beautiful and we were glad we had made the small hike to see them.

Heading into the Black Forest

Dave having a drink

Once in the town of Triberg we had 2 objectives.

1.      Find the Cafe with the original Black Forest Cake

2.      Find the world’s largest cuckoo clock

Objective 1 was quite easy and without any trouble at all we found Cafe Schafer which we were surprised to find fairly quiet. We indulged once again, but only for scientific purposes to see if the original was the best (and to celebrate Dougie’s Birthday too). Turns out it was worth sacrificing our bodies for research – the cake was out of this world good! The accompanying hot chocolates were pretty good too – had to get the full experience didn’t we.

The second objective was a little harder as the world’s largest cuckoo clock was on the outskirts of town and being worried we had missed it we circled a few times before being put right by a local. We got there just before 2pm – perfect timing to see the cuckoo. The problem was he didn’t appear. Turns out we were on the wrong side of the building which funnily enough also has a cuckoo clock but it doesn’t strike unless you put money in, so we missed it. We hoped some other sucker might put money in to see the alternative clock’s cuckoo pop out but we were out of luck and had to move on.

Not the clock but a cute mechanical bear family on the top of a shop

The fake clock

The real "Worlds Biggest Cuckoo Clock"

Next stop Schiltach – reported to be the prettiest of all the Black Forest villages. It was very small and very quiet. We wandered the streets for a little while after having some lunch posing on the 2 bridges of the rivers that meet here.





Lastly it was on to Freudenstat, the final Black Forest villages (well more of a city this time) on the itinerary.

We had a rest at one of the local pubs overlooking the park with water fountains that all the local kids were playing in during the hot afternoon.

Central square at Freudenstadt

 A storm was coming so we headed off to our accommodation, a 5 star campground just out of town. By now we really weren’t sure who was responsible for the star ratings and thought they might be all self determined, however this campground really was beautiful – set in forest over a babbling brook with great facilities (the showers were whole bathrooms like an ensuite from home). Camping HEAVEN!

Mulder in his spot at the camping ground

The lovely creek running through