Eine Schwarzwaldfahrt

For those of us old enough to remember, in 1965 a German named Horst Jankowski had a hit called A Walk in the Black Forest. When I searched for it on YouTube, the title was in German:  "Schwarz" meaning "black", "Wald" meaning "forest", and, "fahrt" translating as "journey" (although used as a verb it means "drive" in the third person singular) so when you put those words together that is the title of this blog.  While we didn't walk in the Black Forest, we certainly did drive in it - for hours.  Later in this trip we will be driving through the Black Forest north of Lahr so today we concentrated on a few notable destinations to the south.

Furtwangen was our first destination.  We had read there was a clock museum there worth visiting.  The scenery on the way was spectacular although some of the roads were very steep and winding.  We were way up in the hills with wonderful views over the countryside and into the distance.  

When we got to Furtwangen, however, I realized I had broken one my travel rules which is  before you visit a site, check what the opening times are.  When we got to the museum, the sign on the door read “Montag Geschlossen”.  You don’t need to be able to understand much German to know that means Closed Mondays!  Other than the museum, the town seemed very modern and not particularly picturesque.  Thankfully, it did have several gas stations.  On the way there, we started getting a warning we were running out of gas.  We had started out with close to 1/2 a tank so I guess going up and down those hills for several hours used up a lot of gas as the warning light was on and the tank level was red.  Thankfully, the GPS on the car directed us to the nearest gas station where we got €40 of gas and that got the tank up to ¾ which was good.  At this point, I should mention we shouldn't be complaining about our gas prices in Victoria.  Here a litre is around €2 which is $3 CAD.  At least the car (a VW X Cross) seems to get good mileage as we have done a lot of driving and this is the first gas we have had to buy since we arrived a week ago.   

From Furtwangen, we headed for Triberg.  I was there with our mother about 30 years ago and remember it being hilly and filled with a lot of tourist shops, mainly selling cuckoo clocks.  It turned out my memory was accurate!  It was time for a break as we had been on the road for more than 3 hours.  We found parking without any problem - my recollection is that the last time I was here all those years ago it was impossible to find anything and we just did a "drive through".

Our first stop was for lunch and, for the third time this trip - and this year - we were able to eat outside on a terrace.  What a treat!  The food was mediocre although my sister enjoyed her salad much more than I did my Kasespaetzle as I am pretty sure it had curry in it.  Who does that!!  We certainly enjoyed our drinks though - Radler for me, beer for sis.

After a quick stop at the Tourist Information Office, we went to a shop purporting to have more than 1000 cuckoo clocks.  It turns out they weren't exaggerating!   The store was full of them and some of them were priced well over €2000!  I chatted with a store clerk and she told me they are all made by hand in the area around Triberg.  The wood they use is from linden trees (which are also known as limewood trees).  The strength and structure of that wood makes it excellent for woodcarving.  It is also less likely to break at edges or splinter which is extremely useful in woodcarving.  Kath said she couldn’t work in the shop because all the cuckoo clocks going off all the time would drive her nuts.  Conversely, when we told the woman that, she said it reminded her of being in the forest and loved the sound.  That was a good example of how two people can have a completely different takes on the same thing!  The clocks in the store were amazing and no wonder the prices are what they are.  The attention to detail was astounding, particularly in the bigger ones.

Our final stop for the day, although it turned out to just be a photo op, was Hornberg Castle.  This is a partially ruined castle dating from the 11th century.  It is located on a steep outcrop above the Neckar valley above the village of Neckarzimmern. It is the largest and oldest of the castles in the valley.  After that, we decided to head back as it was going to take at least 1 hour and, as it turned out, again the roads were challenging - steep, winding and very narrow at times.  The lovely scenery made it all worthwhile.  It had been a wonderful day and a nice contrast to the previous few days - no wine villages or cathedrals here!

Hornberg Castle