Schwarzwald aka The Black Forest

 

After we had seen Rothenburg, we drove to the Black Forest.  This is a region in Southwest Germany.  The name Schwarzwald or Black Forest came from a term that the Romans called it Silva Nigra, i.e. "Black Forest," because of the dense growth of conifer trees in the forest blocked out most of the light inside the forest.  The Black Forest has such a different terrain than anything we’ve seen in Germany so far.  It reminded me of Switzerland.  Over the years, the farmers have cleared all the lower part of the rolling hills.  Today they are filled with meadows full of dandelion flowers.  It was gorgeous.  The views were breathtaking.  We wanted this to be a more relaxed trip where we could just enjoy nature.  We took many long scenic drives to different towns.  We stayed in the small Alpine town of Lenzkirch.  Our hotel was quaint and served us a full German breakfast every morning. 

  

Here's a map to show you where the Black Forest is.  (if you're curious, Hildesheim is right in the very center of the country)

The first day we drove to an open-air museum near Gutach.  This museum has traditional farmhouses from the 1600s and on.  They have been dismantled from all over the Black Forest and reassembled them at the museum just as they were when the owner lived there.  The farmhouses from this part of Germany are very distinct.  They have steep sloped thatched roofs with a front section cut out.  The first floor of these farmhouses is where the livestock lived and were fed.  The second floor of the farmhouse was reserved for the extended family.  There could be as many as 10-20 people living in this part of the house. Since the farmhouses are built up against a steep hillside, they had a ramp from the attic out the back which they could load farm equipment and carriages.  So the third floor actually served as a garage.  I thought that was really different, I never would have thought the top floor would be where they stored all the heavy machinery.  We joked that we’d heard of “walk out basements,” but they had walk out attics. 

After we saw several different farmhouses from different eras, we headed over to the picnic area and had lunch.  We had brought sandwiches and chips.  We enjoyed our lunch and then let the kids play.  They had a playground and rock climbing area which Ainsley loved.  Sam enjoyed crawling around the grass and pushing his stroller around. 

After we finished at the open-air museum, we headed back to Lenzkirch.  But on our scenic drive back we decided to stop at Titisee lake.  We had passed Titisee Lake everyday and thought it was beautiful.  So we decided to stop and have dinner and walk around the town.   First we went down to the lake to enjoy the quiet tranquility.  We watched ducks swim and people out on tiny boat cruisers.  Afterwards, we walked into town.  We had trouble finding somewhere to eat because everything in Germany closes at 6:00p.m but we finally found pizza restaurant still open.  Then we headed back to our hotel.

 

 

On Sunday morning, we got up early and drove to Triberg to hike the waterfalls.  Triberg Falls is one of the highest waterfalls in Germany with a descent of 163 meters.  We parked at the top of the falls.  It was a steep descent down to where the falls were.  We saw three different cascades.  They were beautiful and we took out time enjoying nature.  But then we had to hike back up to our car.  It was pretty steep and we were all exhausted when we got back.   We headed into town to get some lunch and some Black Forest cake.  We couldn’t find any cake, but we did have Black Forest icecream.  Then we went to the “House of 1000 Clocks” where Tom picked out a cuckoo clock for our family.  We got one that looked like the traditional Black Forest farmhouse with a women wearing the traditional costume with the red puffball hat ringing a bell.  We are excited to finally get a house so we can hang it up. 

After we shopped, we headed back to  Lenzkirch.  We wanted to get dinner in our little village.  We stopped at a Doner shop.  Tom had a doner but I tried something new called a Pide.  It was like a pizza that had the edges folded up so it looked like a boat.  It was really good.  Then we walked over to the bakery to try to find some more Black Forest cake.  Unfortunately they had sold out of it for the day, but she informed us they would have a new cake the next morning. 

We spent our last night enjoying the view from our balcony.  Ainsley did a dance for us on the balcony.  She was obsessed with a yellow fleece blanket they had in the hotel and she carried it everywhere with her while we were there.  The next morning, we packed up our car then headed across the street to the bakery.  We each got a slice of Black Forest cake at about 10 a.m in the morning.  But it was delicious.  It is a little different than what we call Black Forest cake in America.  Typically, Black Forest cake consists of several layers of chocolate cake, with whipped cream and cherries between each layer.  Then the cake is decorated with additional whipped cream, maraschino cherries, and chocolate shavings. 

When we finished with the cake, we got in the car and drove up to Stuttgart where Tom was having a JMP conference.  I would be staying with Nikki for a few days before we headed out to Austria for the final part of our trip.