Black Forest

The Black Forest

Living in Stuttgart meant that we were living on the northern edge of the Swartzwald, the Black Forest. The heart of the region, Triberg, was about an hour drive from our house. Triberg is famous for cuckoo clocks and the marvelous chocolate and cherry Black Forest cake, called Swartzwalder Torte by the locals. The Black Forest is named for its cover of dark pine forests, which have been diminished in recent years, so that it doesn't strike you as being exceedingly black or dark today, except in certain areas. It is bounded on the south by Switzerland (with Basel being the south-west corner), and on the west by France and the Rhine.

Most of our visitors got at least one day-trip into the Black Forest, sometimes more. Perhaps because it was so easy to get to, and we went so often, I did not write as extensively about our visits to the Black Forest as I did for other destinations. I now wish I had been more diligent!

The Vogtsbauernhof in the Black Forest Culture Park
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Fresh Snow in the Hills of the Swartzwald
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Building decorations in Triberg
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Dec 1991 - the Black Forest

We had a wonderful visit from Lynn's mom just after last Christmas. Marga arrived on the 28th of December, and stayed with us through the 12th of January. We visited the Black Forest, France, Holland, the Alps, and lots of southern Germany.

October 1992 - The Black Forest

Our "big" trip of the visit (of my sister Joanne and her husband Dave) came over the weekend of the 2nd through the 5th of October. We took the kids out of school and did a looping travel vacation. First we went to the Black Forest, traveled a lot of twisty, windy roads, and visited Triberg, the cuckoo clock capital of the world. We stayed the night in the Alpen Post hotel in Neustadt, outside of Tittsee in the Black Forest. On Saturday we headed for Basel, Switzerland, via old windy backroads through the Black Forest. We dipped our toes into Switzerland (costing us SF40 to do that because of the Swiss Autobahn Tax), then we headed up the French side of the Rhine River to Colmar in France.

July 1995

We spent four years in southern Germany and never got around to buying a cuckoo clock, so the last week we were in Europe, I took an afternoon off and we drove down to Triberg to find a souvenir cuckoo clock! Silly Americans!! It now has a place of honor in our living room and has kept faithful time since we moved back.

October 1999 - Glatt & Haigerloch

Since we left Germany in July 1995, I hadn't had the opportunity to travel back for any visits to see the friends we left behind. I got my first chance in October 1999. After I surprised the heck out of my German neighbors Gerhard and Ursula on Saturday morning by showing up at their door unannounced, we visited for a while and then hopped in their car and headed off to the Black Forest for the day. Ursula had recently been to a cafe on the grounds of a castle (Schloss) in the village of Glatt, and both Gerhard and Ursula had been meaning to try an interesting restaurant in the nearby village of Haigerloch (which had its own castle), so we did both!

First stop was Glatt, where we had coffee and cake (küchen) in the cafe.....

This is a panorama of the castle - one of few in Germany with a moat. The cafe was behind me as I took these photos.....	Gerhard, me, and Ursula in the cafe. The cafe was furnished with antiques and medieval things, so it was very in-theme with the nearby castle......
A water trough for horses on the grounds of the other castle we visited, in Haigerloch......	The other castle we visited, in Haigerloch, dominates most of the town. This is a view from one of the village access roads, up on the hill before you actually get into the town.....