Visiting the Forest

I did it! I managed to spend an entire day in the Black Forest of Germany and leave without purchasing a cuckoo clock. They really are very cute. But I just kept reminding myself that my home décor isn’t Bavarian.

The Black Forest, or Schwarzwald, is an amazingly beautiful area. In fact, it is undoubtedly one of the most beautiful drives we have ever taken. We followed narrow roads lined with yellow and purple flowers, drove past bicyclists, hikers, strawberry and asparagus stands, brown and white dairy cows munching grass right beside the roads, backereis and gasthofs. We saw old people and young people alike carrying walking sticks and hiking through the meadows that are thick with trees. So many trees. In fact, the fields are simply cut right into the trees, clearly in an effort to save as much of the forest as possible. And even though it was rainy, as it has been for much of our trip, the mist in the forest somehow made it even more beautiful.

We stopped in Furtwangen to visit the German clock museum. The museum featured literally hundreds of clocks made from the 1700s to current. One of the most interesting was a very large and elaborately carved wooden clock that depicted religious scenes. The clock’s most macabre feature was the crucifixion of Jesus every hour on the hour. The clock wasn’t working. That would have been an interesting one to observe.


We crossed the street and ate lunch at a café. After taking a look at the wonderful menu, I quickly forwent my decision to be a vegetarian (as I had promised I would following my recent unwise culinary decision). Instead I ordered the bratwurst with saurkraut and mashed potatoes. It was a very wise choice. Bill had schweinenschnitzel (breaded pork cutlet), which was also absolutely delicious. He had a beer and I had a glass of Reisling. I anticipated a very sweet wine, and was happy to taste a wonderfully dry and fruity wine instead. Bill couldn’t have been happier than when he saw the head on his beer.


We got back on the road and drove the rest of the day through the forest. Though we were both still full from our big and wonderful lunch, we knew it wouldn’t be prudent to leave the Black Forest without a piece of authentic Black Forest Cake. So we stopped in the town of Baden-Baden and found a café that served up the local specialty. We split a piece of cake and each had a cup of wonderful coffee. I thought it was the perfect ending to a great day.

But Bill had an even better surprise. The drive home was on an autobahn! It was his dream come true. I must say he was pretty tame. But even driving at 130 kilometers per hour or so (which, to be fair, is only about 78 or 80 mph, it was as though we were standing still. Cars going probably 100 mph or so (mostly, it seemed, Mercedes) would whip by us amazingly quickly. Bill would get into the passing lane to go around a car, and all of the sudden, someone was behind him wanting to get by.

We have decided to spend the next four nights in Salzburg, Austria. We will come back, either by car or train, to visit Munich, but Bill was eager to be able to unpack for an extended stay again, and I don’t blame him. He is the one who has to haul in the luggage. And this way we’ll be in Salzburg for Mass on Sunday. The music is purported to be lovely.

And of course, the Sound of Music…..