Germany's Black Forest

Traveling to Germany's Black Forest is not for the faint of heart. It sits on Germany's southwestern edge near its border with France. If you drove to Freiburg (the main town in the Black Forest) directly from Munich, it would only take about 3.5 hours. We combined the drive with a stop at Neuschwanstein Castle (the castle that inspired Disney's Cinderella Castle) which adds an extra 2 hours to the drive. Getting out of the Black Forest up the western side of Germany isn't any faster. Again, it's about a 3.5 hour straight shot to Frankfurt, but we stopped for the night in Rothenburg ob der Tauber, making the total drive also about 5.5 hours. So...is it worth it? Well, that's for you to decide. If you want to see some of Germany's most iconic countryside, quaint towns, and storybook castles...then yes, it's worth it.

The weather for this trip was seriously all over the place. At the beginning of the trip in Copenhagen, we had temperatures in the 80s (very usual for Denmark even in August), but as the trip went on, the temps slowly dropped. By the time we got to the Black Forest, temperatures barely reached into the mid 60s. The only pair of capri pants that I brought got a lot of use.

We had a few goals today. Enjoy the scenery of the Black Forest, find the perfect cuckoo clock for my mother in law, and find the World's Largest cuckoo clock. We left our hotel in Freiburg around 9AM and set out for the small German town of Triberg. Only about 45 mins from Freiburg, Triberg is the home of the cuckoo clock. Although we didn't find the world's largest cuckoo clock immediately, we eventually came across 2 different ones that both claimed to the world's largest. Take a look for yourself and see if you can tell me which one is bigger.

In Triberg, we separated from the other couple with whom we traveled. They set off to find the perfect clock, and my husband and I explored this charming little town. We found some traditional German goulash for lunch and went on a short hike up to the Triberg waterfall. The signs claimed that it's the tallest waterfall in Germany which was a bit misleading. If you've ever seen a big waterfall before...this wasn't it. It did, however, have many different pieces to it that all connected which they then claimed was all part of one large waterfall. Ok sure, they got our money and we thought it was a lovely way to spend an hour or so.

From the waterfall, we walked around the little town for a while. We browsed some junk souvenir shops, stopped to split a delicious ice cream sundae and then found a Netto Discount Market (they're everywhere in Germany) to replenish our travel snacks. When we met back up with my in laws, we saw the cuckoo clock that they found before heading back to our hotel in Freiburg. We took the scenic route and discovered the true magic of the Black Forest.

Why is it called the Black Forest? Is the tree bark especially dark? That might seem like a silly question, but I really had no idea why they called it the Black Forest. It's difficult to tell from my pictures, but the particular pine trees that constitute the Black Forest grow so densely that no sunlight shines below them. The wood from these trees is used to make the famous Black Forest Cuckoo clocks, and cuckoo clocks littered the streets of Triberg.

Once back at the hotel, we walked to a outdoor restaurant, dined on some classic German cuisine and turned in early. On our way out of the Black Forest, we made a pit stop at the single most enchanting town in al of Germany: Rothenberg ob der Tauber. The only thing that could have made me love this little town more, would have been to visit it at Christmastime. Check it out HERE.

Thanks for reading!

- Foxy the Traveler

Travel to Freiburg and Germany's Cinderella Castle

After our short little stopover in Munich, Germany, we checked out of our hotel around 8:15AM, stopped for gas, and then drove about another 30 minutes to the Dachau former KZ Concentration Camp. We arrived before the visitor center opened, so we spend about 30 mins or so walking around the grounds. Unlike Mauthausen, that we visited when we first arrived in Austria, Dachau is huge! I don't think you can ever truly appreciate something until you're actually there and can see things for yourself. The barracks had all been destroyed, but they left the foundations marked, so you can see just how massive it was. I also really liked that they had historic photos posted throughout the former KZ Camp, so you could see what it looked like during the war compared to now.

Entrance to Dachau, former KZ Camp

From there we began our trek into the Black Forest region of Germany, a destination that we wouldn't reach until after several long hours of driving. To break up the day, we made several noteworthy stops.

After about 1.5 hours of driving, we made our first stop at a place called the Partnach Gorge. What a gem of a place! We added this to our itinerary rather last minute, and I'm so glad we did. A mean horse and buggy driver kept us from driving our car any closer to the entrance than the 1970s Olympic stadium which meant we had about a mile to a mile and a half walk ahead of us before we got to the actual entrance of the gorge.

To our delight, we found a little eatery after walking only 10-15 mins. I took special note of the restaurant's name because I knew I wouldn't remember it otherwise. Gashtoff Partnachlam. An elderly German lady who spoke lovely English helped us decipher the menu (somehow, I wound up with the same white sausage again. I also got pasta, so I chopped up the sausages and tossed them with the noodles). The inside of the restaurant, however, was something out of a fairytale. Picture the inside of "grandfather's" house in Heidi, or what you would envision inside a cottage in the Black Forest. All manner of trinkets, carvings and cuckoo clocks. Beer steins and dolls wearing lederhosen. My pictures don't do it justice.

Similarly my pictures of the Partnach Gorge pale in comparison to the experience. The icy water flowed through the gorge with a fierce intensity and with colors so vibrant. Never before have I seen such indescribable shades of green. Walking through the gorge was somewhat of an adventure itself. The inside temperature was several degrees cooler than the outside, and water constantly dripped on us. The dripping water made the path we walked on very slick, so we took extra caution. If you ever find yourself in Germany and want to do something a little outside the box, this place was incredible.

We then got back in the car and drove for about another hour to Germany's most famous castle: Neuschwanstein. We bought timed tickets ahead of time, and planned our day carefully so that we arrived with plenty of time to pick them up. You pick up the tickets at the bottom of the hill at the main ticketing center which serves both Neuschwanstein and the other castle in the same vicinity (both built by Mad King Ludwig). From the ticket booths, you can either walk the long, steep hill (about a mile) up to the entrance of Neuschwanstein, or they have a horse-drawn carriage option. My husband and I walked the hill, but the other couple took the carriage option.

At 4:55, we entered the English tour of the 16 finished rooms. Each room in the castle has a different theme, and despite the size and grandeur of the castle's exterior, much of the inside remains unfinished. In modern times, they converted the second floor into a cafe and gift shops. After our castle tour, we opted to take a bit of a hike down a path that leads to a foot bridge where you can get one of the most iconic photos of Neuschwanstein. After Dachau, Partnach Gorge, and the trek up the hill to the castle, my feet complained the whole way to the bridge, but the view was simply to die for. And on the opposite side of the bridge, we found a surprise waterfall, which delighted us even more.

We had an incredible but exhausting day to say the least, and ahead of us lay 3.5 hours of driving yet to do before we stopped for the night. We stopped along the way at a gas station/auto grill for some road food. I don't recommend the premade gouda sandwiches that my husband grabbed. I, on the other hand, grabbed a small pack of salami and a fresh roll and made my own delicious sandwich. With a better camera I may have been able to capture the incredible sunset that evening that I scarcely recall only thanks to my diary of the trip.

Four very weary Americans arrived at the Hotel Clarion Hershen deep in the heart of the Black Forest. Happy to be staying at a hotel for more than one night, we settled in to this charming little hotel in Freiburg and called it a day.

In my next post, I'll cover our exciting adventures in Germany's Black Forest including our hunt for the World's Largest Cuckoo Clock and the magical little town of Rothenberg ob der Tauber. Click HERE to continue reading.

Thanks for reading!

- Foxy the Traveler