"Black Forest (Schwarzwald)" Schwarzwald by dln6874

Last Thursday was a holiday so we took off Friday to make a long weekend in Germany's Black Forest, or Schwarzwald. As the name would suggest, it's an area heavily forested, offering lots of natural beauty. The trip there started with an 8 hour drive through pouring rain, my irritability still intact, and my boyfriend making comments about my driving that annoyed me. By end of the day though, my irritability subsided, the rain cleared, and everyone was happy. After checking into our hotel, we strolled around Freiburg. I was a bit concerned that perhaps I made a mistake by deciding to stay in the city when I hate being surrounded by concrete. However, Freiburg was a typical charming Germany city with colorful buildings and cobblestone streets. Most places in Schwarzwald were no more than an hour's drive from the city, so it worked out pretty well.

World's Second Largest Cuckoo Clock House

The second day was spent mostly around Triberg. Germany's heighest waterfall was there, so we had to check it out. It is a pretty nice waterfall, though it is a cascading waterfall and you see only bits at a time. The entrance to the waterfall is right smack in the middle of town center though, and is accessed by many tourists, so it wasn't a place you would hang out for long. We went from there then to the World's Second Largest Cuckoo Clock House in the town next to Triberg. It was a cute little house we saw coming into Triberg. It was still advertised as the World's Largest though, and we found out only after going in that a bigger clock house had been constructed in Triberg. We saw one clock house though, and that was enough. I preferred to spend the rest of the day hiking instead of chasing clock houses.

Rowing on Titisee

The best hiking we did was on our last day there, in Feldberg. We went up to the top of the highest peak in Schwarzwald, and then hiked down and around Feldsee, a lake in the valley. The hike to the lake was absolutely beautiful, as was the area surrounding the lake. There was no one around us on the trail either, so it was great. Before going to Feldberg though, we stopped in Titisee, a lake town. We... or mostly he... spent time rowing around the lake. Ahh... there's nothing like watching your man flex his muscles while you sit back and enjoy the view. I did give rowing a try, just to feel like I contributed some, but I didn't last more than 5 minutes each time. Darn ores were too big :P

• Pros:beautiful area, clean and free public toilets, cuckoo clocks