THE WORLD'S LARGEST CUCKOO CLOCK!!!
That's right. Let's talk about the crazy, stupid, one-day, adventure-quest-expedition to the Schwarzwald to buy a cuckoo clock.
Chase and I left at Saturday at 7am (first mistake) to the Black Forest with one goal in mind: buy cuckoo clocks for our parents. On the tram to the Bonn Hbf I realized I left my Eurail pass and passport at home (second mistake). I had to get off the tram, sprint home, and hurry back so we could catch the first train on our back-up itinerary (just in case we were running late). After 4.5 hours of trains we were finally in Triberg - where the first cuckoo clock ever was made! We didn't really have a map of the city (third mistake) but we know where we wanted to go: the Haus der Tausend Urhen (house of 1000 clocks).
According to the location this map application told us, it was in a nearby town called Nussberg. We found some American tourists who were also looking for clocks but also lost (fourth mistake) and bought a bus ticket to the marketplace. We realized the town we wanted to go to was the complete opposite way the bus took us (fifth mistake), so we ended up breaking off from the other tourists and walking about 3 km to Nussberg. On the edge of town we found a clock shop with some good looking clocks and fair prices. We both found something we liked, but decided to continue forward to find the Haus der Tausend Urhen (sixth mistake).
When we arrived, there were literally about 6 buildings in this village, and no Haus der Tausend Urhen (seventh mistake). Turns out we had the wrong location of this shop. Nevertheless, we found a shop in this village, but the prices and selection wasn't quite as good as the first shop. We walked around this village trying to find the Haus der Tausend Urhen, but no cigar. We asked some locals and they told us 5 km in the direction we came from. Ughhh... We started walking back to Triberg, when all of a sudden, the locals were in their car honking at us. They wanted to give us a ride!! Win! They drove us right up to the front door of the Haus der Tausend Urhen. Turns out, it was no more than 30 meters from where the bus dropped us off at the beginning of the day.
The 1000 clock house had a nice selection, and even alright prices. Authentic cuckoo clocks are just expensive by nature. Although, Chase was unsure if he was getting a better price from them or the very first clock maker we went to. We went back down to the first shop and turns out, he had the best clocks and the best prices! We walked and searched all over town just to go back and buy a clock from the first guy! However, we also met some other Americans in that shop the second time around. They weren't tourists though, they were military. We started talking and everything, and the shop maker suggested a nice restaurant to the family. They were nice enough to invite us along with them. So we got in the car with them, but then looking at the time, we only had an hour and a half before our train left. We apologized for the inconvenience, and weren't able to have dinner. However, that did give us just enough time to check out Germany's highest waterfall (which was more of a series of cascades). We paid 3.50 euros, to have a look,
but it was short lived because we had a train to catch.
Turns out, our map application had the wrong location of the train station as well. I swear there are NO signs for anything in these tiny German villages. We walked 4 km in the wrong direction , only to walk another 4 km back (ninth mistake). We missed our train, and ended up getting back at 1:30 in the morning. I was so tired that I bought a taxi home instead of walking 15 minutes from the Bonn Hbf. There are some ancillary details that are either not important or inappropriate (mistakes 10-14).
But even though all this crap happened, I bought that damn clock!
Mom will be so happy.
Until next time...
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