Black Forest (Personal)

This weekend I went to the Black Forest! After encountering several difficulties in renting the car, we got off to a very late start and didn’t get to our bed and breakfast in Baden Baden until nighttime. The place we stayed was a weird experience, but it was a nice place and we just slept there and then left the next morning.

            On Saturday morning we stopped in Offenburg for breakfast. After our meal we walked around the cute farmers market they were having and got some snacks for the rest of the day. Next we went to Triberg to do the waterfall hike. The hike was beautiful and it was so nice out. The falls looked really nice with the white water pouring over the mossy green rocks. This little town was cool too, and we spent quite a bit of time in one of the larger gift shops that had all kinds of black forest things. I got a pin for my collection and some jam for my host family. We also sampled black forest ham while we were there and got some interesting flavors of wine to taste: a cherry one and a red current one.

We left Triberg and drove around in the mountains. This was a really beautiful drive and we even got to play in some snow! Whenever we passed by a nice view we would yell at our awesome driver Reid to pull over so we could get out and look around. One of the lookouts had picnic benches and we sat and at our snacks on the edge of the mountain. Nicole rolled down a grassy hill we found. Don’t worry, I vlogged it!

We continued driving until we got to the Todnau Falls. The first waterfall we had gone to was a really long continuous path of small falls, and it was nice for hiking all the way along it. Todnau Falls a tall steep waterfall that came crashing down. There were cool reclined chairs right next to where the water fell, which was a really nice way to experience it. This was also perfect for Kelsey to use while the rest of us climbed the stairs to the top, because Kelsey had a sprained ankle.

We drove to Titisee and checked into our hotel for that night. We ate schnitzel in the restaurant at the hotel and then went back to our rooms and played cards and hung out.

The next morning we had breakfast at the hotel and then went to see Lake Titisee. It was beautiful and peaceful and we enjoyed watching the ducks there. Then we had a long drive to Burg Hohenzollern, which is not in the Black Forest, but it wasn’t too far out of the way and we were all eager to see it.

It was definitely worth the drive. It was also worth the grueling hike up to the hill to get to the castle. We missed the English tour of the inside and we didn’t have time to wait for the next one so we went on a tour in German and they gave us a guidebook in English to read about each of the rooms. The inside was lavishly decorated and the history was interesting. Mostly it’s just fun to be inside a castle. :) We also got a tour of treasury, which was really spectacular. One of the things in items in the treasury was a decorated snuffbox with a dent in it. Apparently the king was shot but he had this box in his pocket and it shielded him from the bullet and saved his life. After the tour we at lunch in the courtyard, which was an awesome experience. There was also a really cool view down below when you look over the side of the castle.

The trip to the Black Forest was probably my favorite trip this semester. It was so beautiful and I loved getting to spend so much time outside in nature. One of my favorite parts was actually being in the car, because we were driving through such beautiful areas and listening to music and getting to know each other better. It was perfect!