The Black Forest is criss-crossed with hiking trails of all sorts – different lengths, difficulties, terrain types and sceneries. There are tour companies that will move your bags from hotel to hotel as you walk the length of the forest. Or, you can settle for a pleasant little forest stroll, as we did.
My aim was to run a loop into and out of the forest, returning to the Bareiss-run Sattelei, a cozy little restaurant set 500 hundred yards up into he timbers. I did not tell my family that those 500 yards were steeply uphill from the parking area. We were mildly worn out when we reached what I envisioned as the starting point of the trek. And it was only 10:00 am, not nearly time for lunch.
Into the woods! I’d been selling the Black Forest to the boys based on the name origin: supposedly the pine trees are so dense that they block out nearly all light. I’d seen forest like this before in other parts of Germany, and I wanted to experience it on a massive scale.
The Black Forest is not the area of Germany responsible for the well-known fairy tales that take place in dark forests – Hansel & Gretel, for instance, originates in central Germany – but I figured it would serve as a very good proxy. I was expecting dark and twisty paths, odd and colorful mushrooms, glimpses of shy fauna. The path we had was straight, well marked, and not particularly distinguishing from anything you wouldn’t see here in the US. There was plenty of light. We played a scavenger hunt game, looking for interesting finds – 10 points for a mushroom, for example. Oh, it was perfectly pleasant, but as Holman would repeat throughout the rest of the trip: “I’m disappointed that the Black Forest isn’t all that black.”
I’m sure serious hikers get to the really dark sections (of which I saw some, on a morning walk with Holman, in the distance).
Serious hikers we are not. We got, what, ½ mile into the forest? The walk, though, while taxing, was insufficient to stoke our appetites (Lamm’s breakfast was working). So, no Sattelei, there just wasn’t a point. But we still had an afternoon ahead of us. We hopped back into the van, and off we went.
Being close to noon, our sightseeing options were more limited. Some of the destinations I still had left – Neckar valley castles, Heidelberg, Tubingen, Stuttgart – were 1-2 hours away. We chose to stay closer to home base, and finish exploring the cute towns in the Black Forest.
Two sights were particularly recommended by the guidebooks. Near to Wolfach, where we’d just been, is a recreation of a typical black forest farm settlement – the Vogtsbauernhof. I don’t know how typical it was – it had a building type to cover every need & task, was that common? Who knows, it was raining and I didn’t get the guide papers. Stables, saw mill, grain mill, storage, all under giant thatched roofs. Cute enough, and all, but oddly lifeless, because, well, it was designed as a museum. My highlight was the brat & beer I got there for lunch. It was a good brat & beer. The kids had German hamburgers – Germans tend to add a bunch of things to the ground beef, like the Eddie Murphy “houseburger” in Raw. Egg, onion, bell pepper, etc. I think the boys liked ‘em. The fries, as I’d mentioned before, weren’t much.
Next on the list: how about an actual town, not a museum? Triberg gets frequent mention as a destination point in the Black Forest. There’s some notion that it has the purest air in the country, given the way the winds generally blow down from the surrounding hills, through the filtering trees.
I don’t know about that. It also claims to be the cuckoo clock capital of the world, and that seems evident. Cuckoo clock and wood carving shops abound. It’s not our thing. We managed to limit the damage with the boys to a pair of wooden bird whistles for three Euros; these were quickly forgotten, thankfully.
The town itself? One main drag that parallels a pretty stream, up to the town apex, then curves away. At the top of that apex there’s a walkway to see Germany’s highest waterfall – 45 minute walk, I’m told. Well, we’d already had our hike for the day, that waterfall would have to wait for another time, and anyway, we had a more impressive one waiting for us later on. The rest of Triberg had a Gatlinburg quality (souvenir shops, mostly) that robbed it of a lot of charm. It did have a Gelato shop, and Annemarie’s verdict was that Italian ice cream is better than German ice cream. It’s sweeter.
So far, this day needed a boost. The fun meter was getting close to zero. The only big plus so far was that the sun had finally come out. Something had to be done. The route back took us past the farm museum again, and on the way out from there I’d spied a sign that I’d kept in the back of my mind, in case of emergency. Rodelbahn.
Ahh, the advantages of being the only German speaker in the car…I recognized this right away as a fun ride – it amounts to a single person roller coaster. You hop in a 1-2 person sled car that’s attached to a downhill rail, and off you go. If we’d had a ball in Triberg, or were coming back late, or whatnot, I would have deliberately driven right past it, and the kids would have been none the wiser (they were disappointed at having missed a similar version of this back in Appenzell, you may recall). But we turned in.
And we had a ball! Even the Grandparents got to have some wine while we rolled and coasted. We could have stayed for a few more runs, but you don’t want to overdo a good thing, you know?
Back to the hotel; more wine and cheese for dinner.
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