On Saturday, Amanda, Andrea, Mary-Cate, and I went to Triberg, a
small town in the black forest. The town is famous for Germany's tallest
waterfall and the House of 1000 Clocks. Of course, we visited both, but I'll
get to that later.
We caught an early train South. Four trains later, we were
deposited in the middle of a fairy tale. The Black Forest loomed on one side of
the train station, and picturesque German houses dotted the hill on the other.
After depositing some of our things in the hotel room, we headed
for the forest. We ate our sack lunches at the bottom of the waterfall. Talk
about lunch with a view. Listening to the water cascading down the falls and
the birds in the trees was so relaxing. Also, the fruit here is delicious. At
first, I was disappointed that I couldn't find gluten free granola bars or
pretzels. Then I realized, that I love the nectarines and apples here. I
practically live off of them!
After
lunch, we hiked around the area. The water all was beautiful! The forest looked
like something out of “the Lord of the Rings.” I enjoyed thinking about hobbit,
dwarves, and elves, especially since I am currently reading “the Two Towers.”
We took plenty of pictures and just thoroughly enjoyed spending time in nature.
If I were in “the Lord of the Rings,” I would be a Hobbit. My inner Hobbit was
at home in the Black Forest!
Later in the afternoon, we decided that we needed a cake break. We
walked down to a cafe where I got Johannes berry juice and everyone else got
Black Forest Cake. My juice was delicious, and it definitely improved my blood
sugar levels. I left my hat in the booth at the restaurant. After seeing my
interesting hat hair in the mirror twenty minutes later, I realized I had left
my hat behind. We went back to the cafe where the very nice old German waiter
had hung my hat on the hook next to our table. I waited to thank him before
returning to my group. He didn’t speak any English, so I thanked him in German,
and we grinned at each other.
Next, we explored a few shops. We visited “the House of 1000
clocks.” It was amazing. The Cuckoo clocks are absolutely beautiful! They have
intricate detail and impressive moving parts. Someday, I will buy myself a nice
one. As it was, I decided to buy a small wall clock with a cuckoo clock facade.
It is very cute! We also visited a wood carving shop where the craftsmanship
was equally exquisite. The nice shopkeeper told us how to get to a giant cuckoo
clock near the town. We set out to visit it, and stumbled upon a beautiful
little church. After looking inside the church, we decided that we wanted to
hike instead of visiting the giant clock, especially since I think we were
walking in the wrong direction.
At that point, we had lost our tickets to get back in the park,
but thankfully, there was no one at the checkpoint to ask for them. Hiking is
wonderful! Because it was later in the day and because we were hiking away from
the waterfall, we were the only ones on the trail most of the time. We stopped
to take pictures and enjoy nature periodically. We sat in silence several
times, just basking in the beauty around us. We stopped at a little bridge on
the way back to try and take photos. Balancing my phone on a backpack and then
running to join the others was an adventure, but it was so fun! As we were
leaving, someone suggested taking pictures of our aggie hats on the fence. I
considered it, and decided that if I put my hat on the fence post, not just the
fence, it would be safe enough. And it was… until I went to pick it up. Then,
it fell into the water below where it for caught under a rock. Now, this is a
somewhat special hat. My brother gave it to me when he was at A&M. I have
worn it all over the world on many fun adventures. So, I really wanted to retrieve
it, but only if we could do so safely. I mean, it was only a hat. As it turned
out, it was safe to retrieve my hat. Mary-Cate and I very carefully made our
way down to where the hat was wedged under a rock and grabbed it. We didn't
even get any bug bites! I did scrape my hand in some stinging nettles though.
Mary-Cate had Benadryl cream inner backpack, so that was quickly taken care of.
So you see, Mary-Cate saved my hat from a watery demise and my hand from
swelling and stinging!
 |
| Was it worth the picture? Nope! Oops... |
 |
| But look, we did it! |
After the very exciting end to our hike, we went to a cafe where we had dinner and watched the Germany v Sweden World Cup game. It was so much fun to watch the Germans get excited about the game There was one guy driving up and down the street all day while honking and flying German flags from his car windows. He wanted to make sure that everyone knew it was game day! Germany won the game in overtime, talk about waiting until the last minute! Then, many people drove up and down the main street of Triberg while honking in celebration.
After a delightful breakfast
at the hotel, where I got my own individual pot of tea, we made our way back to
Bonn Sunday morning.
Mile count for the week (all of week 4): 41.43, 11.29 of which were in the Black Forest on Saturday
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