Let them eat Black Forest cake: THE BLACK FOREST

So, great news! This last week I was on Spring Break and I have one week left, and we decided to finally go to the Black Forest. This was good for multiple reasons. One, who doesn't want to go to the Black Forest? And two, I finally went to the place and ate the cake that is the namesake of this blog! But you can keep reading to find out more about that.

Let me first clear up one thing, though. The Black Forest is a REGION, not an actual individual forest. And the trees in the forest are not actually black. But I did know this before, I just wanted to correct any naive notions you have...

So, we arrived on Saturday and showed up to our hotel, the Hofgut Sternen. That evening we just walked around a bit near the hotel and it was a gorgeous evening. There was this super high bridge there that trains were constantly going across.

We hiked up this little hill and found a cool little cabin thing so we looked out over the...electrical wires. No just kidding, it was actually a nice view.

This cool old church was close to our hotel so we checked it out too. At one point in time Marie Antoinette stayed in that hotel so that's pretty cool.

The next day was Sunday and it was actually Easter Sunday and we had a good time there. Afterward we were invited to lunch at the home of a family in the ward. The father actually served with President Kohler when they were young missionaries so that was really fun, and we spent a long time talking to them and just relaxing. It was really kind of them to host us on Easter Sunday. Their youngest son was a few years older than me and I felt for him. I know how it is to have people over that you don't know and don't want to talk to, but have to put on a good face and clear the dishes. So thank you...

After that we just went and walked around the Altstadt (old city) of Freiburg, so here are some pictures of that.

The next morning we started off by looking in a clock shop right next to our hotel. The region is known for cuckoo clocks, so they are ALL over. But they really are cool and so beautiful.

I also love these little 3D rooms that I have seen other places.

Every half hour on the side of the building there is a giant cuckoo clock that goes off, so we went to go watch it and it was super cool.

Here is me standing by it just for scale.

After checking out that and another glass shop close by, we went to go walk around this cute little town called Gengenbach. It was so beautiful.

We were walking down one of the small streets when we ran into this small museum tucked away in a wall. Well apparently it was a museum that wound up into the main tower of the city, the Niggelturm. Inside was all this weird stuff about this thing they do or used to do at least in the city. We were kind of confused, but it was something about dressing up as witches and other weird things. So the whole museum was filled with these creepy, life-sized figures.

The video showed that little kids learn to do these wooden clappy things, which I thought was pretty cool.

Evolution of wooden witch masks...

Mom and a creeper dude...

No comment

Dad and his favorite animal

Me and my new bud

Then here is the view from the top of the tower over the town.

And the stairs

Then we just wandered through little streets in the sunshine.

And finally found an open cafe where we could try black forest cake!

There she is

Her close up

The moment of truth

Trying to pick up a bite

And...it's good! I was a bit disappointed by the lack of chocolate, but it was okay. Honestly not as good as I thought it would be, and I'm pretty sure there was alcohol in it, but it was worth a try.

More walking around, here is the tower we climbed up in via the museum.

Artsy picture...

Then we were on our way to another small town when we saw another giant clock so we stopped and paid like a Euro to watch it go.

Then on the way to Triberg, we spontaneously decided to ride a Rodlbahn we passed on the side of the road. It was basically a mix between an alpine slide and a roller coaster, so that was way fun.

Then we were planning on doing more in Triberg, but I was kind of expired and grumpy, so we just saw the water fall and went back to the hotel. So here it is. It is supposedly the longest waterfall in Germany.

At the top

Tuesday our plans kept falling through so we just ended up walking around a nice lake close to where Mom and Dad stayed when they came here before. Then we ended up going to this really cool water park place because we had coupons there form out hotel.

Wednesday we headed home and stopped to check out this old abandoned house close to the hotel and took pictures there.

On the way home we stopped at a city in Germany that is classified as an island because it is in the Bodensee, Lindau. We climbed to the lighthouse and then to the lion statue.