Black Forest, A spot of bother with a Cuckoo Clock

Despite the detour Kim navigated us back to the main road and suddenly there was a complete change in the weather, the clouds parted and let the sun through and there was a late afternoon blue sky. We were glad of this because this meant that we could return to Gengenbach to try and get the pictures that we wanted. We had to be quick though because it was getting late and the sky was beginning to darken as the sun dipped away somewhere over France so we did a whistle-stop march and then finished the afternoon in a smart Italian bar for a cup of tea and a slice of cake.

After stopping for wine supplies at a discount supermarket we arrived back at the hotel where the car park was coned off for no obvious reason. Thirty minutes later we discovered why when a coach party from the Netherlands arrived and swarms of guests on a Black Forest tour bus took over most of the hotel. This meant that the restaurant was especially busy tonight and we had to share a table with a German couple from Friedrichshafen in a side room just off the main dining area. Because they were so busy the service was slow which meant that we drank more wine than usual and after the German couple had left us to ourselves I started to poke around the bric-a-brac and the ornaments and then foolishly started to fiddle with an impressive large cuckoo clock hanging on the wall behind the table.

Immediately I wished I hadn’t touched those cone things that drive the mechanism because it unexpectedly whirred into life and out popped the cuckoo which turned out to be a rather loud cuckoo. And then as the chain headed non stop towards the floor it popped out several more times, each time announcing itself with its little song that just seemed to get louder and louder. The doors were banging, the chains were rattling and I wondered if I might have to throttle it. This impromptu and unscheduled entertainment seemed to amuse the people on the bus tour who were giggling and laughing and I just wanted the thing to get back in its box and shut up. There was no such luck and the clock went through twenty-four movements in under two minutes and believe me that is an awful lot of cuckoos. Then just as I was giving up all hope the thing thankfully finally exhausted itself and it stopped and with me red faced with embarrassment we slipped out of the restaurant and went back to our room before I could get up to any more mischief.

Black Forest, Freiburg and a Blizzard

Freiburg, or to give it its full title, Freiburg im Breisgau is one of the famous old German university towns, was incorporated in the early twelfth century and developed into a major commercial, intellectual, and ecclesiastical centre of the upper Rhine region. Statistically it is the sunniest and warmest city in all of Germany but that certainly wasn’t the case today. As we parked the car and walked towards the city centre there was a steel grey sky, a spiteful wind and stinging sleet, the pavements were wet and the colour was bleached out of the buildings and streets and after just a couple of minutes we knew that it was unlikely that we would be seeing the best of Freiburg today.

We walked to the centre of the city to the cobbled Münsterplatz or Cathedral Square where there was a small unhappy looking market where people were rushing past the stalls because it was too cold to stop (except for the fast food van that was doing brisk business and had a queue of people lining up for fasnacht doughnuts) and we did our best to find the cheerful bits of Freiburg’s largest square. The square is the site of Freiburg’s Münster, a gothic minster cathedral constructed of red sandstone, built between 1200 and 1530 and which is memorable for its towering needle like spire. We went inside and it was cheerful and warm with large stained glass windows and friezes on the walls that commemorated the various traditional trades of the city.

It didn’t take long to do a full internal circuit of the Münster and fairly soon we were back on the perishing streets complete with the city’s unusual system of gutters, called Bächle, that run throughout the centre. These Bächle that were once used to provide water to fight fires and feed livestock are constantly flowing with water diverted from the River Dreisam. During the summer, the running water provides natural cooling of the air and offers a pleasant gurgling sound but we didn’t need cooling down today. There is a saying that if you fall or step accidentally into a Bächle, you will marry a Freiburger but I imagine there is a much greater chance of just breaking a leg.

The weather was horrible now, it was getting colder and beginning to snow heavily so we had to concede that Freiburg wasn’t the place to be this afternoon and we returned to the car getting lost and losing our way in the tangle of little streets around the Münsterplatz. We were glad to get back to the car and begin our journey back to Offenburg. On the way out of the car park the ticket machine flashed the message ‘gute fahrt’, I thought ‘thanks very much and after that glass of gassy German Pils I just might.’

To return there was the same choice, autobahn or scenic route and just like this morning we took the second option but about ten kilometres out of Freiburg it started to snow and within minutes we were in the middle of a full blizzard and the driving snow was beginning to obliterate the road in front of us. For a while we followed in the tracks of vehicles in front but one by one they began to turn off and soon we were left with no one to follow and no tracks to help. Yesterday on icy roads had been interesting but this was just plain scary. We slipped and skidded, the windscreen wipers froze into solid chunks of ice and stopped working and we debated the alternative of turning around but decided that this wouldn’t be helpful because the conditions were just as bad in the other direction. So we carried on. Back through Gundelfingen, Denzlingen and Waldkirch and then the climb to Elzach where the temperature dropped to minus six and the snow on the road just kept getting thicker and thicker. There wasn’t a lot of traffic about which was a bit of a concern, just the occasional car coming towards us in the opposite direction and I was glad when we reached the top and started the slippery descent towards Haslach.

Conditions started to improve but just north of Haslach the road was closed, probably due to an accident, and we were diverted off and had to plot an alternative route back. Kim did a brilliant job of this but I overruled her at one point, went wrong and ended up on a very minor road that was completely wiped out and soon discovered that driving is especially difficult when you have to watch the road and concentrate on keeping your arse cheeks squeezed together at the same time.

Black Forest, Cable Car Ride

Overnight the rain turned to snow and there was a little dusting on the roofs of the houses next to the hotel and on the road outside but the sky was still grey and overcast so we decided to take a drive to the city of Freiburg about fifty kilometres to the south and after breakfast we de-iced the car and set off. We could have taken the direct route on the autobahn but we decided instead to take a scenic route through the forest.

First we passed through the village of Ortenberg which was an ordinary sort of place except for a large castle standing in a dominant position on a hill with a good view overlooking this part of the Rhine Valley. It looked in good condition and we found out later that it is now a youth hostel.

Soon we arrived in Gengenbach which is a small town and a popular tourist destination on the western edge of the Black Forest. Gengenbach is well known for its traditional Fasnacht where the residents of the town closely follow tradition with the wearing of costumes and carved wooden masks and clapping with a Ratsche which is a wooden rattle like those we used to take to football matches before they became a health and safety hazard. We parked the car and tried to make sense of the parking fee information, bought more time than we really needed (forty-eight hours) and then walked into the Altsadt which was gaily decorated with bunting and flags for the festival. In the main square Gengenbach has a traditional town hall which is claimed to be the World’s biggest advent calendar because the twenty-four windows of the eighteenth century town hall represent the twenty-four windows of the calendar.

Just behind the main street there was a warren of tiny crooked streets surrounded on all sides by the most picturesque half timbered buildings and it was almost possible to imagine that we had wandered into a secret fairy tale village of uneven cobbled streets, colourful houses and cottages and might at any moment bump into Little Red Riding Hood or Hansel and Gretel. This part of the town presents such a traditional image that it was here that some of the scenes from ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’ were filmed to represent Dusseldorf. We wandered through and out the other side and then returned to the car promising to return later if there should be any blue sky.

After leaving Gengenbach we followed the same road as the day before as far as Haslach but then took a different route towards Elzach and Freiburg. The road started to climb quickly and it began to snow just as we passed a road sign that seemed to suggest that it might be advisable to have snow chains ready for the tyres. As the snow became heavier we could understand why but it wasn’t getting too deep and the winter tyres seemed to be coping well enough again but just to be sure we kept to the main road and didn’t head off any ambitious scenic detours today.

And we really didn’t need to because this was a very attractive route anyway and we passed through the towns of Waldkirch, Denzlingen and Gundelfingen and eventually approached the outskirts of Freiburg where there was a series of road works and detours. We drove straight through the city with a plan to come back later and continued south towards the one of the highest parts of the Black Forest, the Schauinsland, and once outside the city we started to climb once more.

Schauinsland literally translates as ‘look into the country’ and we now set off on a twelve kilometre climb to the top through a series of sharp twists and turns through hair pin bends and narrow gorges and as we climbed the temperature dropped to minus six, it started to snow and the road turned into a treacherous river of slush. At one thousand, two hundred and ninety-five metres we reached the top and living in Lincolnshire that is about one thousand, three hundred metres higher than we are normally used to. The top of the mountain was a place of winter pastimes and people were skiing down the slopes, children were sledging and families were walking together through the thick snow. There were good views but the weather was getting worse and the snow even heavier and we were apprehensive about the drive back down so we didn’t stay too long.

We negotiated the snow and drove down the difficult road to the village of Horben and then decided to go back up again but by a different form of transport because from here it was possible to reach the summit on the Schauinslandbahn, which at just over three and half kilometres is the longest cable car ride in Germany. The return ticket cost €11.50 but it was well worth it because as we climbed through an avenue of snow covered conifers there were great views to the north-west all along the Rhine valley and into neighbouring France.

At the top once more it was snowing again and we emerged into a scene of pristine white snow, several centimetres deep, a crisp atmosphere that clawed at our fingers and toes and pure mountain air that filled our lungs and cleared our heads. We walked for a while through trees weighed down heavily with snow, deep frozen and covered in frost and ice, along steep slippery paths where we had to watch our step as we walked all around the summit and then back to the cable car. We had a short stop in the café but this was best forgotten because the service was lousy, the coffee was barely luke warm and the prices were a rip off.

On the return cable car journey it was cold and draughty in the cabin but for compensation there were more magnificent views over the mountains and across to the city of Freiburg which was where we were going next.

Black Forest, Cuckoo Clocks

Triberg looked stunning under a covering of fresh snow and we started out to walk the main road which was difficult in the snow and ice because the town is very hilly and the main tourist road runs up a steep straight incline toward the waterfall at the top. The snow on the path to the waterfall was completely undisturbed and we were the first to use it this morning as we made our way towards the lower and middle falls. The snow was thick and came over the tops of our boots and it made a satisfying crunch with every footstep towards the top until we reached the noisy waterfall where the Gutach River plunges over a series of cascades two kilometers long and about five hundred meters high. The falls were spectacular this morning roaring over the rocks in between snow covered banks and icicles where the water had submitted to the freezing conditions and was temporarily fixed in time.

Many of the paths were closed for safety reasons but this didn’t stop Kim from squeezing in between the barriers, ignoring the closed signs and finding her way back to the bottom along a high ridge. As we were in Germany I did what the Germans do and respectfully obeyed the instructions. We met up again at the bottom of the falls and at the top of the main street that was full on both sides of tourist shops selling Black Forest souvenirs and traditional crafts including cuckoo clocks, because Triberg is the cuckoo clock capital of the forest.

Although the idea of placing a cuckoo bird in a clock did not originate in the Black Forest the cuckoo clock as we know it today comes from this region located in southwest Germany whose tradition of clock making started in the late seventeenth century. The people of the Black Forest who created the cuckoo clock industry developed it and still come up with new designs and technical improvements which have made the cuckoo clock a valued work of art all over the world. The clock is a symbol of the Black Forest and is probably the favourite souvenir of visitors to Germany, Austria and Switzerland and the centre of production is right here in the middle of the forest in the area of Schonach and Titisee-Neustadt.

We spent some time in the ‘house of a thousand clocks’ amongst the richly decorated time pieces displaying carved leaves, birds, deer heads and all the other forest animals and sometimes methods of shooting them as well. And with cuckoo clocks chiming and cuckooing all around us we even considered a purchase but the high prices and the pressure on the meager Ryanair baggage allowance stopped us from making the very basic tourist mistake of buying something for the sake of it and then wondering what on earth for when we got it home.

The time on the parking ticket was running out but before we left we found a hotel bar where we had soup and a beer and warmed our clothes on the radiator and then when we were finished we put our coats back on and went outside where it had stopped snowing so instead of going straight back we left the town of Triberg and set off for our next objective, the town of Schiltach.

The main road was clear again now and because we obviously hadn’t learned any lessons this morning about driving conditions at Sankt Georgan we turned off and choose a minor road through the forest towards our destination. Sankt Georgan was under several centimetres of snow and as the road began to climb the surface disappeared under a white blanket and we began to wonder if we had made an entirely sensible decision. The worst point of these journeys was always the mid way point where the turn-back option disappeared and there was no alternative but to carry on. The road took us through the town of Schramberg where everyone was busy clearing snow and then finally on to Schiltach where we found a car park without any trouble and we took a walk around the small town centre and along the river Kinzig.

After we had walked around the attractive streets of half-timbered buildings we had a drink in a little pub on the main road, warmed ourselves up again and then took the main road back towards Offenburg. It was still snowing but it was a nasty wet snow now and as we dropped out of the mountains it became grey and bleak and not very pleasant at all. We stopped at the Aldi supermarket in Haslach because we needed wine and being constrained to screw caps were restricted to a very limited selection and I for one will be really pleased when corkscrews can be taken on board planes again.

In the evening, based on complimentary guest reviews, we took the easy option and ate at the hotel in a busy dining room surrounded by ornaments, Black Forest bric-a-brac including cuckoo clocks, sporting trophies and decorations for the festival of Fasnacht which is a carnival in Alemannic folklore that takes place in the few days before Lent in Southern Germany, Switzerland and Alsace. The Alemanni were German tribes who lived in this part of Europe nearly two thousand years ago and this area remains characterised by a form of German with a distinct dialogue called Alemannic. The celebration literally means ‘Fasting Eve’ as it originally referred to the day before the fasting season of Lent. The schools are all closed for this festival and all over the Black Forest there are six days of parties and making merry. During this period a sort of doughnut is popular and these are called fasnachts that are a traditional fatty treat that are produced as a way to empty the pantry of lard, sugar, fat and butter, which are forbidden during Lent. This is a catholic tradition but in protestant England we call this Shrove Tuesday and serve pancakes instead of doughnuts, it is much the same thing.

They were certainly clearing out the pantry tonight and the restaurant was full of people enjoying hearty meals and plenty of beer and wine. We joined in and really had too much to eat, so much that we certainly couldn’t clear our plates which we apologised for. It was still damp and miserable when we went to bed so we held off making any plans until we could assess the situation in the morning but it didn’t look as though we would be needing the winter tyres.

Black Forest, Over the Mountains to Schiltach

We had selected the Rammersweier Hoff hotel (http://www.rammersweier-hof.de/) because it was inexpensive and because of its location about half way between the main cities of Baden-Baden and Freiburg and on the western edge of the forest in the Rhine Valley. Also because last year when we had to cancel at the last minute they were really good about it and didn’t charge a cancellation fee even though they were entitled to. It also had excellent guest reviews and these were entirely correct. It was a homely place and very traditional with Teutonic décor and a collection of Black Forest ornaments. In the morning we had breakfast in the brightly coloured restaurant and there was a good selection of hot and cold food so we filled ourselves up on the basis that this would last us through until evening meal.

We hadn’t made any firm plans because we were waiting to see what the weather would bring and this morning it was dull and overcast so we decided to drive into the forest and visit some traditional towns and villages. We drove out of Offenburg through a string of places all squeezed into the narrow strip of flat land of the Rhine Valley on the German side of the river. We were right on the edge of the forest and to our left thickly wooded hills with a sprinkling of snow rose up dramatically towards the mountains beyond.

As we drove through Gengenbach, Haslach and Hausach there was a bit of snow in the wind but not a great deal of it and we began to wonder again about being ripped off for the winter tyres. It was a bit grey and dull and driving conditions presented no real challenges at all. We were heading for the tourist town of Triberg but really wanted some excitement so in need of snow and scenery we turned off the main road and into the mountains and started to go up.

The car climbed steeply and negotiated a succession of hair pin bends first through deciduous trees surrounded by the remains of last year’s autumn leaf fall and then into dense conifer forest and as it did so we quite quickly found ourselves above the snow line. Suddenly the Black Forest was completely transformed into the White Forest. There had been a substantial fall of snow a day or so before and the conifer trees were heavily laden with crisp white snow fixed in place by a stiff frost and it was as though we had been transported into a Christmas card world of snow and ice, frozen lakes and winter sports.

After a short distance we found the snow we had been chasing. Rather too much snow as it happened because from out of nowhere there came a blizzard that wiped out the road and left only the snow marker poles at the sides of the road to guide us. The little car kept climbing, through twisting bends and sharp turns, climbing to a thousand metres where the fresh snow was building up all the time on the road and it was about now that I had to concede that I was glad of the winter tyres because the conditions here would have tested the driving skills of the World Rally Champion Sébastien Loeb. The car was sliding and skidding and we passed some vehicles that had given up and ground to a halt and Kim’s contribution was by now restricted to the very unhelpful ‘I’m frightened, I’m very frightened, I’m very, very frightened’.

Finally we reached the top of the climb and we started to descend and conditions began to ease except that going downhill was still rather precarious and I was reluctant to use the brakes in case we skidded on the wet snow. Eventually we reached the town of Schonach where the heavy snowfall seemed to have surprised a lot of people and there was a lot of traffic disruption on the main street. About half way through there was a lorry that even with snow chains had run out of traction and was slipping and sliding and causing mayhem. Unwittingly I added to this because as I passed I brought another smaller lorry to a stop and then he couldn’t get going again. The driver wasn’t too pleased and flashed me some hand signals that can’t be found in the official German Highway Code.

Only a few Kilometres from Schonach we reached our first destination, the Black Forest tourist town of Triberg and in a region that has more than its fair share of tourist attractions, there is none that compares to this small town in the middle of the Schwarzwald because it has just about everything, the tallest waterfall in Germany, souvenir shops with the largest collection of Black Forest-related souvenirs and wood products for sale, and the world’s biggest cuckoo clock. Nearly every restaurant and café offers ‘authentic‘ Black Forest Cake, and tour groups arrive here by the busload.

Luckily for us it wasn’t too busy today and a lot of the car parks were under too much snow to be useable but the snow ploughs had kept the road open, there was lots of path clearing activity and a short stay car park in the main square was just about open so we literally slid in found a vacant spot and parked the car.

Black Forest, Winter Tyres?

Two years ago we visited Germany and stayed in the city of Baden-Baden in the north of the Black Forest and enjoyed it so much that we booked to return a year later. We didn’t make it however because on the day of the flight there was a little bit of snow across the United Kingdom which closed down all of the airports and cancelled all of the flights. Not to be outdone by inefficient English bad weather emergency response planning however we booked again to visit in January 2009 and this time with mild weather at Stansted the flight got away as planned.

It took only fifty-five minutes to fly the short distance and land at Kahlrsrue-Baden Airpark at nine-thirty in the evening and after quickly clearing immigration and customs we were soon at the Sixt Car Hire desk to pick up our hire car. There was a pleasant young man on duty called Herr Schmidberger and he examined my hire details and then sighed and furrowed his brow and adopted a concerned demeanour, “You have a booking for a vehicle without the winter tyres” he said, “are you sure you want a car without the winter tyres?” I had no idea what he was talking about and must have given him my best blank expression because with that he rolled his eyes so far back into their sockets that if had laser vision he would have fried his brains. The winter tyres were an extra €55 and I was beginning to detect a well rehearsed scam so we took a while to consult with each other on the proposal of paying the extra and this started to test his patience.

I enquired why I might consider going to the unnecessary additional expense and although this was his opportunity to inform me that since May 2006 German motorists have been required by law to use the most appropriate tyres for the weather conditions and that driving on snow covered roads is permitted only if a car is equipped with winter tyres, instead he became even more theatrical and speaking in that clipped precise sort of way that Germans do when speaking English said “Look at the snow, you can see the snow, in just two minutes you can see the snow!” Obviously I could see the snow but I still failed to understand why he was so insistent (unless it was a scam). He could have told me that in Germany motorists are obliged to make sure they have correct tyres to suit the winter weather conditions and if a vehicle becomes stuck because the tyres are unsuitable drivers are liable to an on the spot fine, and further more if the vehicle causes an obstruction or aggravation to other traffic, the fine may be doubled. Instead he gave a look that suggested that I was the craziest customer that he had ever dealt with and that driving without winter tyres in snow was madder than wrestling with alligators, swimming in shark infested waters or sky-diving without a parachute.

I asked about the weather forecast and whether he thought it might be snowing in the Black Forest (which at over a thousand metres was an absolute certainty and a really dumb question) and then his eyes started to swivel from side to side like the symbols on a fruit machine and he was clearly losing his patience with me now. He might have explained that winter tyres use a tread rubber compound and block pattern specifically designed to retain flexibility in low temperatures and give good braking and traction performance on snow and ice covered roads but instead he just keep shrieking “Look at the snow, you can see the snow, in just two minutes you can see the snow!” By now we were beginning to understand that he thought snow tyres were a very good idea so finally agreed to the additional charge and he immediately calmed down and set about allocating us an appropriate vehicle for the conditions.

After that he went through the booking and paying procedures, explained where we would find the car in the car park and then clearly lacking any sort of confidence in my snow driving abilities and not expecting to see the car again in one piece bade us farewell with the words “please be sure to drive carefully in the snow, it is very dangerous…”

We quickly found the bright blue Nissan Micra hidden under a blanket of snow, cleaned it down, examined the tyres which, at this time not understanding about the special rubber compound looked quite normal to me and fairly soon after setting off I was certain we had been scammed. And we had been of course because at €13.45 a day I calculate that if they are on the car for a third of the year that is an extra €1,600 or €400 a tyre and I cannot believe that they can be that much more expensive than a regular tyre. And of course they are not because I have checked and they can be bought for as little as €40 each.

Preoccupied by this thought and how Herr Schmidberger had taken me for a mug I predictably took the wrong turn out of the Airpark and instead of reaching the motorway as intended we found ourselves on the back roads driving through small villages and searching for clues from the occasional unhelpful road signs. Although Kim has improved recently as a navigator she was off duty tonight so we just had to keep going and trusting in our natural sense of direction. It was still snowing but not as heavily now and I began to curse myself for having been rushed into the winter tyres decision. Eventually, after a bit of a detour, we reached the motorway and then the right exit and then after only one more mistaken wrong turning which we quickly corrected found the Rammersweir Hoff hotel without any difficulty at all. This is unusual for us and quite remarkable because the place was tucked away in a side street in the middle of a residential area and on a different occasion I could easily have spent hours searching for it.