The Smiths Do Germany: Black Forest Weekend Trip

So...once again I've been remiss in keeping up with this blog! Lots to catch up on! These are photos from a weekend (one-night) getaway to the Black Forest aka Schwarzwald. The Black Forest small towns and mountain scenery/countryside literally take your breath away. I told Brad I thought it was in the top 2 or 3 most beautiful landscapes I've ever looked on. The drive through the mountains kind of reminds you of the Blue Ridge/Smokey Mountains...curvy and rolling. However, there are some significant differences. The pine trees are different as their branches sort of "droop" more. The other thing is that while there is plenty of thick forest as in the Smokies, there is also plenty of green open spaces. Some of the views of the farms, etc over the hills are just amazing. Really.

We stayed in a little B&B called the Hotel Gasthaus in a small town on outskirts of Freiburg called Kirchzarten-Burg. We checked into our hotel on Saturday and went for a little walk behind the hotel and played in the river. We literally had to stop once so that a farmer could bring his dairy cows across the road/path in front of us. Was pretty cool until we saw what they left behind that we had to walk over! ;) Then we went into Freiburg for dinner. Freiburg was cute but we got there kind of late and kids were starving so we didn't do much sight seeing. The town is known for the many canals that run through it. We found them by literally tripping into one. For some reason, there was no water running through them when we were there.

On Sunday, we drove to Sankt Peter and then on to Sankt Margen. Both were very cute little typical German towns but the best thing by far was the drive between them. It was absolutely stunning. I MUST come back and hike and/or bike between these two towns and surrounding areas. I found this map to help me remember and I'll post it here for safe keeping:

http://www.jazclass.aust.com/blog/blf/blf02.htm

After Sankt Margen and Sankt Peter, we drove to Feldberg Mountain for a hike but when we got there the kids saw a giant ropes course. Much to my dismay, we did that instead. The kids had to have an adult partner and so off I went swinging, zip-lining, climbing and tight-rope walking my way through the treeptops. After the first giant zip-line, I almsot burst out in tears and Mary King had to calm me down and comfort me the whole way through. She never even flinched and kept "prepping" me for what was coming next. "Mom, you might not like this one when you see it but it's easier than it looks." Oh my.

Cuckoo for cuckoo clocks

Giant cuckoo clock - can't remember which town?

This is near a restaurant we stopped and ate at on the highway.

Arriving Sankt Peter:

Birds of a feather...

These few were from a trailhead we found along the road. As is always the case in Germany, there were tons of walking/hiking/biking trails around.

Took a picture of this sign because I liked the look of the Bauernhof, or farm house. A big thing in Europe now is agriturism...where one can come spend their vacation on a farm or ranch in Europe. In Germany they are Bauernhofs in Italy called Agriturismos, etc. They offer different things such as - homemade meals from the farm, animals for kids to play with, etc. etc.