Black forest Wanderings

---

9 and 10 May 2009

A couple of days slowly wending our way southwards through the wooded valleys of the Northern Black Forest. The weather was very changeable with mist, sunshine and sharp thunderstorms.

After a walk up to the church and market place in Bairersbronn we drove through Freudenstadt with its huge town square and then down the Kinzig Valley to Schiltag, a beautiful village of half timbered houses. They are all built to a similar design and many were used by tanners, a big trade here in past times. Logging was also important and there was a very interesting small museum showing how the loggers built rafts from the tree trunks to transport the timber down the river.

We camped on a pleasant site next to the river and in the evening went for a meal in a local Gastof. We had soup made from white asparagus which is in season here at the moment and a local dish, Katsagchroi, a sort of beef and onion omelette served with fried potatoes.

The next day we continued on our way and first stopped at the excellent Black Forest Open Air Museum at Gutach. This is a collection of ancient farmhouses and support buildings from the area. They housed animals as well as the farming family and their labourers. Some are thatched and they are built on the side of a hill giving flat access to a barn on the top floor under the huge roof trusses. They reminded us of the farmhouses in the area where we go skiing in France.

Our next stop was Triberg, the cuckoo clock capital of the world. It also has the largest waterfall in Germany which we were going to see but it started raining so we decided to leave that for tomorrow and retreated to a camper stop just outside the town.

---