Schwartzwald means Black Forest and it covers a pretty large area, from the famous spa city of Baden Baden almost to the border of Switzerland. I decided to hone in on the middle of the forest and made my destination Triberg...but I had to make a few stops before getting there.

First stop...no not the spas, there were sites to be seen =) ...Gutach and the Schwarzwald Freilicht (Open Air) Museum...the museum has relocated a bunch of original farm homes from the surrounding areas to this location. The farm homes were pretty neat, really big...the most interesting part of these houses had to do with the backside. The backs of the houses are built into the slope of the hill so at the end of the day wagons can drive into the loft area. The museum also had some traditional dress on display, maybe you've seen the woman's hats with the red pom poms on top...that costume is from this city....I left my pom pom hat in Gutach...I didn't know if it would quite be the fashion range back home...and I took my show on the road....I was on the hunt for some cuckoo clocks.

...And I found them..sorry if I am about to offend any of you cuckoo clock lovers...but these are some of the tackiest things I have ever seen. Actually my German co-worker counterparts backed me up on my line of thinking...and couldn't say cuckoo clock without laughing. In the area there were World of Clocks and World of a 1000 clocks stores all over the place..and the best part was that they were packed with tourists shelling out a pretty penny for these contraptions. I will however give credit where credit is due...the region has a well known history and reputation for clock making...maybe they foresaw tourism when establishing the clock trade. I did notice though that there is another type of clock from the area...it has a much simpler look, usually white with flowers painted on it...I saw these in the museum houses as well as in the stores...I also saw the world's largest cuckoo clock...yeah I know your jealous...don't worry it wasn't all that exciting...okay I'm getting cuckooed out let's see something else.

Finally Triberg...and what it's most well known for, Germany's largest waterfalls....yeah cool...waterfalls, well given how relatively flat Germany is I wasn't expecting Yosemite Falls...I set my expectations correctly, they were pretty though (although I haven't seen a waterfall I didn't like). There are also some trails so you can follow up picture taking with a hike...which as usual I was game for. Actually when I chose Triberg as my exploration base I thought that it would be a really small city, in the country, not too many tourists..ah yeah right...there were tons of Germans, Americans and Japanese scouting out the area...there was only one thing that I could do...hop in my car and go for a drive.

The countryside was beautiful...just hill after hill covered with gorgeous green fir trees...I could only imagine what it looks like with snow sprinkled all over. I also saw a number of old farmhouses like the ones that I saw in the museum and they were still operational...the tractors were out in force, tilling the land (does that make sense? I'm a city girl). There were also hiking trails all over the place and people were out in force taking walks. One of the things I like most about Germany is how people love to get outside and take walks..young and old alike...I figure it helps them burn off some of the wurst und bier..

Well if you're ready we can go look at some more things...

OR
Gimme some more forest