The Black Forest

Last month we had two long weekends in a row (Ascension and Whit Monday) and we can't let a long weekend go by without discovering a new place! Unfortunately, Tobi was traveling to the U.S. that week, so I knew we wouldn't be able to take a flight or a long road trip. We decided to explore Germany's Black Forest, a mere 2-3 hours north of Zurich. 


We picked Tobi up at the Zurich airport on Thursday morning, where he'd just landed on a flight from Chicago, and headed north. Our first stop was the oldest silver mine in Germany, the Schauinsland silver mine and caves. I had meant for us to park at the bottom of the mountain and take the gondola up to the top to the silver mine. But my navigation skills being not so great, we ended up climbing the mountain in the Volvo and parking right next to the mine. The boys were happy because we parked right in a parking lot with snow all around us. Snow in May was a fun treat and an impromptu snowball fight ensued.

Snow in May on top of the mountain!

We had lunch at the little restaurant near the gondola and I tasted my first Black Forest cake. That's right - I'd never felt the urge to try Black Forest Cake, but when in Rome . . . anyway, I think I could have been drunk off that cake if Tobi had not shared it with me. Wow - have some cake with your booze.

After lunch we toured the mine. We had to don hard hats (and yes, I was freaked out by the idea of sharing helmets with other tourists) to enter the mine. The boys enjoyed that and being in the cave, but the tour itself was a bust as it was entirely in German. I pretended to understand the tour guide and laugh in the appropriate places.

Hi ho Hi ho, It's off to work they go.

After the tour, we headed further north to a teeny village (seriously, 10 houses and a lumber yard and our hotel) in the Black Forest, called Freiamt. We stayed at a very lovely hotel, the Hotel Ludinmühle. We did what the Europeans term the "half board" option, which means we opted for breakfast and dinner in the hotel. Which was obviously the smart thing to do since there wasn't another village around for miles and miles. We spent the afternoon of the first day at the hotel pools. The hotel had a beautiful indoor and outdoor pools, which were heated. That was perfect because the temperatures were mild, if a bit chilly. The food at this hotel was spectacular, especially the breakfasts. Grant and Charlie have decided European hotels have the best breakfasts - I think they will remember the breakfasts the most.

On Friday we drove about twenty minutes from our hotel to the ruins of Hochburg Castle, a thousand-year-old castle in the Upper Rhine Valley. Ruins are probably a favorite of our kids. It's a good place for them to run around without me worrying that they're going to destroy anything, like in a maintained castle with furnishings! The boys inevitably play knights and invent battles with pretend swords (or sticks). This particular castle was pretty much deserted. We parked at the bottom of a hill near a farm and walked up at our own pace, the kids running ahead and pretending to keep watch of the enemy.

The kids loved the ruins at Hochburg Castle.

We spent a couple of hours at the castle and then we headed a little further north to spend the afternoon at the Black Forest Open Air Museum, also known as the Vogtsbauernhof. The museum had houses of buildings from various eras throughout history, with the oldest house being a farmhouse from 1612. There were cows, horses, sheep, and goats. The children especially loved the "natural" playground with the polished rock-slide. We enjoyed ice cream and bought cuckoo-clock whistles from a shop that carves them there. From there we headed back to our hotel for some pool time before dinner.

House from 1612; kids from 2002.

Caroline loved the cows!

The polished rock slide was super fast - Daddy was needed!

Each kid picked their cuckoo clock whistle.

On Saturday morning, Grant woke up with what we're pretty sure was food poisoning. We're not sure what he ate that made him sick (Grant tries the interesting items on a buffet that the rest of us wouldn't dare) but he was sick for about 8 hours. Tobi took Charlie out and they went hiking and geocaching in the forest, while Grant, Caroline, and I stayed in the hotel watching Brady Bunch episodes on the laptop. By afternoon Grant was feeling much better and we all went out for lunch at a little restaurant in the middle of the forest with the best goulash I've ever tasted. We again spent the late afternoon in the pool.

The pool was their favorite part!

On Sunday we got up and had our last amazing breakfast at the hotel before heading back to Switzerland. Our journey took us through Schaffhausen, which is home to the Rhine Falls, Europe's largest waterfall. We stopped there and took not one, but two, boat tours. Tobi decided we hadn't had enough adventure that weekend so he got us the regular boat tour and then the "adventure" boat tour that takes you to the rock in the middle of the falls. It lets you off, where you climb a very tiny and very steep staircase crowded with other people, to the top, so you can feel like you're in the falls. Let's just say it took a while for my legs not to feel like jelly (I'm a scaredy-cat!).

The Rhine Falls. See those people up on that rock? Yeah. We did that.

The boys at the Rhine Falls

Three best lil travelers we could hope for!

We left the falls and headed home after a nice long weekend away. Germany is a large country, and I'm pretty sure each region has a lot more to offer than we'll ever see. I'm glad we got to see beauty of the Black Forest.

Cheers!

Tiffany

Up next: Italy