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| My Favorite Black Forest Cake |
So I do love my black forest cakes, but did I ever imagine having the authentic black forest cake in Black Forest, (Germany)?? No!!!
My authentic Black Forest cake adventure had a mystical feel to it... The Black Forest is so called because it does remind one of the middle ages, when the forests and woods literally were everywhere. There is a spooky feel to the whole atmosphere; and the view from the road was anything but ordinary. But apart from the place, the whole exciting reason for the trip was the Black Forest cake. It was really one of the best I have had. And here, it doesn't cost a bomb! We booked the car one late October weekend, and were off to Triberg Falls in the Black Forest by eight in the morning. This was the first time we were hiring a car in Europe, so we were a little jittery. Surprisingly we got a free upgrade and got a Skoda with integrated GPS (and thankfully the car was automatic)! Now came the nervous part of driving on the right hand side, which I literally kept reminding Tushar at every turn. Even negotiating the round abouts with the right hand rule was a struggle, but then we approached the Autobahn, which had no speed limit! So we stuck to the right most lane while Tushar gradually gained his confidence, and cars zoomed at 200 kmh on the fast lane. Ouch!
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| Road leading to" Little Red Riding Hoods" Grandmas House! |
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| Black Forest, where the trolls live |
After we got over the initial driving hitch, we realized that we were already driving along the Black Forest, with its dense dark colored coniferous trees around us. The forest gave a feeling of some fairy tale place where the trolls lived... After about half an hour on the autobahn, we turned into one of the state highways which was a breathtaking view. There were little cottages along the road, where 'little red riding hood' would have stayed at one point, and the far away forests might be home to the clever Wolf!
Then we finally reached the Triberg Falls after a drive through fairy tale land neighborhood. The falls were nice, though not magnificent! We did reach almost to the top of the falls and had a pretty view and surveyed all the scenery from there.
What attracted me the most was the pretty town surrounding the falls, a souvenir shop with a large cuckoo clock, with a big bear climbing up and down its facade. The walk to the falls was great, through a lot of hanging wooden bridges, which added to the excitement of the day.
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Souvenir shop with bear cuckoo clock
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After an hour of walking, we headed for some black forest cake in one of the nearby restaurants. It was light and yummy and one slice of the cake filled up the entire plate!!!
Next stop was the largest cuckoo clock in the world, the size of a single storied house! It was hardly a 15 min drive from the Triberg Falls. There were a thousand types of cuckoo clocks and all had different alarm tunes. Some of the clocks cost more than a 1000 EUR, but this was the region where the cuckoo clock originated as well. After the cuckoo clock experience, we headed off to Lake Titisee, which was an amazing sight, even on a misty day! The ducks on the lake were specially interested in our grapes, so we shared some with them :) What I do remember is one green goose that almost never managed to get to one of the grapes; while its friends all grabbed its share. Poor thing... but I guess the geese there are more the 'cake' eating types!
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| Worlds Largest cuckoo Clock |
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| Sharing fruits with ducks at Titisee |
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| Lake Titisee |
A great place to visit over a weekend. And there is the more picturesque Black Forest High Street to Baden called the Route B500 for the more adventure types. It is the most scenic route and definitely worth a visit during the fall season to view the truly dramatic Fall Colors and of course, pictures to die for!
