Black Forest

(this post was in the older format, sorry it looks really bad!)

Back to our home away from home, Saarbrucken, to spend a week with A, W, I and Finn and then a week dog-sitting Finn while they went off to a conference in Greece.

After a grueling week of dog-sitting, we needed to escape hoping to see the forest for the trees. We set off for our long-anticipated trip to the the Black Forest, ready to make use of the Konus card, which is a great idea to encourage tourists to forego cars. For most of the cities in the area, you get a card for free transport on all buses and trains the day you leave. So we planned our stops around getting the Konus cards and riding the two most famous Black Forest train routes, -Schwarzwaldbahn and Hollentalbahn. The Black Forest, which is named for the density of trees and not our moods, is composed mainly of Norway spruce and Scots pine. From our California-centric, with a touch of Oregon, eyes, the area looked like if Western Oregon, Tahoe and Central California (throuple?) had a baby. The view alternated between rolling green hills, farmland and dense forests filled with spindly tree trunks topped with Christmas tree crown.

Known for its hiking/biking trails, cuckoo clocks, and black forest cherry chocolate cake. We sampled none of these, staying consistent with our travel philosophy. We kept our walking within city limits, which did include a few forest paths, and somehow saw only a few clocks and cakes. We did see a lot of hikers and bikers and mostly kids on field trips. One inspired group of young adults was already drinking beers on the bus at 9 am on their way to Titisee.

On the train/bus rides, at times, we could not see the forest for the trees because there were lots of tunnels, the darkness alternating with forest, farmland and quaint towns full of half-timber land ornately decorated buildings (must look like perfect snow globe towns in the wintertime) We visited 4 of these towns in the area, Gengenbach, Donaueschingen, Titisee and Freiburg ending up in Zurich, Switzerland.

Walking into Gengenbach felt like walking into a postcard.

It is known for its town hall becoming a giant advent calendar in December with each window opening to a new nativity scene for 24 days.

taken from German travel site

Since it was July, we settled for watching the stork nest and college kids downing 24 river-chilled beers.

Case of beer midstream

Donaueschingen is famous for being the source of the Danube River (Donauquelle).

This in not without controversy as the Danube is formed by the confluence of two streams the Brigach and the Breg. So hydrologically speaking (which we never have, except a few words), the source of the Danube is the source of the Breg which arises near Furtwangen. This was a source of dispute for 30 years between the two towns until the state government granted Donaueschingen to be the Donauquelle. Essentially saying “Damn you Furtwangen”! Pardon my hydrologic.
Anyway we saw the spring that claims to be the origin and its fancy monument where everyone takes selfies,

then we walked to where the spring empties into the Brigach stream at the temple of the Danube 90 meters from the source.

and finally we walked through the Furstenberg park to the confluence of the two rivers, more exciting but less photogenic,

Breg on left and Brigach on the right combine to create the Danube under the bridge

Now we have seen the start, roughly the middle (https://thechosenfugue.blogspot.com/2019/07/the-budapest-marathon.html and end of the Danube (https://thechosenfugue.blogspot.com/2019/06/delta-takes-flight.html).

Donaueschingen was a draw though even without it’s claim to fame as the birthplace of the Danube. It was the hardest German city name to pronounce for us, had nice public art and buildings

It is the home of Furstenberg brewery (beer not very good) and the home of the Furstenberg family whose lands make up the huge city park.

Roman goddess Diana in front of the Furstenberg Hotel (so yes, now combines to form a Diane von Furstenburg moment, actually she did marry into this family, her wrap dresses much better then the beer)

City mini-golf -beergarden in the Furstenberg park

We stayed in a hotel that really tried to match the ambiance of the city with gummy bears on the sheets and an incongruent Japanese inspired bridge to nowhere

Titisee (sadly, not pronounced as it looks) was a quick one hour stop to peek at the touristy town and the lake. We declined the rundfahrt (watch it, its just German for tour, we love German).

Freiburg im Breisgau was the highlight of our Black Forest Rundfahrt. Right away, we loved it and wanted to move there. A college town known for its emphasis on environmental sustainability. We immediately fell into a climate change protest march and were invited to join in.

The college, located in the beautiful old town area was vibrant and hippy-esque, kinda felt like Berkeley.

The center piece of the town was the majestic Cathedral which also happen to have a wonderful diverse, popular farmer’s market occurring in the surrounding square.

they even had a marbles stand

Just total good vibes and while it had everything a good German town has, it had it in troves

beautiful Starbucks buildings

uniquely German stores

River Dreisam through town, not sure why it was red

Geranium filled window boxes on beautiful buildings

Memorial to destroyed synagogues-a fountain placed in the footprint of the synagogue destroyed on Kristallnacht
(very striking )

Stolpersteine every few feet throughout the city
(https://thechosenfugue.blogspot.com/2019/01/they-do-make-you-stumble.html )

Freiburg had it\’s own quirky twists; little streams flowing through gutters called Bachle used for cooling and fun, small wooden boats for sale throughout town ( special editions issued each year),

street cobblestone mosaics identifying a type of store or honoring someone/something (sister city)

Summer carnival in front of the church.

We wrapped up our blitz through the forest in Zurich to meet up with A, W and I plus Finn for two days although most of it was spent hanging in the hotel room with a feverish pink-eyed little girl. But thankfully we had a window that overlooked the train station for some pretty exciting afternoons

Can”t say much about Zurich since our walkabout was limited to a few streets but it was pleasant and rather neutral, just like Switzerland