The Black Forest

Trees... lots and lots of trees!

So many trees you can almost get sick of them. Leaving Baden Baden puts you in the middle of the forest, trees and hiking areas and biking trails. Great for nature lovers! We saw a "wasserfall" or "waterfall" sign and decided to check it out just shortly after leaving our hotel in Baden Baden.

A 1.4km walk, about a half hour lead us through lush forest and a stream that lead us towards a pretty, but small waterfall. It was a nice walk, it got our blood pumped, but we were expecting a huge waterfall. Just beyond the waterfall was a small restaurant/cafe where we ate some smoked bacon with bread. Wasn't our best choice, but the french fries... Good lord have mercy! They were like a drug! We found out the secret to the delicious french fries here... and we're not telling! Yum yum yum!

We headed back to the car and headed south into the forest along the scenic route. Very pretty! There we saw a sports complex off the side of the road and decided to check it out... and I'm SO GLAD WE DID! It was a bobsled track! And we went on it not once, but twice! My inner child was very happy. I have video of the whole ride, about a minute and a half but it won't load up! Grrr... Here is a picture of the track:

We enjoyed our ride, and Claudia got a little scared... but had a lot of fun also.

South we went to Freudenstadt where we rested for a while as we were a bit dizzy from the winding roads. We had ice cream and coffee and stretched our legs, then back on the road again! We found a small grocery store and purchased water, soda, and few other essentials. Then back on the road to Freiburg... which funny enough had NO ROOMS AVAILABLE TO STAY! So we drove across the border to France and stayed there for the night at an Ibis. Couldn't do anything about that... it put us about 40km outside of the southern part of the Black Forest, so we figured we would hit that up in the morning and then head for Basel, Switzerland.

We awoke in the morning and headed right out for the forest. To a town called Todtnau, which puts you right in the middle of a sports center and a magnificent 328 foot waterfall. However we saw a sign that said, chairlift... so when we found it, I got excited, Claudia got a bit scared.

The chairlift takes you up about 1400 feet to the top of a mountain and to get down you take a five minute bobsled ride down. (Note the bobsled track above on the right hand side of the picture.) We enjoyed it very much! The view from the top was spectacular!

At the bottom we grabbed some delicious gelato from an Italian family store that just did italian food and ice cream. I can now say I understand why there is ice cream on every corner here. It was so delicious, I can't even explain it. The kind I ordered was called straccialetta or chocolate chip. WOW! I have ordered it from everywhere I've gone but none has compared to their little store.

And here is the view of that spectacular wasserfall just outside of Todtnau:

Grabbed a bit of dinner while in town, which was good. A breaded pork shoulder served with a lemon wedge and a side of french fries. DELICIOUS! Once content with our meal (and yes wine and beer), we stopped and got more ice cream and headed for Switzerland. I enjoyed the Black Forest, but I am so excited for Switzerland... On to Basel!