Germany 2014 - Part 3

For our last day in the Stuttgart area, we decided to head south again, to the Black Forest.  I'm not sure that we had definite plans that day, except to see the Black Forest and buy a Cuckoo clock.  We headed down toward a city called Triberg.  It is kind of the Cuckoo clock mecca of the world and also contains one of the many, "World's largest Cuckoo Clocks."  Apparently several cities around the world claim they have the "World's Largest Cuckoo Clock."  Hmmm...  Anyway, we were quickly excited about this area of Germany.  We were back in the mountains and it was so beautiful!

World's Largest Cuckoo Clock

 

This clock was really fun to watch.  The bear on the right climbed up and down the rope all day.

We stopped in Triberg and although it was raining, we enjoyed checking out the quaint little stores and clocks around the city.  We hadn't planned it this way, but we ended up spending way more time that we wanted on shopping for a clock.  Our mistake was going into a shop and talking to a woman that started explaining the differences between all the clocks.  Up to this point, all the clocks we had seen were the same.  I believe that the designs and such have come out of the Black Forest, but they were probably manufactured in China.  But, this shop we found, had clocks that were actually carved by the local master carvers and it was very obvious that they were of a different quality than all the others we had seen.  The clock we liked had a figurine on it that we didn't love and when we mentioned it to the worker, she said they could have the clock maker come over and customize the figurines for us.  Wow!  So, we agreed to do this, even though it would take 3 hours.  We were able to have them add on 3 children figurines, to represent out kids.  We were so excited to have a one of a kind clock customized just for us.

Most of the stores had wall after wall of cuckoo clocks and I really wished I'd taken a picture of them.  This was the only picture I had of any clocks.

While we waited, we decided to hike up to the Triberg Waterfalls.  We had originally decided against doing this, because we had to pay to walk up to them, but with an unexpected layover in the city, we decided to just go for it.  Triberg Falls is Germany's highest waterfall, measuring in at a whopping 163 meters. The thing is, it wasn't just a straight drop, but more of a cascade.  So, not exactly awe-inspring, like some I've seen in the US, but still, very pretty.  We had a fun time walking around the forest, it was just so beautiful. 

We finished off our hike with some ice cream and then went to pick up our clock.

At this point, it was getting pretty late in the day, but we decided to push forward to Freiburg.  The drive over the mountains was absolutely stunning!  I wished I'd taken more pictures.

 It was pretty late when we got to Freiburg and we spent a considerable amount of time walking around the pretty city streets trying to find something for dinner.  It was quite a pretty city and I wished that we'd had a little more time to explore, but we had a long drive ahead of us.

Another tall tower, but not nearly as tall as the one in Ulm. Noah was disappointed we didn't get to climb it.

I loved driving through Germany, it was so fun seeing all the old castles and buildings just sitting up on random hill tops everywhere.

The next morning, we left Stuttgart to head to Mainz.  We decided to detour to Heidelberg and see the castle there. Everything I'd read about the area said that this was a do not miss destination.  So, we thought since we had one more morning with Chad before his meeting, we would check it out.  Since living in Europe, I've been to a lot of castles and I have to say that this was probably the most over-rated place I've been.  There were a ton of people there, the castle ruins, partially rebuilt, we not very exciting.  You would think, seeing pictures from afar, that it would be amazing, but there were very few areas in the castle we got to see, there were no informational plaques or anything anywhere.  The center area of the castle was a bit of a mess, because they were taking down a stage and chairs from a play that had been there the night before.  Overall, it was a bit of a disappointment.  Oh well, it was still pretty and the town of Heidelberg was very quaint, although we kind of rushed through it, so that we could get to Mainz in time for Chad to check into his meeting and for the rest of us to get situated in our Hotel.  I think the highlight of our time there was seeing the world's largest wine barrel.  Haha!  It was kind of cool.

Standing at the bottom of the world's largest wine barrel.  They actually had stairs up and over it.  Kind of random, but fun.

 

 They had this cable car that you could take up the hill to the castle. We didn't realize it was included in the price of admission, so we walked up the extremely steep hill to get to the castle.  It was a fun walk though.  We took the cable car back down the hill though and the kids really enjoyed the little ride.

As I'm adding these pictures, I keep thinking maybe I was a little harsh on Heidelberg.  They look pretty awesome.  And parts of the castle were pretty cool.  It was just maybe not what we were expecting.  Anyway...  We were a bit sad to have this first part of our trip over with.  It had been such a fun few days.