Gem & Llew: Black Forest

Picture this... a small windy road, going up! Cliff on the left, drop on the right; a thick layer of snow covering everything... Picturesque scenery everywhere we look. We encounter a bend... and... a bus coming full throttle coming the other way... thus was our experience of the Schwarzwald.

We made our way from Hiedelberg down the number 3 road to Baden Baden and found a not very helpful tourist centre. Oh well. Got a small guidebook and made our wad to Freiberg. On the way was a taste of the small towns to come.

We stayed in Freiberg overnight and since we were staying there the next night, we had a day to drive around the black forest (schwarzwald). The snow made it AMAZING.

We took lots of back roads, and got lost a couple of times, but that turned out fortuitous as we avoided a traffic jam and saw some of the best scenery and smallest roads. SO COOL!!!

The snow on the car we thought would melt as we drove as it was not really cold, but it didn't so we scraped the rest off. :)

Some wonerful views. We had to stop to take photos.

And play in the snow... Didn't we have enough in Indiana? This was much more beautiful. Hills, believe it or not.

All along were farms and tiny villages.

Little streams here and there...

The towns were something else. Plus all along the way were dozens of shrines including this one on the side of a building. Different.

We went down from the mountain and along the border between Germany and Switzerland and that was different too... but warmer.

Then what else? Back up the mountain!!

More small roads, some clouds... We could really see why it was the "black" forest.

But spotted with lovely small towns as I said, all with their own church - of course.

This was our hotel which was even nestled in the mountain side - but in a more main suburb.

Then we left Freiberg the second day (Thursday) and drove through the northern black forest (again getting fortuitously lost) and seeing wonderful things. We were heading for Stuttgart.