Triberg im Schwarzwald

Another dreadful night sleep, which undoubtedly is down to the ridiculously soft pillows. We are now looking forward to our own hard pillows at home.

We had breakfast at 9.00am, it was the same fare of meats, cheese & bread.

We then drove to Triberg Waterfall, which is Germany’s highest waterfall. It was a steep walk down a path to the entrance & we had to pay €6 each for the privilege. It initially seemed a bit steep, but a path took us around & over it. It wasn’t spectacular in size, but the fir trees & mossy rocks made it very atmospheric & probably worth the entrance fee. It was a long steep walk back to the car.

We drove to Triberg town & invested €1 in 45 minutes worth of parking. We then located an ATM & got some cash out & bought two slices of Black Forest Gateau. Triberg is the home of Black Forest Gateau allegedly, so when in Rome....... Triberg is also full of cuckoo clock shops & workshops.

At midday we departed Triberg & 5 minutes later just north of the town at Elbe Uhren-Park, we found the Largest Cuckoo Clock in the world, according to the Guinness book of records. The bumf describes the clock as 16.73 yards tall, the cuckoo as 4.9 yards long & weighing 331 pounds. Despite it’s size, it still delivers the typical Cuckoo Call every full hour and every half hour.

We parked up, ate our BFG & waited for the largest cuckoo clock to do its thing. On the stroke of 12.30pm, the cuckoo appeared, spluttered a hardly audible cuckoo type noise & was gone before I could press record on my phone. It had been pathetic & quite frankly an embarrassment!

We headed north & called in to the Spa town of Baden Baden. We saw a fountain, then continued around the French border another 150 miles to Trier. It wasn’t the most exciting drive, motorways with fir trees hugging both sides of the road. The only thing of note was that we passed by the Hockenheimring, a famous motor racing circuit.

Around 5.30pm, we rolled into Trier & quickly located the Porta Nigra. The Porta Nigra (Latin for black gate) is a large Roman city gate in Trier. It is today the largest Roman city gate north of the Alps, built in grey sandstone just before the year 200. Again it was a case of abandoning the car, snap a few photos & move on. Trier looks like it deserves a proper visit in the future.

We then drove a further 25 miles north to our Hotel, Vogtshof von Wettlesdorf in Schonecken. It turned out to be a bikers pub, but the accommodation luckily was in a separate building. We have a massive triple room.

Whilst unpacking, I very annoyingly discovered I left my favourite t-shirt hanging up in one of the last hotels we stayed in. Jackie has emailed them. That evening we went to the local pizzeria and we both had exceptionally good Schnitzels with chips & salad.

Song of the Day : Cuckoo by Lissie.

Bonus Songs : Clocks by Coldplay.

Cuckoo by I Am Kloot.Read more