Cuckoo Clock

We finally bought ourselves a cuckoo clock yesterday. We drove about an hour and a half to the town of Triberg which is world renown for its Cuckoo clocks. It’s in the area of Schwartzwald, aka the Black Forest.

The Black Forest is rolling hills and mountains of the Swabisch Alb, not to be confused with, or as big as the Alps. It’s absolutely beautiful. Picture a “Heidi” or “Sound of Music” type area with villages scattered in valleys in between mountains and hills and lots of farmland in between. Most of the farmhouses are half barn, half house. Really cool looking and huge. They’re made of timber beams and stucco.

The ride itself wasn’t too bad. Normally I can’t handle the winding mountain roads, but we went slow enough and made a few pit stops so I was able to keep it together. I normally get serious motion sickness. We were amazed to see that there wasn’t much snow at all up there in the mountains. Normally there would be at least a few feet. The town work crews had set up poles all along the roads in anticipation of having to plow heavy snow all winter. No problem gauging the edge of the roads this year. There were random mountain streams all over the place; areas in the ground with water streaming out and down the mountains. It had been raining all week. The regular streams were raging.

From there we took a ride west to Freiberg, another beautiful area. My husband had ordered some plaques for work from a woodcarver there and we had to pick them up. Wow. Most of the woodwork in and outside of this house was carved; the beams outside, the window frames, even the parking sign. He has an amazing talent, which was learned and inherited from his father, who did much of the carving of the house before him. After we were finished with our purchases, he showed us the hand-carved kitchen. The doors, cabinets, beams, just about everything was carved. Examples of nature, leaves, trees, animals, were everywhere. An entire staircase was carved with designs. Really cool. The entire property was something to see. This place was located in the mountains, in a pretty isolated area. When we arrived, the woodcarver was busy tending to his park-like yard. There was a stream running alongside the house, with a cute little waterwheel. He had cages with birds in and outside and a very rambunctious black lab who was more than excited to see some company.

My husband found this place online and I’m amazed he found when going there for the first time to check it out and order the plaques, however, he has a good sense of direction, unlike myself. I would have ended up in France and in real trouble; I don’t speak French. We were about 15 minutes from the French border. Ich spreche ein bissen Deutsch (I speak a little German), but that’s it. Maybe I’ll tackle French someday.

We took a more direct route home on the autobahn. I couldn’t handle anymore winding roads and after driving all day, we were tired and were no longer up to the challenge. We grabbed a couple of sandwiches at a rest stop and headed home. It’s nice to get away once in awhile.