This week I have been preparing for more traveling adventures and planned a day trip to the Black Forest! On Saturday, I took a nice day trip with a friend to the small towns Triberg and Furtwangen in the Black Forest. We had a great side trip since we took the wrong train to get to the small towns. The two of us had been to Colmar, France the weekend before and, I guess, wanted to go back since we took the train in the direction of Colmar, France. Triberg and Furtwangen were in a completely different direction! But, it wasn’t a costly mistake and we made a Korean-German friend!
While in Furtwangen, we visited the German Clock Museum, learned about the history of cuckoo clocks, how time zones were initiated, and the transition to the digital clock age. It actually wasn’t boring! Because Furtwangen’s only claim to fame is the clock museum, we walked around the town streets, snapped a few pictures of the faschnaut parade decorations, and took a 35-minute bus ride to Triberg.
Triberg is home to Germany’s largest Wasserfall and Black Forest Museum. Diana and I set out to find a cuckoo clock we could ship back to the states. On our journey, we met a former wood carver and clock maker. He taught us how to identify handcrafted vs. machine-made clocks, the differences between cuckoo clocks that play music, and the clocks that need to be rewound every day vs. every week. Needless to say, he was very helpful and pleasant!
I did buy a cuckoo clock to send home and it should arrive in 4 weeks! I was very excited about my purchase and happy that Diana and I both found clocks that we loved!
We took time to see the impressive Triberger Wasserfall, where the Gutach River tumbles over 500 feet. I really enjoyed the convenient walk and misty gorge.
Later, Diana and I celebrated our “traditional” German cuckoo clocks with a traditional German meal. I ordered ham dumplings with sauerkraut, black forest cake, and a beer. I think I’ll have the beer and cake again, but not anything else! I prefer French and Italian meals, for sure. It was a F-U-N day trip!
Sunday has been a major day for travel preparation. I’ve been writing papers, finishing up work, and packing before we leave early Monday for Frankfurt, Brussels, and Paris. The IES study abroad group will be spending a week travelling to the three cities to learn about the European Union institutions. We have meetings planned at the International Monetary Fund, European Central Bank, European Commission and more. I’m excited to learn, but also ecstatic we have some free time in the cities!
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