Today we managed to get to Triberg. This involved two trains with enough of a gap in the transit time for us to visit the model railway, across the road from the train station in Hausch. If you are a model railway buff, you will probably think this is heaven. We’re not, but it was still quite interesting, a model of the train system through the Black Forest. We couldn’t read the inscriptions, but you can imagine that this would have taken months if not years to complete (something to fill the long cold winter nights I guess).
From here it was on to Triberg. As we had heard this was quite a pretty little town. We made our way up the hill via the various bakeries, looking for something more substantial than Black Forest Cherry Cake. But being the hometown of this specialty, and a tourist hotspot, that was the mainstay of their offerings. The other thing that this town is known for is their cuckoo clocks, and if you want one this is that place to come. There are thousands of them, and no shortage of salesmen trying to persuade you that a cuckoo clock is just what you need. We managed to dissuade ourselves and fob off the salesman, but we did manage to find the dueling house-sized cuckoo clocks without the help of the tourist information office, which we didn’t find until just as we were leaving town. Regarding the house-sized cuckoo clocks, they don’t tell you that they mean a three story house-sized cuckoo clock. They are BIG, but their performance on the hour is just as you would expect from a cuckoo clock … it is a “Cuckoo”.
During our stay in Germany we have been told, and read, a number of times about how the National Socialist Party (Hitler) became popular and therefore into power. One of the factors was the ‘hyperinflation’ that invited an extremist reaction from the population. You are probably wondering why we are talking about this now. On our way up the hill we saw in the window of an antique shop, money from that period. Amongst the stacks of notes, there was a pile of 50 Million Mark notes that were printed in September 1923, selling now for the grand sum of one euro each. In 1923 these notes were worth so little that people were burning them in their fireplaces as they were more combustible than the firewood that they could buy, they were only printed on one side as the ink they were printed with had a greater value than they were worth, you needed a wheelbarrow load of these notes to buy anything at all. The exchange rate we think was something like 1 USD = 4 Trillion Marks. Insane. We just had to have one.
We pressed on towards the waterfall. This is the highest waterfall in Germany, and we thought well worth a look, and at the very least, a chance to get out and have a decent walk. Our first surprise was the ‘Kasse’ at the entrance to the track. It continues to surprise us when we need to pay to view ‘natural features’. On the way up the track there were regular bilingual signs telling us about Squirrels and Nutcrackers, that they promised we would see, but didn’t. We were amused to read a sign explaining the ‘untidy forest’ with fallen trees and dead wood as being a natural phenomenon. We imagined people getting out there with brooms to ‘tidy’ it up. What we did see was the waterfall, after a twenty minute walk. The waterfall wasn’t as impressive as we had imagined, but it was pretty cool, winding and tumbling it’s way down through the rocks.
From here it was on to Triberg. As we had heard this was quite a pretty little town. We made our way up the hill via the various bakeries, looking for something more substantial than Black Forest Cherry Cake. But being the hometown of this specialty, and a tourist hotspot, that was the mainstay of their offerings. The other thing that this town is known for is their cuckoo clocks, and if you want one this is that place to come. There are thousands of them, and no shortage of salesmen trying to persuade you that a cuckoo clock is just what you need. We managed to dissuade ourselves and fob off the salesman, but we did manage to find the dueling house-sized cuckoo clocks without the help of the tourist information office, which we didn’t find until just as we were leaving town. Regarding the house-sized cuckoo clocks, they don’t tell you that they mean a three story house-sized cuckoo clock. They are BIG, but their performance on the hour is just as you would expect from a cuckoo clock … it is a “Cuckoo”.
During our stay in Germany we have been told, and read, a number of times about how the National Socialist Party (Hitler) became popular and therefore into power. One of the factors was the ‘hyperinflation’ that invited an extremist reaction from the population. You are probably wondering why we are talking about this now. On our way up the hill we saw in the window of an antique shop, money from that period. Amongst the stacks of notes, there was a pile of 50 Million Mark notes that were printed in September 1923, selling now for the grand sum of one euro each. In 1923 these notes were worth so little that people were burning them in their fireplaces as they were more combustible than the firewood that they could buy, they were only printed on one side as the ink they were printed with had a greater value than they were worth, you needed a wheelbarrow load of these notes to buy anything at all. The exchange rate we think was something like 1 USD = 4 Trillion Marks. Insane. We just had to have one.
We pressed on towards the waterfall. This is the highest waterfall in Germany, and we thought well worth a look, and at the very least, a chance to get out and have a decent walk. Our first surprise was the ‘Kasse’ at the entrance to the track. It continues to surprise us when we need to pay to view ‘natural features’. On the way up the track there were regular bilingual signs telling us about Squirrels and Nutcrackers, that they promised we would see, but didn’t. We were amused to read a sign explaining the ‘untidy forest’ with fallen trees and dead wood as being a natural phenomenon. We imagined people getting out there with brooms to ‘tidy’ it up. What we did see was the waterfall, after a twenty minute walk. The waterfall wasn’t as impressive as we had imagined, but it was pretty cool, winding and tumbling it’s way down through the rocks.
We decided to take the long way back to town and on the way passed a church that we found out was a pilgrimage church. Quite a plain looking church from the inside, but once inside you are greeted by a huge, ornate alter, that seems out of place in this small town. The story goes that a young girl was healed of an eye infection, and a man was healed of leprosy, by the waters that pass here.
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