November 3, 2012 - Breisach Germany and The Black Forest
Charlie and I have been to the Black Forest numerous times. At one time, Charlie ran a company for the Germans in Tennessee and their home office was in the Black Forest, specifically in Lenzkirch. We have been to the area in February when there was five feet (yes, you read that correctly) of snow on the ground, and we have been there in September. But, today, we arrived in Breisach to sunny skies and beautiful trees in full color - that is until we were taken up into the Black Forest. When you think of the Black Forest, you think of Grimm's fairy tales, gnomes and ogres or all types. This mysterious forest is where you might expect to run into Hansel and Gretel at any moment.
However, this beautiful area of the world is filled with quaint wooden houses with very steep roofs to keep the heavy snow from causing the roofs to cave in. There are window boxes on the houses filled with beautiful flowers, still in bloom although they have snow last weekend. This is farming-country with fields and fields of corn (used not for eating, but for grain for the livestock and for bio-diesel), vineyards with Riesling grapes, asparagus and cabbages. Most of the farms will have cows for milk and dairy products, chickens for eggs (but not to eat), goats, etc.
At special occasions, traditional costumes with red "bobble" has for the unmarried ladies and black ones for the married ones are the norm. And, of course, there are cuckoo clocks. We traveled up into the Black Forest to a cuckoo clock shop and were treated to coffee and a slice of their famous Black Forest cake, made with chocolate sponge cake and a filling of cream and cherries soaked in cherry brandy.
The Black Forest reminds us somewhat of the Great Smoky Mountains in East Tennessee, complete with smoke on the mountains. This dense area of evergreen fir trees and conifers covers many of the upper slopes of its rolling hills.
We ended our last day on our cruise with a walk into the town of Breisach before lunch. All of the shops close on Saturday at 1:00 pm, and we got into town about 20 minutes before they closed. However, it was a beautiful day for walk into such a lovely area of Germany.
Tomorrow we arrive in Basel, Switzerland, early, and will be off the ship and on our way to Zurich for a couple of days. More later.
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