Black Forest

Every summer the band blocks off 2 weeks on their gig calendar. I have all kinds of issues with this, but I refuse to taint my post, so we try to take full advantage of it. Mom planned her visit so that she would be here during "block leave" and would be able to spend time with Mark. All of her visits previous were to help boost me up when Mark was gone.
During our first week, we spent a few nights in the Black Forest region of Germany. On the drive down in the rain and cold, we adjusted our itinerary and found something we could do inside. We stopped at the Cuckoo Clock museum. It is a delightful look back at the history of clock making. We were able to see one from the beginning where the timing of the sun was the only way to tell time, up to the modern clock that science has taken full responsibility for.
This was a sign that caught my eye, it states, "The Cuckoo is dead". Didn't really know what that was all about, but I wondered if it was around the time of electricity when the traditional clock making ways were not utilized as much. Thank heavens the industry did not give up and continued to make their clocks the traditional way.
Cuckoo clocks have not caught my eye during our time in Germany and I swore I wasn't going to even purchase one. But, I had to eat those words. I found this little guy that I couldn't take my eyes off of. He was stuck in a corner at the top of the stairs that leads to their boxed up inventory. Luckily he was sent there with his buddies, as there were a few similar ones close by. Why place it in the lonely staircase, was it a bad cuckoo? was it not friendly to the children? Was it actually in "time out"? Poor little man . . . I had to have him.
As we continued on our way in the cold rain (that I was cussing within myself the whole way) we found another treasure of the Black Forest, wood carving. These guys rock! They make the coolest things with all the trees down there. My mom broke down and bought a huge windmill. We would figure out later how to get it back home. The one my mom bought is similar to the one in the front right corner. So super cute!


Here is mom, sealing the deal!
We spent the night in a little town called Titisee-Neustadt, you pronounce it just like a bad bad word. Every time we said it out loud we would giggle a little. Of course every experience we have had while in Germany has a culinary component, Titisee (hee hee) had one too.
Apple strudel with whipped creme and vanilla sauce:
Black Forest Cake:
White grape juice, we didn't try this but I just loved the way the chef was winking at us, like he had some special secret ingredient.
Flammkuchen:
And of course, pommes!! We absolutely OD'd on pomme frites this weekend, which is funny because I really don't think my kids like them. They order them, and then Mark and I finish them.
McKenna saw these great hats and when Bailey told her it looked like the tough girl character Astrid from How To Train Your Dragon, she had to have it. Now we have Halloween taken care of for this year.
Another cool place we went to was the Todnau Waterfall. Not as big or grand as the one in Triberg, but still cool enough to spend some time there. Check out these fabulous red loungers next to the falls. Okay, now the falls are cooler than the ones in Triberg!
By far our biggest adventure in the Black Forest was riding the Hassenhorn rodelbahn. It is super huge, 3 km of track.
The ride up in the chair lift is so long, you could decide what your life's purpose is and then plan how to carry it out. Then you would have the last 1/2 of the ride to daydream. You can see me doing that here:Here we are on the top of the mountain:
Here we go!!!