When Switzerland skipped Autumn and went straight to Winter, we didn’t expect to find the vivid colours of Autumn just across the border in Germany. We only explored a small part of Southern Germany, rich with forests, quaint little villages and rolling meadows. Our first stop was the Black Forest, we hopped between villages and enjoyed a few walks, some cake, and a browse round a picturesque town, here are some of the highlights..
Triberg and its crazy cuckoo clocks, every clock was hand carved with fantastic detail, but i think we nearly choked when we read a price tag that said 11,000 euros! Triberg also had Germany’s largest waterfall, and for an extra euro you can purchase monkey nuts to feed the squirrels. Only we couldn’t find any squirrels to feed (probably the rains fault), but for most of our walk you could see and hear these very noisy black birds. Turning to Paul i was asking “do you think this bird will want the nut?” Paul only got the words “I doubt” out before the bird swooped down and nearly took my fingers with it! Turns out these birds are nutcracker birds, and it didn’t take long until they had demolished my little bag of nuts.
Schiltach, a completely picturesque village full of history and well worth a day trip. This village has been burned to the ground and rebuilt completely three times. The free museum offers a brilliant insight into the history, but by far our favourite historical snippet was the documentation regarding the 2nd fire in 1533. The town documentation actually states that the fire was started by a local witch who had been having an affair with the devil. They plotted to burn the village down and one evening she climbed to the top of one of the houses and poured hot black ash onto the roof, the devil then set it on fire. Within hours the town was gone, to resolve this problem the only solution was to burn the witch. I love that this wild and wonderful story is documented in pen as being a historical fact, and to back it up the art work from that fire depicts the devil and the witch dancing on the burning roof tops. Brilliant. They then rebuilt the town entirely… from wood, and it burned down again in 1590! Today the town still has the old designs, the buildings have murals painted above the doors to demonstrate what trade the house is used for, i.e backers, butchers and my favourite was the pharmacy. This building housed a museum of pharmaceutical remedies and old laboratory techniques, including viles of opium, snake venoms, crocodiles skins, and other weird and wonderful remedies.
We then visited Baden Baden on our way out of the Black Forest, and decided that it had been too long since we bathed, so why not do it in style and check out the old Roman Baths. After accidentally entering the naked only baths we quickly redirected ourselves to Caracalla Therme, a more modern approach, where trunks are allowed (but not vital). This was brilliant, and for two hours we played like kids in the various degrees of hot thermal pools, and the various steam/sauna rooms, we even braved the ice plunge pool, very briefly. It was a great experience and i am so glad we decided to go in the evening, because you can swim outside in the baking hot water in the dark with only the stars and the underwater lighting.. and there was a water rapid slide outside 🙂
Leaving one forest we entered the next, and managed to meet with our friend Sebastian in Homburg near Pfalz. Pfalz is known for rope climbing, something me and Paul are greatly out of practice with, but Sebastian was kind enough to give us a guided tour of some of the crazy rock formations, and even lead a few routes so we could demonstrate how bad we are at rope climbing. We had a great weekend and loved the forest, so we decided to stay for the rest of the week and do some walks…we were not brave enough to take on any more rope climbing this time round.
From Pfalz we visited a small bouldering area near Heidelberg called Riesenstein. Friends had suggested we pay a visit if we were passing and we were not disappointed. Two lone boulders in the forest overlooking Heidelberg, and if you are that way inclined plenty of routes to play on. We managed to squeeze a small session in between rain storms, and then we were back on the road and heading to Allgau.
Bouldering briefly in Riesenstein
We originally wanted to explore Bavaria a little more, but with climbing conditions looking better for Switzerland we decided to make a quick stop in Allgau and see what the area had to offer in the way of bouldering, before heading back to Chironico to make the most of the conditions. Having spent most of our time in forest, surrounded by vivid Autumn colours, the rolling meadows of the Allgau looked so different. We spent a couple of days exploring the areas, and managed to squeeze a couple of bouldering sessions in, but we were itching to get back to Switzerland and some unfinished projects. So we paid a visit to King Ludwig the II’s castle Neuschwanstein Schloss, which looks like it was built for a fairy tale, (and currently has zero scaffolding on for those itching for the perfect photograph) then we left germany for now and returned to Chironico for perfect climbing conditions…. and we were in luck.
Scribbles from the Roadside 
i know i say it after every post, but….wow!!!! looks amazing & im so jealous. ernie is so cute too 🙂 xx
Fabulous! Plenty of sightseeing as well as climbing – perfect for you both x
Some amazing photos!! Love love love xx
Amazing pictures! The birds, the scenery, the castle, the cheesecake….
Ha ha, hope you’re well
Xxxx
Granda Hunter will be so chuffed to have a lizard named after him lol 😉
As usual the photos are gorgeous, your gonna need huge walls to display them all on when you get back.
Let me know if you can get on Skype at any time soon. Xxxx