Tuesday, May 23 (week 18 / day 121) Black Forest, Germany

So Long Switzerland

The Swiss Alps are beautiful. We will miss them. We do have to move on so we can keep on our schedule & make it home on time! We leisurely packed up at the chalet by noon, rolled our bags to the train station & took one last ride down the slopes to Lauterbrunnen. We were doubtful that the parking card the attendant gave us yesterday would actually work, but it did! In fact, our journey out of Switzerland went rather swimmingly. We hit the last rest stop before crossing the border & used up our last Swiss francs on some chocolate, Swiss bars & Kit Kats, 7 francs to exactly.

leaving the chalet

waiting for the train

goodbye Wengen

riding down to Lauterbrunnen

Back to Germany

As we approached the border near Basel, we had a flashback of our 1st crossing into Austria when they stopped us, checked our passports & asked us to, "open ze door!" We laughed at the memory as the border patrol had found we indeed had 5 kids in the back of our suspicious-looking van with all the junk & food spilled on the floor & found no need to inspect. This time we slipped right through. We may have been in the wrong lane but we didn't see any obvious signs about nationals versus foreigners. Our lane wasn't being stopped whereas the one next to us was. After we rolled through we kept checking in the rear view mirror for the polices sirens. I guess we deserved a break for once.

We made it to the cute town of Staufen, just outside of Freiburg, Germany. We had targeted this place for the highly acclaimed Café Decker with its many pastries & chocolates. We had planned on eating lunch there but of course they don't serve from the main menu at 3:00 when we got there! Instead we got shakes, ham & cheese croissants & several pieces of cake. We walked around the quaint town for a bit then loaded back up in the van. We passed a McDonald's & went through the drive-thru but Stacia ended up going inside because the lady didn't offer any confidence as she read back the order in Germ-English. It's times like these we are just ready to be home!

ready for lunch

super cute baker sign

momentary affection

cake & shake for lunch

dancing in the streets

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Goodbye Café Decker

frustration at the McD's drive-thru

Lost in the Black Forest

We stopped at a cheap grocery store before the final stretch into the Black Forest to our place in Bad Peterstal-Griesbach. This was a good move as there didn't seem to be any other stores before we got there. We finally made it to the cute farm complex on the hill. Martin was out collecting iron to recycle so his wife greeted us & showed us our apartment on the 3rd floor of their farm house. We got settled in & Stacia & I went for a walk up the hill, into the forest, the Black Forest...

She had told us about the road leading to a hut & the path down the other side that brings you back to the house. Well, we got up to the hut but the road down the other side had a closed gate. We didn't feel like we could slip by the gate onto someone else's property so we turned back & found another trail going down the hill. This one was definitely the road less traveled. Robert Frost would have taken it, so we did too. We made our way along a few switchbacks & the trail narrowed, then disappeared. We were lost & at 8:30, the Black Forest was only getting blacker...


random house with garden in the Black Forest

our place on the hill

our hike on the hill

we did find the hut at the top

overgrown path on the way down

definitely lost in the Black Forest!

home just after sunset, before it got too black

bratwurst & pretzels for dinner