Triberg (Friday 22nd September 2017)

I should have stayed in bed today! The started OK. I fired up the Samsung tablet and downloaded the SEN 1116 radio app. In Australia it was about 17:00 on Friday so we thought we’d get a bit of a Preliminary Final vibe going. Andy Maher, David ‘The Ox’ Schwarz and Dr. Turf came in loud and clear so we thought we’d listen to the pre-game chat before we headed out for the day. I got up to make the “traditional” morning coffee (in bed). On the way back I knocked my shin on the protruding bed post and splashed just a few drop of coffee on the hosts cushions. Strike one. I should have quit then while I was only a little behind.

 

We drank our coffee, had breakfast and then headed out into the glorious day. Today our mission was to but a genuine cuckoo clock. So we headed to what we had been told was the cuckoo clock capital of the Black Forest, Triberg. The town was only 35kms away and the scenery on the way was breathtakingly beautiful, especially when offset by the blue skies and brilliant sunshine. As we approached the town we stopped into the well-known Triberg Waterfall. We paid a couple of Euros to park and then another EUR 4.50 each to pass the gatekeeper and then another Euro for a bag of peanuts. Say, what?! The cascades we very pretty as you can see in the photos. Paths kept leading across and further down the cascades to a path below that followed the stream into town. The real fun was driven by the bag of peanuts, however. Hanging around the cascades are a few little rascally Red Squirrels. Kerry would throw a peanut on the ground and from nowhere would come one of the little critters and either sit there and munch on it’s prize or scurry away to put it in his winter larder. They were very cute.

 

 

 

 

 

 

If said squirrel wasn’t quick enough his dinner would be snapped up by a Nutcracker or another large bird I can’t identify. Kerry had great fun with the birds, placing a peanut on a post and watching them swoop in, right next to her, to snap it up. I understand that they too would take them away and store them for winter.

 

 

 We headed down into Triberg, parked the car and started our quest. First stop was a little shop that sold wood carvings of various type, no cuckoo clocks though. While in there I, with my backpack on, turned around and sent a display flying. Strike two. Fortunately, nothing broke and so the shop assistant and I picked it all up and we moved on – after making a purchase. Next it was time for a coffee so we found a cafe on the main street and at outside to watch the world go by. We got our coffee, another Black Forest cake and a couple of glasses of mineral water. I took the camera from around my neck and put it on the table. Shortly afterwards a photo opportunity arose so I grabbed to camera, the strap got tangled up in my glass of mineral water and the whole lot landed on me before the glass smashed on the pavement. Strike three. Great that’s three, I’m home safe….not so fast, said Mrs Murphy.

The lady whose display I’d destroyed had pointed us in the direction of the best cuckoo clock shop, just up the street. We went into Oli`s Schnitzstube, the best according to Tripadvisor also, and were greeted by a lovely old lady and the hardest-selling cuckoo clock retailer in the Black Forest. After taking in her advice we chose a hand-built clock that will go well on the wall next to the sliding door out to the deck. It’ll all be shipped back home in the next few weeks. The lady gave Kerry a Cuckoo whistle and a bunch of other souvenirs she also wanted for next to nothing.

In the car we jumped and headed out of town in search of refreshments in another village. That proved harder to do than one might imagine. After through an increasingly industrial landscape we took a random turn off the main road and ended up in the town of Villengen-Schwenningen. There we found a table at an Italian restaurant and enjoyed a drink and a small plate of pasta between us. The we ventured further int the streets of the old town and found where all the real action a was. The town has four main “old” streets meeting at a large junction. These are all “walking only” streets of course. After a visit to a couple of shops we wandered back to the car, coming across a lovely church along the way. 

 

 

GPS-girl was primed for home and off we went. The scenery improved markedly once we got back on to the smalled roads. About halfway back, keen to stop for a photo I darted off the road int a bus stop. But I miss judged the kerb and hit it with the front passenger tyre. The kerbs in Germany are all made of brick, some quite sharp. Sure enough, upon inspection, I’d put a slash in the wall of the tyre and it was flat. Strike four! I changed the tyre, which unfortunately is just one of those space-saving emergency tyres, and we crawled back to St. Margen with plenty of unhappy campers following me. There I reported the accident to Renault Eurodrive, filled out the paper work, emailed it to them and then rang them to get immediate authorisation to have it replaced. Which got. So tomorrow’s plans to stay in bed to listen to the Richmond vs GWS Prelim have been thrown out the window. We’ll be in Freiburg getting our tyre replaced…. I hope.

BTW, congratulations to all my readers who are Crows supporters and commiserations to the Cats fans. Go Tiges!