Cuckoo Clocks

The Black Forest is fabulous and I’m DONE with cuckoo clocks! But before I get to that…
Turns out the Black Forest (southwestern Germany) is home to Hansel & Gretel, Pinocchio and Giuseppe, and, of course, the ubiquitous cuckoo clock. We spent the day driving through the heart of the Black Forest. The scenery was beautiful. It’s still cold here so the deciduous trees aren’t leafed out yet. While that’s a bit disappointing, it made the hillsides more striking. The colors ranged from the russet browns of the tree branches, to keep greens of towering, dense evergreens, into the shocking bright greens of the newborn grass. At the higher elevations, these colors were set off by the white of the snow across all the fields. The fields were dotted with farm houses – surprisingly large multi-story cubes with either red tile roofs or deep brown shingles. Either way, they all had traditional hip roofs with deep overhangs as shelter from the snow. Every now and then, there was smoke curling up from a chimney. Charming.


We stopped for lunch in Triberg – smack in the middle of the Black Forest. As we meandered through shops we stumbled into a cuckoo clock lecture by a shop owner who was also a master carver. Wow – did we get a lot of information, whether we wanted to or not. We learned how to tell a well-made clock from a cheap import (real wood parts, detailed carving instead of plastic numbers and hands). The most interesting part for me was the bird. I didn’t know – duhhh - that the cuckoo was a real bird. It’s large and grey, lives in the forest and makes a sound like…..”cuckcoo” – who knew? It’s not a nice bird and pirates other birds’ nests. It’s endangered due to climate changes.
Keep that in mind the next time you hear a cuckoo clock. If the little bird that pops out of the clock looks like a chicken you know you’re seeing a cheap knock off!

So now, after countless shops and three (yes, three) museums devoted to cuckoo clocks, I’m officially finished with these clocks.

We spent the night in Titisee a small, tourist-packed town in the Forest on the lake. The lake had ice on it. It was fine but far too tourist oriented and crowded for us. Of course, it was Good Friday, but still.

A fun part of traveling in Europe over the Easter (Oster) holiday is that every small confectioner’s shop was filled with beautifully crafted chocolate eggs, bunnies, lambs and rabbits. We finally gave in and bought a chocolate egg filled with chocolates and decorated with chocolate. What could be better? We’re saving it for Easter Sunday…maybe!