Black Forest (Schwarzwald)

Mia had Fall Break the other week, and she and I went with some friends to the Black Forest for the week. The Black Forest is famous for its Black Forest Cake and Cuckoo Clocks and sits right on the border of France, Switzerland, and Austria. In fact it was funny because my phone would switch to roaming because we were too close to the Swiss Border. The weather was Gorgeous (atleast for Germany in November) and we had a great time outside in the forest each day. We went over to France one day too (before our friends arrived) and had a fun day with the Barbarian Apes. It was definitely a great break from school and everyday life!!!

The Fall colors were so pretty! It is very funny too - this lake is a big tourist destination. I would probably call "the lake" a pond because it is so small. It is extra funny because the German word for Lake is "See". Which makes me think of "Sea". When you don't have huge bodies of water around, I guess every square inch of any body of water is precious. They even had  double decker boat tours and stuff :-)

The tourists were bustling all around "the pond" It was so quaint and cute though!!! It gave me the feeling of Christmas even without any Christmas decorations...

We went over to the Alsace region of France for the day (only about a 1 hour drive) and visited the Barbarian Ape park there. We have been to a few of these and it is really cool. The Apes were brought over from Morrocco and survive in mountain regions. They give you a handful of popcorn when you buy your tickets and the Apes are free to roam around and you can feed them. 

It is very interesting though how tame they seem to have become. When we were in Gibraltor, the Apes were much more aggressive.

We had a really fun time! *Notice the fog - we were actually in a cloud - it definitely looke like a mysterious forest!!!

There were about 2500 apes there and many babies. The only popcorn rule though was that you could not feed the babies.

So this was really neat... did you  notice the fog in the photos below. We were actually in the clouds on a mountain in the Ape photos. After we left the Ape Park, we drove even further up the mountain to a Chateau called Hat Koenigsbourg. We drove so high up that we were above the clouds.

Notice the white in the photo - those are the clouds below the Chateau. Mia was so funny - she said on the way home - "Yeah  - I can finally cross that off my bucket list. I stood on the the clouds! *I didn't even know that she had a bucket list or that she knew what one was for that matter:-)

This was the cute village at the bottom of the Mountain. So adorable with the vineyards and Fall colors!!!

Back in Germany and more Fall colors - this arch was for the train tracks. It was neat because when you paid the tourist tax at the Hotel (which was very cheap), you also got free public transportation for the Region. It included busses and trains! Definitely a nice benefit for those staying in the area. 

Here was another cute town. I love the traditions of the Kerwah pole (and we weren't even in Bavaria!)

This was our hotel/apartment for the week (Not the entire thing, just a an apartment within it) 

They even had chickens running around next door

And cows near the playground too!!!

One day we went to Germany's Highest Waterfall

It has been very dry here so it was not as impressive as it can be - but still very pretty! (This is just a tiny piece of it - it goes on forever!)

The Black Forest!!

It was so nice just to be out in the woods!

We stopped at this old Mill for lunch one day. It was called the Hexenloch (the Witch's Hole)

And this is the famous Flack Forest Cake!

And the famous Cuckoo Clocks. The kids were all so intrigued by these!!