The Black Forest

This part of Germany is home to Europe's famous clocks, namely, cuckoo clocks. We must have seen thousands of them.....the cuckoo clock actually originated in Switzerland, but the Germans are really famous for them also. We came upon an interesting quote that was good enough to pass on.

"...in Italy, for thirty years under the Borgias, they had warfare, terror, murder, and bloodshed, but they produced Michael Angelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and the Renaissance. In Switzerland they had brotherly love, five hundred years of democracy ad peace--and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock."

As you may see, the tastes between Eric and I are quite different when it comes to cuckoo clocks. As such, we didn't buy one....it's going to take time to convince "someone" that little village scenes with people, birds, and little animals are way better than game and hunting clocks toating guns and antlers. Ah well, I may lose this one though; Eric looks pretty determined!

World's Largest Cuckoo Clock

That's the world's largest cuckoo clock! We managed to drive up just seconds before it struck 12 noon and, yes, an enormous cuckoo bird popped out--we will never be the same!

We hiked to the top of the highest point of elevation in the Black Forest region which, during the winter, is a ski resort. On a clear day, we understand that the Alps can be seen, but it was too hazy and we could see them. We hadn't expected to find snow when we planned this little trek, so we weren't really dressed for it. The view was great and worth long hike to the top. We visited the Black Forest's highest waterfall, searched for the famous pointed-eared squirrels but never saw any, ate some Black Forest cake, and headed home. A fun day in all!

Japenese Gardens in Kaiserslautern

Kaiserslautern is about a 10 min. drive to the east of our house. It's a moderate-size city with lots of shopping and tourist-type districts. The weather was really bad that day, but the gardens were still beautiful and we enjoyed them.

Getting Eric to pose for pictures like this is no easy task! I can't remember what the bargaining price was, but I have no doubt it was astronomically high.
The plants, flowers and trees in Germany are gorgeous in the spring, but boy do they wreak havoc for us alergy suferers....I have never had a worse bout of alergy problems in my life! It is finally subsiding but it has taken weeks.

Nanstein Castle

This castle overlooks our neighborhood, and we enjoyed climbing all over it and checking out the underground passages. There is all kinds of ancient history associated with it, and if we could, we would write all about it.......but alas, we have no time!! So for those to which we have just terribly disappointed, we refer you to google.

We like to do our morning runs up to the castle. It is quite a steep hike to say the least. We almost had a heart attack the first time. Occasionally they put on fireworks displays and we have a front seat view from our bedroom window. They also shoot some sort of cannon off on occasion, and, at first, I thought it was an air raid (letting my WWII imagination run wild again). Eric was sure it was not an air raid, but it shook the whole house!

The movers are here!

The moving truck finally arrived with all our worldly goods! It's great to have a nice bed again. We were borrowing a German bed which was quite uncomfortable and finally had to migrate to the futon. I was getting tired of wearing the same three shirts; I don't know why I didn't take more with me. Our house is all put together now, and we'll post pictures of the inside very soon.