The Black Forest and Rhine Falls

Good Friday, March 29, 2013

Birding break on the way to The Black Forest! We saw
a small pond and stopped to allow Scott some desired
birding time. Lots of life birds for him on this trip!

Of course the boys were done birding after a few minutes so entertained
themselves with races to various signs and back.

I threatened to post this photo on Facebook as Nick was sporting his mom's
lavender fleece. But with the shades and cool hat....he manages to pull it off!

We saw these in just about every field as we drove along
the Autobahn. I figured they were protecting baby
strawberry plants.

But they were tulips! My favorite!

~ Triberg Falls, The Black Forest, Germany ~

It was absolutely beautiful!

The German philosophy of "Enter at Your Own Risk" is refreshing. Prior to
hiking the paths around the falls,  we were warned that they were icy. It was
downright dangerous at some places...but we were warned. We all commented
that there was no way the falls would have been open to the public
in the US with this much ice on the paths.

It was obviously still quite cold in these parts!

I thought this was a fitting photo for Good Friday. The
way the sun was coming through the trees made it
look like there was a cross in the forest.

Joel and Andy were convinced that this method would
be a much faster and safer means back down. A few
attempts of pushing Andy on his stomach and that
"method" was quickly aborted. Worth a try though.
Just couldn't quite get the desired speed. Thankfully!

"This is my snowman. His name is Schnee." ~ Andy Bastian

~ Triberg, Germany ~

We did a little souvenir shopping and then visited this tasty little Backerei.
Breakfast was included in our stay at Pension Chloe so this stop ended
up being lunch. A Backerei is a good choice at any point in the day!

Obviously deep in thought and conversation, Tracy and
Scott are not hindered by the riffraff outside the window.

From one set of falls to another - Rhine Falls in Schaffhausen, Switzerland

The kids were so excited to watch the large fish...well, I guess there are
more things to see here than just the falls!

We had really beautiful weather all morning but by the time we got into
Switzerland, there was a steady drizzle.

The younger three enjoyed this park along the river. This is one neat thing
we have enjoyed this year. Every place we go, there are little parks for kids!

We walked along the river a ways to get a different
view and found this old waterwheel.

From here, we set off for Umhausen, Austria, which was about a four hour drive away. Being that it was Good Friday, we weren't sure what we would find open for dinner so opted to drive all the way to Umhausen before stopping. I chose Umhausen for our Friday night stay for two reasons. The first is that the Bastians wanted to see the Alps and Austria. I guess that is two reasons right there! The other reason was that it was the most affrodable place for housing a large group such as ours. Little did we know what we were in for! I wish I would have taken some memory pictures of the drive into where we stayed but it was a bit of a white knuckle trip for me. The rain turned to snow as we climbed into the mountains. Then the roads turned to switchbacks. And steep ones at that. I really was starting to wonder if we were going to be able to get back down the mountain the next day. The roads were not all that clear, wind was blowing and all the kids wanted to do was have a snowball battle. Not really on my radar at this point.

GPS took us to a Gasthaus/Restaurant but with little parking (due to all of the snow) and not by the name we wanted to see. We were looking for ban Kneissl's. Were we going to be able to find it?? A kind woman in the Restaurant gave me directions by drawing me a map. We were close. By the time I returned to the cars, a snowball fight was ensuing...doesn't take long for boys! Back into the cars we climbed. Another turn or two and we still weren't to ban Kneissl's. So I stopped in another Gasthaus for directions. 200 more meters! Or so. We finally did make it to our destination sometime after 9pm. Keep in mind that we had eaten breakfast at Pension Chloe, lunch at the Backerei in Triberg, snacks in the car but no dinner. We had some hungry boys on our hands. They were not complaining at all though which was nice. I had packed lots of sandwich stuff for pb&js so Jill and I got busy making many sandwiches for the crew. And then, a snowball battle. How do you say "no" to your kids that want to have a snowball battle with their cousins in the Alps? It was getting quite late though. Each time we would hear them, we'd calm them down from our third story kitchen window....this worked well until just about the time I was going to tell them to come in for the night. A German Frau beat me to it! Oops...should have done that two minutes before I planned. What fun they had though! And ban Kneissl's was a beautiful home. The cleanest place I have ever stayed! When booking the place, I was told that no shoes are permitted in the house. Then in the process of putting down deposit money, I was told again. The day before we left on our trip, another email came reminding me of this policy. Could be considered a little over the top but it sure was nice to have a clean place to stay. And so beautifully decorated. All in all, a great day of memories.