The Pethel Family: The Black Forest

So, naive-ol-me thought of something totally different when Brian told us we were going to the Black Forest for the weekend. I expected all these black trees, with black leaves and black roads and grass. hahaha. Only in the movies. I'm still laughing at myself.

The Black Forest, as it was explained to me, was called that because of how dense it is within the forest (because of how many trees, and how big the whole "Forest" is), which made it completely dark, unseeable, and very scary...especially in the olden days when the only way to get through was by horse or foot. It was definitely a deterrent to any army that wanted to pass through it into Germany. I only got one good picture of the actual forest.

And within the "Black Forest" there are tons of little towns, even though I thought it was just a big forest. haha. Am I really that dumb?

Our end destination was a famous waterfall in a town called "Triberg". However, Brian had a couple other Points of Interest along the way.

Largest Cuckoo Clock
The Black Forest is FAMOUS for cuckoo clocks. They have many, many stores with hundreds of cuckoo clocks. There are even stores that boast "1000 Cuckoo Clock Store" (or something like that). But this one took the cake. I bet people pass by it without even knowing. And of course the girls and I stood there waiting for it to hit the 1/2 hour mark so we could see it chime. Brian, since he's all knowing (and has been here before), just dropped a coin in the little slot to get it moving.

It was really something else. Every part moved. Right out of a movie. There was a woodcutter, sawing logs, guys drinking beer in a tavern, dancing couples moving around the top (where the cuckoo usually pops out), and a windmeel. I loved it. I wanted him to do it again and again, but held back for fear of looking like a total imbecile.

Rodelbahn

Check this out. Do you see the track coming down from the mountain? But the girls were in heaven when Brian pulled up to the parking lot. He had totally surprised us. The girls kept saying, "Brian is the awesomest!"
This is called the Rodelbahn. You ride in the cars that are hooked to the track, and it's only gravity pulling you down. And you ride up the to the top with only a rope pulling you. Ya, my fear of heights was a little weary. But I did so great! We caught some great pictures.

There was a camera at the bottom that measured our speed coming down and around one of the corners. I was consistently the fastest than the 25 people before and after me. I went down at 45 km/h. We were all laughing that I was speeding so fast when it was I who was the one scared...laughing and screaming the whole way down. (I was so scared I was gonna get launched going around a corner, even though the cars were attached to the track.)

Brian, Xanthe & Spencer waiting for Xoe & I to come down. There was a little eatery that we bought a few snacks, and they also had a little playground for everyone.

Xoe waiting to get on.

The next pictures are what Xoe took when she brought the camera up with her on one of the rides. I just had to post them cuz they are so funny.

Going up...(My thoughts, "That doesn't look so bad...")

Until...we started going STRAIGHT UP. I started getting really nervous. I still get woozy looking at this next picture.

Xoe thought it would be funny to say, "Mom look at the view. It's so cool!" They like making fun of my fear of heights. I turned around and saw this...It may not look so high in the picture but it was. But little did Xoe know that even though I was a little scared, we had ridden something like this at Girls Camp, and I LOVED it. I rocked! And when Xoe and I went flyin down, I think my "cool factor" was raised just a little.

The next batch of pictures are so funny. We forgot to put it on "sport" mode. Can you tell we were going fast?

They just kept getting blurrier and blurrier...

hahahahahahahaha!

We each got to go on it 4 times....One time before we drove up to the waterfall, and then we stopped back again for some more rides on the way back home. The last time we went up (I think Xoe was with me that time), we could feel the rain droplets just starting to sprinkle. Xoe was so scared we were going to get hit by lightning. But we were fine, even though the droplets stung a little hitting our faces at 40 km/hour.

Brian and Xanthe still had one more ride. Guess who got drenched!?