After Triberg, we were back on the road again, driving deeper and deeper into the Schwarzwald. It was breathtaking, surrounded by all the tall tall pines, straight as an arrow. There is a lot of logging done here, with stacks of these beautiful straight logs by the roadsides. Every home has perfectly stacked wood.
It started snowing on us as we left Triberg (like soft snow/hail). It came and went and the sun broke through, then clouds again. It was a beautiful day filled with variety. We followed our GPS and took a road that wound us up through the back ways of the mountains, it seemed like a single lane road much of the way, with barely enough room to pass any oncoming cars. Everything was green and lush. It seemed impossible to capture the majesty of the forest in a photo, but I tried, from the car window and when I asked John to pull over from time to time.
I love seeing the steeples of churches poking up from each town and village we pass by.
The undergrowth is so dense. I don’t know that you could walk through the forest in most places.
There are small towns and scattered farm homes in these mountains, each with a small or large clearing. At one point we drove by a beautiful field with a furry horse (winter coat) grazing, a bit further on there were some sheep. As we paused to take a photo of them, a car came by and stopped by John’s window. “Schöne Schafe, gel?” said a handsome bearded young man. (Beautiful sheep, right?) We said, “Oh, so schöne!!” He told us they were his and his farm was just up the hillside. “Take all the photos you want” he said as he drove on.
A Wegweiser, or signpost:
Homes and farms are nestled in clearings in the forest.
I was quite fascinated by the wood piles at every home or farm. All stacked perfectly, with pieces exactly the same length and split for the fire. Do they all have wood-burning stoves? And must each home cut enough wood each year to get them through the winter? The days are short here in the forest, with high mountains on every side. Everything is so tidy here. And beautiful. I could live here. I would even try to stack my wood perfectly straight.
Our Frankfurt Germany Mission 