Why is the Black Forest called that way?

Well, as we found out one gloomy weekend in May it is because it is pretty darm dark in there, especially this May when winter was still officially there and hopes of sunshine were crushed every single day.

We had decided to take advantage of a long bank holiday weekend to go to Germany and spend 2 nights in the Black Forest with some friends. As we found out that weekend, we only live 15 minutes from the German border (and after almost 2 years we did not have a clue we were that close) and 90 minutes away from the South border of the Black Forest. We broke our short journey in Titisee-neustadt as Baby Suisse was having a very bad day and had decided 20 minutes into the journey that he had had enough. After a spot of lunch, I had imagined an afternoon of strolling along the shore taking pictures and buying souvenirs but thought the better of it after realising we hadn't packed anything warm or waterproof to wear at all. We have got quite good at packing everything we're likely to need for Baby Suisse on trips away but somehow forget about ourselves. Never mind, we said goodbye to Titisee after a last chuckle...

Another 20 minutes up the road, we unpacked our things in the hotel we were staying in Vöhrenbach (nice and dog/kid friendly, we recommend!) and decided to take advantage of the sun briefly coming out for a short walk in the area, skipping up the hill, singing and...well not quite but you get the jist.

The first evening was spent eating far too much schnitzel and trying to convince Baby Suisse to go the fuck to sleep (do you know this children bed time story? GENIUS!). Baby Suisse, we realised, does not like not sleeping in his own bed so ended up with us.

After a very short night's sleep and a breakfast of cheese, bread, eggs and meat (why do you always feel obliged to eat 3 times as much for breakfast when you're away from home just because it's free and there??), we set off to Triberg for a hike around the waterfall.

The Triberg waterfall is one of the highest in the whole of Germany and was impressive given the surreal amount of rain we've had this "Spring".

Annoyingly, you have to pay to see the waterfall but we took the opportunity to buy a bag of peanuts at the gate to feed the squirrels. Alf was going nuts for the squirrels, he is very keen on them shall we say...

We stopped for a coffee near a big pond and a spot of duck feeding...

Because of the light rain, the site wasn't too busy on that day and we thoroughly enjoyed the hike in the woods around the waterfall. Not much to see in terms of wildlife...

...but the many different sights of the waterfall were worth it.

And yes of course, we saw plenty of cuckoo clocks too, but that'll be the topic of another post :-)

Schenkenberg ruins

View from main road: our destination

When in need of inspiration to plan little trips in our neighbourhood, I head to the My Switzerland website, full of great ideas for walks or sights to visit in each of the Swiss cantons. Canton Aargau where we live is full of castles so you're almost assured to see one in the distance on any walk in the countryside. It is on that website that I found out that 15 minutes away from us were the Schenkenberg ruins, the largest castle ruins in the canton.

Built in the 13th century by the Habsburg family (they've built most of the historical sights around here), it was abandonned in the 18th century as it had become too costly to maintain and repair. Built on a 631m high hill, its first use was to protect core areas around the Brugg district. It is now a Swiss heritage site of national importance.

From the main road in the small town of Thalheim, up and up we went, past some vineyards...

...past some grazing sheep...

...leaving the town behind.

I had read online the day before that there are two main paths to the ruins and that the shortest one was not pram-friendly. We therefore decided to test-drive Baby Suisse's hiking rugsack now that he is big enough to sit in it properly.

At a power-walking pace, the climb took us about 20 minutes. We were prepared for how extensive the ruins of the castle are... the site is surprisingly big and large sections of the derelict castle still stand.

It must be quite a popular spot in the summer given that we saw 4 barbecue pits in the middle of the site. Only in Switzerland, one would fancy grilling a wurst in the middle of a listed heritage site...

Because the weather was fairly touch-and-go that day, we were alone up there although we had walked past a few people during our speedy ascent.

Nature has taken over the site in many places

We enjoyed very (cloudy) nice views over the valley and the town of Thalheim.

We decided to take the slightly longer way back to the car, not walking through the woods but following a path down the other side of the hill onto the valley.

As the weather looked rather ominous, we didn't hang around for too long but glanced back at the castle one last time.

What a great way to spend our afternoon on bank holiday Monday. This would make a good day trip to anyone passing through the canton or visiting Zürich (public transport links are very good but the bus dropping you at the bottom of the hill).

Now, where should we go next?

First outing of the snow boots

I did not at all believe my friend Annabelle who said that snow was forecasted last weekend. Seven days before we had a beautiful weekend and wore shorts and flip-flops so there was no way we could have snow and a drop of 20 degrees celsius!

Erm...and this is what we woke up to on Sunday morning...

Annabelle 1- Made in Suisse 0...well at least the dog was happy there was snow to roll around in! So the snow boots came out of the cupboard and we set off all together on a morning walk. It felt a bit surreal to be seeing this winter wonderland in October!

Back home, the snow boots came off and I remembered to top up my bird feeders as my little feathery friends were having a tough day!

Was la Suisse the only place to get snow or did you also enjoy a white weekend where you were?

Hallwyl Wasserschloss

Hello!!

Thank you everyone for your kind comments on my last post introducing the new little man in my life :-)
We have all been away from home quite a bit recently and I haven't had the chance to post on here for a few weeks. Actually, I still have posts from July which haven't been published so today I thought I'd start by keeping you updated on our July adventures and makes before moving on to more recent happenings.

This was one of the last long walks I did with Mr T and Alf while still pregnant back in July. We are the new owner of a car and can now venture further afield at weekends. We decided to explore canton Aargau a bit and took a 20 minutes drive to Hallwyl Wasserschloss.

Wikipedia tells us that Hallwyl castle is one of the most important moated castles in  Switzerland, located on two islands in the River Aabach and dating from the 12th century. Hallwyl Castle was the home castle of the Lords of Hallwyl, who owned the surrounding land and parts of the lake as their personal property.

The castle is fairly unusual and well worth seeing. If your German is better than ours, you could even visit the inside of the castle as tours run frequently during the opening season. We decided to take in the sight by walking around the castle before proceeding to walk to Lake Hallwyl.

The lake is part of a nature reserve and there are many water birds and fish to be spotted on the way...

It is possible to walk all around the lake although I would imagine it to take quite a while and I wasn't up to the challenge dragging an extra 12kg so we just walked for 90 minutes before turning back. Despite it being a short walk, we spotted some interesting things...

 

 

 

We hadn't chosen the best day for a picnic, the weather was grey and threatening for the best part of our trip and we had to take shelter at several occasions to avoid torrential downpours!

We will definitely be back on a sunny day for some more walking as the path around the lake looks pram-friendly!