Black Forest

Had always wanted to visit Black Forest (schwarzwald in German) ever since I did a tourist pamphlet on Germany for some english assignment in secondary one. And also cos' my favorite cake originates from there. It's been my dream to have a black forest cake in black forest on my birthday. But no, my dream wasn't fulfilled. But it doesn't matter cos' it means i'll go back some day!

Anyway so the trip out to black forest was my first ever overnight trip with the NUS-SMU exchange students! And since Black Forest was within the Baden-Wutternberg state, we made use of the Baden-Wutternburg day ticket that allowed 2-5 people to travel together on regional trains at a relatively cheap price. I think I ended up paying 6 euros or less which was definitely a bargain.

To be honest I don't understand why they call black forest BLACK forest. The whole time I was there, everything was just a lush green with some yellow-orange coloured leaves (nature's way of telling us that the season is changing). So our first stop was the city of freiburg where we took the cable car up to some nice views of the region. Spent the night at the town of Neustadt-Titisee. It was past 9pm when we arrived at Neustadt and had to walk up 2.4km uphill to our youth hostel, but it was one of the nicest walks cos' the sky was filled with stars. Woke up the next morning to a very pleasant surprise cos the surroundings were beautifulllll too, and the mist just added on to the dreamlike atmosphere. After spending some time around our hostel we headed to the lake town of titisee where I had my first taste of the authentic black forest cake and rented a boat to paddle around the lake.

All in all while I think a car would definitely be better if you want to get a comprehensive tour around Schwarzwald, the train was sufficient for us. And of course, a cheap option too :-) 

The Andrew Stare

Memories of you....  Miss you Andrew.....

The Rhine & Mosel

A less mainstream but no less beautiful part of Germany. 

After reading rick steves, I knew I had to visit this region of germany where thousands of castles lined up along the 2 rivers. Seeing burg eltz in real life was surreal and the journey there was unforgettable. Though I swear I felt extremely scared during my 45 mins hike through the forest when I met absolutely no one en route to the castle. I guess the route I took was kinda off the beaten track and everyone had taken the tourist bus instead! That decision to cycle to burg eltz from the town I was living in (cochem) came as an impromptu one as I was planning to take the safer option of riding the train. Furthermore, I had a phobia of riding bicycles in europe after my first not-so-pleasant experience in Brugge. But I don’t know what come onto me and I just walked into a shop and inquired about the price to rent a bike for a day. Before I knew it, the shopkeeper took me out and showed me to my bike and there was no turning back. And so I paid my deposit and took off with no real clue about how to get there. I just relied on my logic/instincts and my memory of google maps whilst planning for this trip back in singapore. The scenery was nothing short of amazing and I told myself that even if I got lost and did not manage to reach my destination, it would already have been worth it. But arriving at the destination after a tiring 4+ hours of riding/walking was absolutely rewarding. 

The interior of the burg eltz was really nice too! After visiting so many castles in europe, burg eltz has definitely got to be one of the top. I guess the friendly guide also contributed to that as I did not have the same pleasant experience at reichsburg castle in cochem which I had visited just the day before. The guide came across extremely racist; she did not even bother trying to explain any thing to me and the only english phrase she spoke to me was, “do not touch this”. I paid the exact same price for the tour as the other 10+ germans. I think I deserved better treatment. 

My hostel in cochem was really nice too though I’d probably was the ONLY asian there and I had such a HARD time communicating with the staff there. I wanted to die talking to them. But thankfully I managed to do my laundry and put my worrying mind at ease. Was so paranoid that the couch bugs in brugge had spread to everything else in my backpack. 

After 3 nights in cochem & the mosel, I moved on to the rhine and chose to stay at bacharach out of the million other towns along the rhine valley cos I found through my research that they had a nice youth hostel there which was formerly a castle! But while it may seem cool to tell other people that you’ve stayed overnight in a legit castle before, the glamorous views from the castle usually comes with a price. And for me, I had to hike 20-30 minutes up the hill to the castle with my burdensome backpack worth of 2 weeks of clothes and daily necessities. Very tiring but a pat on my back cos’ I made it!

(p.s. I took so many photos in rhine & mosel, but in the interest of time, I only managed to view a few of them so here are they) 

More posts on europe to come!!

Xoxo
Hsiaowoon