To The Black Forest We Go!

Day 4

Black Forest here we come! We plan to make our way down to Freiburg and Lake Titisee and do some hiking with our new friends: Naomi the Irish girl, Mike the English dude, and Jonas the Swede. I vote we leave by 8-9am, which is met by some serious resistance. Europeans are die hard about two things: their sleep and their laziness. I am die hard about two things: my morning coffee and making the most of every minute of my day. Typical American, yes, I know. We agree to meet at 11am to make the noon train. I’d researched it online…piece of cake: We buy a ticket for 30 euros that covers up to five people and we will be at the Black Forest by 2pm. It was more like my delicious blueberry tartlettes than a piece of cake: time-consuming and more difficult, but totally worth it. This is the first time I’ve used the train. Citywide we use the subway. How was I supposed to know that there are about 6-8 different kinds of trains?! More importantly, WHY do they need so many different trains? The schedule said to get on board the ICE train. I’m thinking sweet deal; 30 euros and I get snacks, bier and a comfy seat with a table. Well when the lady comes to check tickets she tells us that we didn’t buy a ticket for the train we are on, it’s 97 euros (per person) to ride this one. Ahhhh….well shoot. Nothing we can do now we’ve already left. Thankfully Mike and Jonas know German and have a sparkling charm to woo the lady into not charging us with the promise that we will switch trains at the next stop. So much for 2pm, it’s almost 5pm by the time we get there. Still plenty of daylight left! Wo ist die bier?! Let’s get this day started! Lake Titisee is absolutely gorgeous, deep blue, and nestled in the thick dark green forest. They have boats you can rent to take around the lake. I, being the American that I am, vote for the paddle boat or the row boat, obvi. The European lads: motor boat. Why would you do work when you can let the boat do it for you? Yet again I am outvoted and motor boat it is. Now I’m not sure what we were expecting, maybe we thought we would James Bond it out there on the lake in our speed boat. Well, we thought wrong. Let’s just say we would be moving at least two times faster had we gone with the paddle boat. While riding against the wind it would easily be four times faster in a paddle boat. Wo ist die bier? Next adventure: hiking around the lake. There's supposed to be a trail... Germans are smart. They strategically place bier joints along the path so that just when you are finishing one bier you are walking up to another bier joint and can refill. BRILLIANT. Yet another reason why I love Germans. The path turns into a road that is quite a ways from the lake. I am convinced that our trail should be following much closer to the lake. That's the way we do trails in America. So I lead us back to the lake and we inevitably make our own trail. Halfway through soggy ground, sticks, climbing fences and rocks Jonas informs us that his Prada shoes and Hugo Boss jeans are getting ruined. Dude, you wearing Prada shoes?! I told you we were going hiking today! He thought I meant we were just going for a walk. Clearly he does not know that when I say hiking, I mean cutting our own trail through the forest. We finally make it back to town and catch a train back to Stuttgart...it only takes a good five hours to make the normally 2-hour journey. Some guy thought it would be cool to attempt suicide on the train tracks, forcing our train to stop for a good 45 minutes and wait for the politzei to find him and talk him out of his plan. We get home at 2:30am, nervous to put the key in the door for fear of a repeat from a couple nights ago. Key in, door opened, SILENCE. Hallelujah.