Hiking in the Black Forest by Sue

Leaving the train station at
Himmelreich.

Peter and Andrea drove over for a weekend of hiking in the Black Forest. The trail network is amazing with several options. The four of us took our local train to Barental which, according to the sign at the stop, is the highest elevation train station in Germany.

View from the trail.

Picnic along the way.

We shared the trail with mountain bikers and horse carriages. It was a slow steady hike to a mountain lake, a good place for photos and a rest.

Sharing the trail and carvings near the lake.

Andrea resting her feet.

The reward was a spectacular view of meadows, forests and lakes...and a biergarten conveniently located right where we began the descent. Peter claimed he could smell beer before we even got started. Those Germans sure know how to set up a hike!

Prost!

Heading home on the train.

Visit from Peter

Peter and Andrea

My friends Peter and Andrea came to visit for a weekend. We barbecued all kinds of stuff like pork kebabs, curled up sausages and mom made a salad. My mom and dad and Peter and Andrea went hiking in the Black Forest.

Cooking on our back porch.

Mom and Andrea drinking coffee before their hike.

The next night, Peter cooked a special German dish called semmelknoedel. It was good. It was a rolled up beef that had all kinds of spices, onins and pickles. He also made huge dumplings from bread crusts and water and I think green onions and onions. My dad has made it since then and it was really good.

Eating semmelknoedel and red cabbage in our home.

Biking Through the Countryside by Sue

Everywhere I see people of every age out walking.

Biking is a joy here. There are trails everywhere and it looks like a picture book. It is so green and the farm houses are so neat and pretty. Almost all the farms have dairy cows, but there are horse farms, goats, sheep and everyone seems to have chickens. The fields have hay, wheat, occasionally corn and lots of barley. Now I know where all that great beer comes from.

Most barns are well over a hundred years old and are connected right to the farmhouse. And all of them have their south-facing roof covered with solar panels. It a curious contrast to see these antique barns with such a modern presence. It is also very refreshing!

See the solar panels above the white part of the barn?

All over the coutryside are little chapels or crucifixes. It is very Catholic here close to the Swiss and French border. Often, the chapels have two or three rows of pews, but sometimes they seem more like mauselaums attached to a farm. The crucifixes are everywhere, seemingly random.

Crucifix near the road in front of an old farmhouse.

Sue's Corner-St. Peter

Church and cemetary

at St. Peter

Katie and I took a brutal bike ride up a mountain to the lovely old village of St. Peter on the southern slopes of Mt. Kandel last Thursday. It is on the Schwarzwald Panoramastrasse (Black Forest Panorama Road), but we came in from the backside on a grueling one lane path. It is a beautiful ride from our town on a bike trail through a couple of small, picturesque villages and past quaint farms. We continued along a stream into some woods and then began the vertical climb.

View at the top of the single lane
road as we rode into St. Peter

After several switchbacks and lots of puffing, we broke out from the forest into a beautiful mountain meadow. Farms dotted the countryside and just above the horizon we could see the domes of the church. Whew!

St. Peter centers around an old Benedictine abbey founded in 1090. It burned in 1238 and 1437. It was rebuilt in the 17th and 18th centuries to match the style of the times.

St. Peter's Benedictine Abbey

The town square has several little shops and restaurants. Like most places in southern Germany, there is a small, austere Lutheran church tucked off to the side and a huge, ornamental Catholic church anchoring the town square.

Catholic church on the square

Interior of St. Peter's Lutheran/Evangelical
Church

Interior of St. Peter's Catholic Church

Pipe organ in the Catholic
Church

Katie and I toured the neatly trimmed cemetary adjacent to the square. Each plot has it's own little garden.

Cemetary in St.
Peter

There is a memorial to St. Peter's war dead in the graveyard that was originally built to honor the World War I soldiers. But then two long plaques were added to pay respect to the World War II casualties. It was astounding how many young men from this tiny village were killed between 1939-1945. I took a photo of only one of the two WWII plaques on the memorial. Next time I ride up to St. Peter, I am going to count the number of dead from each war.

War memorial and one of the plaques honoring the
dead soldiers.

It was quite cold once we stopped sweating, so Katie and I found a cozy spot to drink a milch kaffee (latte). The ride down was full brakes and absolutely amazing! It was a great workout with a wonderful reward...St. Peter!

Giant chess set on the square and our cozy kaffee spot.