A Winter Escape to the Black Forest
The deep, dark woods of the Black Forest is filled with castles and tiny villages, and in our case, SNOW. Two feet of it, in fact! It’s not wonder the Black Forest inspired some of the most beloved Brothers Grimm tales like Hansel and Gretel, Rapunzel and Sleeping Beauty.
We scooted down to Hinterzarten, Germany for a weekend at the end of January and are still reeling at how darn amazing it was. For two days I couldn’t put down my camera and as a result ended up with almost 500 pictures – that’s more than I took over 5 days in Paris (true)!
We spent the weekend sledding, cross country skiing, and going on long walks through the snowy forest. Don’t worry, hot meals at local establishments and generous pours of wine were sprinkled in there too! We called the B&B Adlerweg 9 our home for the weekend and absolutely loved it.
Hungry upon arrival, we followed the advice from our hotel to the restaurant at Hotel Imbery. I opted for tender cuts of pork with spatzel while Dan, a man’s man, had their tasty beef tips. Stuart minded his manners under the table like a good little prince.
You might be wonder as you proceed, “Is this really just a montage to her schnoodle, Stuart?” Why, yes, yes it is. The Fluff LOVED the snow more than Dan and I combined and stole the show as he bounded around with a big, silly, grin on his face.
Looks like our little Virginian has Alaskan roots, whodda thunk?
The village of Hinterzarten was established in 1148 (yes, really!) and all of 30 minutes from Freiburg. With the main industry being tourism, the options for outdoor activities year-round are endless. Zillions of cross country and walking trails cobweb their way through the village and surrounding hillsides allowing for quick access to the forest. Not only that, we found the village delightfully reasonable in terms of costs for food, drink, ski rentals and lodging.
<<It would seem appropriate to be listening to this song as you continue. >>
On Saturday morning we had the picture perfect little start to our day with fresh OJ, coffee, and homemade bread. Don’t mind me while I slather on extra cuts of butter, okay?
The most adorable snowman you ever did see!
After a one hour class, Dan and I felt like our first attempt at cross country skiing was a successful one. Sure it was tiring, but sliding around in the woods was wonderfully peaceful and fun. So we slid our way over to a black diamond (the hardest) trail. Because, you know, we were ready for that.
As a seasoned downhill skier, I thought “this is going to be cake” as we approached the rolling downward slope of the trail.
Fast-forward 5 minutes later Dan and I were both in the bank.
At one point Dan called out ahead, “I’m just going to sit on my skis like a sled to get down, okay!?”. In hysterics we finally made it to the bottom and quickly resolved that mayyyybe we hadn’t quite mastered the sport yet.
After returning our skis we promptly rented a sled and trudged over to the designated sledding hill for the kiddies. Despite my efforts to get an adorable photo op of Stuart on my lap as we went down the hill, it was not happening. “Yeah, no” he looked at me coolly.
It turns out that Stuart had other ideas – dog sledding! A musher-less Iditarod ensued.
Look at him go!
Dinner on Saturday night consisted of a lovely-carby pizza and .5L of wine (which was not shared).
We rose early on Sunday morning for one last whimsical winter wonderland walk (and any other things that start with a W).
Per usual, Stuart promptly lost his marbles running around.
Lookout! Snowball headed this way!
By the end, Stuart’s turned into one giant snowball. No worries, despite the ice cubes dangling from his body his mission to hop around in even the deepest snow wasn’t compromised.
Farewell, Hinterzarten. We WILL be back. Mwahhaha!
Think you’d like a winter escape to the Black Forest one day?