Ever since I was in junior high - back in Minnesota and taking German in school - visiting the Black Forest has been on my bucket list. And today, the dream to see it myself was checked off my list!

Of course, it's very different today than it was when all the fairy tales originated; but still, it was awesome. The cuckoo clock has deep roots here and we saw many, many varieties of them in the various shops we stopped to visit. There are many farmers who live and work in the Black Forest and their farms have been in the same families for generations. Their primary crop is wood (with a law that a tree must be planted for every one cut, and they must vary the age of the new plantings so that the forest always has trees in various stages of growth) and their primary purchaser is China. In exchange, China supplies the area with milk. Odd, huh?

Another main "crop" here is the pig - ever hear of "Black Forest Ham"? Here's the place - as is Black Forest Cake. Mmn.

Anyway, besides the Black Forest, which was awesome, we also visited the small town of Freisburg and had a nice tour. Our guide used to be in a pop band, back in the 70's. It was called Edison Lighthouse and they were sort of a one hit wonder: remember the song "Love Grows" (where my Rosemary goes...)? He was a whole lot of fun.

We ended the day with a walking tour of the village of Breisach.

Overall, a fairly mellow day. It was blistering hot - almost a hundred degrees - so things seemed to move at a slower pace.