November 5th - I'm Thankful for and Most Mindful of the Beauty of This Earth

"I love to think of nature as an unlimited broadcasting station, through which God speaks to us every hour, if we will only tune in."  ----George Washington Carver

We couldn't have picked a cloudier, more gray day to go visit Titisee on the edge of Germany's Black Forest.  We also waited a couple of weeks too long to catch the optimal beauty of the autumn colors.  A lot of the trees were losing their leaves so we caught a lot of gray again.  However,things looked much better in person than on film.  We just couldn't catch the beauty of it all on camera without the sun's help.  That being said, there was something magical about getting out and visitng somwhere new even though it was dreary and windy, therefore making the 50-something degrees  feel a lot colder (I know people in Rexburg or Rigby don't feel sorry for me).  It was kind of fun to put on the parkas and snuggle up.

We traveled up the A-5 towards Freiburg, and I saw the sun breaking through on a little village up against the hill.  I don't know if you'll be able to pick it up on the blog, but I actually caught the sun's rays coming down out of the clouds:

Once we were out of Freiburg, it didn't take long until we were in the mountains, and we caught some of the autumn colors a little closer up

Further up the road, you go through what is called Hoellental (Hell's Canyon or Valley).  It's quite an outcropping of rock that goes straight up, but we both agreed we'd been on far worse roads in lots of scarier places!  But...it was kind of ugly and mean looking.

Not too many miles and some switchbacks later, we came to the village of Titisee which sits on the lake, Titisee (See is lake in German, pronounced "zay").  You know me, I just had to get a picture of the church:

The village was full of hotels, restaurants, and gift shops selling all that the Black Forest has to offer---wood carvings, cuckoo clocks, blown-glass art, scarves and gloves, beer steins, leather goods, and yummy food. We came home with a slab of bacon and a jar of raspberry jam (it's good, but I'm not so sure I'd place it ahead of Bear Lake's).



Of course, it was fun just to walk the streets and take in the charm and architecture---I hate to overuse the word, quaint, but it was that.

Of course, this is the reason that there is a village.  This is the reason that there were hundreds of people in this tiny village in November.  It's gorgeous!  Like I said, can't capture the true beauty because of the clouds.

Wouldn't you love a summer home on this hill???

These ducks weren't the only ones enjoying the water.  There actually was an excursion boat out on the lake; but DJ's got a cold, and it was on the freezing side when the wind blew, soooo, maybe another time.

One of the more interesting things to see in town was this working clock on the side of a store which sold---clocks.  There's a close-up below which shows some painted detail, but the hands are the real deal as is the cuckoo bird and the carved wooden people. 

Since it was 12:45, we made it a point to come back at 1:00 and sure enough, the cuckoo came out and chirped, and the people moved.  See below:

Then it was off to lunch at the Bergsee Restaurant:

The interior was full of carved wood, painted crests, wooden beams, and hand-painted murals, much like we saw at the end of September on our way to Garmisch.

But, by far, the most interesting things we saw were the dinner guests at the next table:

Yes, the waitress did bring them water in a clean dog dish.  The dog dish stayed when the dogs left---another blue plastic dish was taken to the dog a few tables down!!!

On our way home, we stopped to get pictures of this amazing old train bridge built of stones.

After going through Hell's Canyon on our way back, we stopped in Himmelreich (Kingdom of Heaven), the name of the first village after getting through the narrows.

We said good-bye to the mountains and came away appreciating this beautiful world even more, along with our opportunity to explore it.