St George to Ravensburg

Today was beautiful because we were driving through snow covered landscapes.  When we awoke the temp was -12C or about 12 degree F, so it was rather cold to be out walking around! But the temp did not stop us!

I forgot to say anything yesterday that the sun shone ALL day.  This is the first since we have been in Germany.  There have been a few other days that we saw a little sun, but most of them have been cloudy.  We have used our sun glasses very little until yesterday.  This morning we saw the sunrise, but then it was cloudy and hazy the rest of the day.

I also want to make a correction to yesterday's blog.  We were the last guests of the guesthaus, as they are closing for good and planning to sell the facility.  The lady we talked to had been with the guesthaus for over 30 years.

 

View from our window

Our Guesthaus by day

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This morning we decided to drive back approximately 7-8 kms to Triberg.  This is the Cuckoo clock region! No, we did not buy one, but we were in a shop where they had 1000 for sale!  Coming down the mountain into Triberg is a stream of water that drops over seven cascades forming the highest waterfalls in Germany.  At this time of the year with the snow, and ice formations it had a whole different feel that if the surroundings would have been green during the summer months. 

 

View along the highway

Back road of Germany

 

 

Hotel in Triburg

Triburg Waterfalls

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Everywhere we looked this morning, it was picture perfect!  We took so many photos!  We got off the back roads we were on and drove on some completely snow covered back, back roads!!  We had to move on!  We continue east, stopping in Villingen, before getting to the Bodensee area. We drove along the Sea to Uberlingen where we stopped at their Christmas market.  Back on the road again we were still along the Sea when all of a sudden in front of us was a huge church.  It was a massive Basilica sitting in a rural area among the vineyards along the Sea.  The inside was absolutely impressive.

Villingen Christmas Market



Rechette House

Villingen City Gate

Uberlingen on the Bodensee

Warming hands at Uberlingen Market



Chestnuts roasting on the open fire

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our next destination was Ravensburg.  By now it is getting dark, so after visiting their two Christmas markets and watching them open the Advent door of the Advent Calendar on the side of a building, we found a hotel in the downtown area.

Ravensburg Market

Advent Calendar

Ravensburg Rotary Cookie Bake

Ravensburg Rotarians

Children making cookies

 

Baden-Baden, Strausburg, Gengenbach, near Villingen

The morning began with taking photos of the little village in which we stayed overnight.  Our hostess at the guesthouse could not speak a word of English but she wanted to be sure we were pleased with her accommodations.

Overnight Guesthaus



View of Vineyards from Guesthaus

Vineyards along the road in our town

Once on the road we were headed to Strasbourg, France.  Strasbourg says it is the Christmas Capital of the World!! We do not know who set the standards, but we will say it was very large and it was very nice.   Strasbourg is just over the Rhine River into France, so their Christmas market does have French items for sale, plus much of what we have seen elsewhere.  Very little English is spoken in Strasbourg!! And we know NO French! We do know a little bit of German – enough that we can survive, plus some words you can simply figure out, while in French! NO WAY!

Plowing the green crop in.

Strasburg Christmas Market

Strasburg Cathedral - Closed Today

Christmas Market Entrance

 

Pizza Baguettee for lunch

Stand selling Figureens

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We returned to Germany and began driving southeast to the Black Forrest region. We stopped in Offenburg & Gengenbach to see their markets.  Gengenbach was the nicer of the two.  One of the main buildings on the central plaza which is lovely in itself has the Advent Calendar on its windows, so each day of advent at 5:30 pm a shutter is opened.  It is a popular time to be at the Christmas market.

More vineyards on the route

Entering the Gengenbach Market

Those irresistible crapes

Ice Skating

Advent Calendar on the Building

City Gate Tower

Take your pick - Just in time for Christmas

We continued driving southeast on back roads. The higher we got the more snow was on the ground, plus in some locations they just received snow today as the roads were not clear.  It was beautiful, but it was after 4:00 and getting too dark for good photos as you are driving.  We passed through some lovely small villages.  We arrived in the tourist town of Triberg!  Triberg is a beautiful village anytime of the year but especially in the snow! However we did not find any opened hotels, as many of them are beginning to close for the winter, so we continued on to the village of St George.  We found an open guesthouse at the top of the town in St George.  We will be the last guest for the season at this guesthouse, as they are closing tomorrow, so we were fortunate to have located it.  We will take photos in the morning from the view of our windows as we are so high above the valley.  We will also walk around town taking photo before we leave.

The Streets of St George

Our Guesthaus

The weather – It is cold – about 12 degrees, and up in the mountains they have had about 12 inches of snow.  Tonight we walked to a Chinese restaurant – It was good we had boots with traction, as we walked down the hill to the center of town.  There are piles of snow everywhere and ridges of snow beside the roads.  Tomorrow we plan to drive the few km back to see Triberg in the daylight, before we move ahead.  

Tomorrow is Thursday and we have to back in Frankfurt by Sunday pm – our 3 weeks is almost over!  As we have traveled in Europe in the past we have avoided the larger cities, as we love the little towns, so why deal with the hassle of larger cities.  However this time, if we want to see the Christmas market, we have to go into the ‘Centrum’.   We have done well driving right into the town centers (only a few missed turns), parking in the ‘park houses’ (parking garages), and being near the Christmas markets. However being out on the back roads is more our style.