Schwarzwald

Have you ever had Black Forest ham? Well, today I went to the place that it originated from.

Black Forest is a beautiful national park in Germany which contains mountains full of trees as far as the eye can see.  The trees are so tall and so close together, it makes it too dark to see, hence the name, Black Forest.  Also, legend has it that a monster lurks in the forest and haunts it.  To me, the monster looks like King Trident to from the Little Mermaid.

Jonas's family came with us and we walked around for hours.  In the middle of the hill, is a beautiful lake with a restaurant on one end and a path that circles the whole lake. You can also rent boats.

Next we walked up the mountain.  All the paths were made of sandstone and they slowly crawled up the mountain.  At every point, there were different views to look at.  I have never seen anything so beautiful.  Once we reached the top, we were at 3,773 feet above sea level! To be up even higher, we climbed the tower on the left.

After climbing the tower, we ate German sausage, which was basically a better tasting American hot dog.  It even looked like one.  What shocked me was that we were given glass plates.  In America, plastic plates would be given at a quick restaurant in a national park, if there was a restaurant at all.

I am still finding some of the aspects of the German culture so amazing!  For one, the pop bottles are different.  Instead of fat, they are tall and thin.  I have seen many types of Coca cola, including some that I have never seen before, Sprite and Fanta Orange.  The only thing I don't like about Germany so far is their water.  All their bottled water is carbonated.  For dinner last night, Jonas was kind enough to remember that and had regular water on the table for us.

Yesterday, I mentioned how all the houses are stone.  That is not completely true.  The older houses are stone with wood frames.  They look like the German houses in the movies.  There are some pictures of them on Facebook.  None of the houses here have blinds to cover the inside of their windows.  They have plastic ones that they bring down from inside the house.  The plastic is a good couple inches thick and helps to protect the house from burglary.

Today, I also found out the name of the river that is so close to the house.  It is the Rhein river!  I have learned about it in school and now I finally can put the name to the place.

I cannot wait for what tomorrow brings!