When we were in Germany in 1998 visiting our friends, Andy and Dyana, we made a side trip to the Black Forest and stayed in the town of Triberg.  One of the day trips we made was on the train through the Black Forest to Lake Konstanz, on the Swiss border.  It was such a memorable train ride that we decided to try to duplicate it.

Like six years ago, it started off a dismal day, with fog and a light drizzle dogging us as we drove down to Triberg to catch the train.  It was a beautiful drive, twisting through the Black Forest, going through multiple tunnels.  Unfortunately, we spent a little too much time enjoying the scenery, as our train literally pulled away just as we drove up!

To kill the next hour, we checked out one of the many cuckoo clock shops in town.  Granted, it was really touristy, but some of clocks were quite beautiful (and besides that, we were tourists!).  We ended up purchasing one for the house.  Kathie had wanted one for quite some time and I had vivid memories of our clock growing up.

We made it back to the train station with plenty of time to spare and got on the train for Konstanz.  It was about a two-hour ride down out of the Black Forest and just like six years ago, the weather improved dramatically as we went south.  Konstanz is right on the Swiss border and was considerably more "cosmopolitan" than we had been exposed to for the past several days.  After lunch, I went off to find a wine shop that carried some of the local wines while Kathie, Victoria, and Kelley continued their on-going hunt for clothes for Kelley and Victoria.

Around 3:00, we started heading back to the train station as we had told the people at "our" hotel in Huzenbach that we would be joining them one for dinner more time before leaving the Black Forest.  We had to upgrade our train tickets, as our pass was only valid on the local train, not the IC train that continued on to Frankfurt.  Okay, truth be known, I wasn't too horribly disappointed because this was a nicer train.

We all caught some ZZZ's on our ride back into the Black Forest and somehow made it back to Huzenbach in time for our dinner reservations.  Once again, our server, Laub, had everything ready for us and the meal was fantastic.  I spent a good bit of time speaking with the owners' son, who used to study at Cornell and now owned a string of travel agencies in southwestern Germany.  We really were becoming part of the local population as more and more people were acknowledging us as they came into and left the restaurant.  One 94-year old gentleman even stopped by on his way out to flirt with Victoria.  It was a very fitting farewell dinner to the Black Forest.

Our server, Laub,
who took care of us
all three nights.

Tomorrow: Farewell to the Black Forest and Hello to the Rhine!