The morning was quite sunny and fresh, but the forecast for today was really bad, so we didn’t want to go for a long trip, just something quick and painless. Iest suggested we could go see Villingen (not Schweninngen!), so I found this small walk in our book around Triberg, see the waterfalls and all. Of course, it was marked “blue”, so we braced ourselves for a loser-trail, which it of course was.
What we did not expect, was that apart from our little path being a loser-trail, Triberg also turned out to be a major tourist destination in the area. The kind that parking in the town costs 60 cents for 20 minutes, and menus in eateries have English translations. This all seems to be due to the fact that the Triberg waterfalls are very well known and frequently visited, and claim to be the highest waterfalls in Germany – 163 m in descent. Which, according to Wikipedia, is actually a false claim.
Since we were already there, we decided to just go for it, and have it done with. On the little pathway to the waterfalls, we saw an old guy in traditional costume pretending to play some kind of traditional music instrument, of course only when there was a group of tourists passing by. The dude playing pipes in Glen Coe in Scotland immediately came to our minds – and he still is the best in this trade we’ve seen hands down, world class. This dude was more like a local league in the whole dress-up-and-play-out-of-tune-for-the-Japanese-and-Yanks business.
Zum Schwimmbad
Musician
For the waterfalls you actually have to pay an entrance fee to see, bloody SOBs. Anyway, we did pay, and went to see the marvel, as our trail branched off of this little path around the water. The waterfalls are actually quite nice, and the forest around them is one of the few pieces of the Black Forest that is actually natural and not cultivated, and it feels very good. Of course we took some obligatory pictures of us there (and no, you didn’t have to pay for pictures extra), and also this picture of a guy, who had a really old-school Deuter backpack, like twenty generations before my Deuter backpack, really cool!
Iest Triberg
Gina Tribeg
Deuter double
From the waterfalls we followed the trail around the small Bergsee (lake), crossed the valley to the other side, and found the Hindenburg memorial. It is a memorial to the second German president Paul Ludwig Hans Anton von Beneckendorff und von Hindenburg (yes, his name does remind one of this). We got some nice views of the town from up top, and that was about it for the trip.
Triberg _from_Hindenburg
Iest all the way up
Gina_at_Hindenburg
From there we walked back down to town, actually having to walk through the centre this time, and thus exposing ourselves to the hideousness of  such kitsch gems as the “House of 1000 clocks” – the bear on the rope was actually climbing up and down. Ugh. We were happy to get out of there fast.
1000 clocks
By this point, we were pretty steamy, as no rain has come yet, and it was very hot. Nevertheless, we still went to Villingen, if only to get something to eat, because we certainly did not want to do that (or anything else for that matter) in Triberg. We remain divided in opinion of Villingen – Iest thinks the main street is prettier than the one in Freiburg, I say no way. Not in a million years. But! they do have a beautiful fountain, and that thing actually made the highlight of the whole day for me. The local tourism website has this to say about it:
Built in 1989, the church fountain is a masterpiece by Black Forest artist Klaus Ringwald featuring famous personalities from recent history. It illustrates the 1000-year history of the town. Each of the 8 sides of this work of art is different. They are dedicated to the eras of history of significance to the town.
I just think it is beautiful, and would have taken a million cool pictures of it, if someone didn’t forget to charge his battery camera before our trip.
Villingen Church
Villingen fountain
Tags: Bergsee, Black Forest, Deuter backpack, Hindenburg memorial, house of 1000 clocks, Klaus Ringwald, Paul Ludwig Hans Anton von Beneckendorff und von Hindenburg, Triberg, Villingen, Villingen-Schweninngen, Zum Schwimmbad