Freiburg has an ideal location between the Swiss Alps, the Rhine valley and Schwazwald. The itinerary continues in the central area of the Black Forest, the kingdom of cuckoo clocks, with hills lined with woods that can be covered – depending on the season – on foot, on cross-country skis, by bicycle or on a pulled sleigh. from horses.
Black Forest, Triberg waterfall
A landscape torn by waterfalls, as in Triberg, or illuminated by silent lakes, as in Titisee and Schluchsee. Visit Hinterzarten, the historic ski resort: the world‘s first ski lift was installed in its valleys. A paradise for cross-country skiers, such as Schluchsee and especially Schonac, where the Nordic ski marathon starts through the Schwazwald. But this region, with 23,000 kilometers of marked paths, also contains the German myths of wandering and sylvan poetics: here Hermann Hesse set the restless pilgrimage of the interpreters of some of his novels; and in Furtwangen the current of naturalist painters of the Danube School was born.
FIRST DAY
MORNING
Dominated for centuries by the Habsburgs, Freiburg was a cultural and mercantile crossroads between Austria, France, Switzerland and Germany. With the fruits of trade he built the Cathedral that dominates Münsterplatz with a Gothic bell tower with an octagonal base 116 meters high: the highest in Germany, from its top it overlooks the city. It was superimposed on a Romanesque church in the fourteenth century and took two centuries to complete.
Friburgo, Munsterplatz
On its pediment, dozens of sculptures represent the Passion and Nativity of Jesus, as well as the Last Judgment. In the atrium 40 sculptures depict, on the right the foolish virgins and the seven free arts, and on the left the wise virgins and the Prince of the World. Inside you can admire polychrome windows and, in the apse, two panels depicting the Nativity and Adoration of the Magi by Hans Holbein the Younger. In the morning, the Duomo is surrounded by market stalls. The eighteenth-century bishop’s palace and the sixteenth-century Casa dei Mercanti with four-arched portico, balcony dominated by four sculptures of Habsburg kings, roof with beams in the shape of dragons and two side towers overlook Münsterplatz. In Joseph Strasse one is struck by the imposing Porta di San Martino (Martinstor) surmounted by a tower with a clock: together with the Swabian Gate (Schwabentor) it is the last remnant of the medieval walls that surrounded Freiburg until 1770. Between Schwabentor and Marienstrasse there is a play of cobbled streets and squares, half-timbered houses and others in pastel colors. Canals and bridges lead to the Haus zum Walfisch, the 16th-century sculpture-covered palace in which Erasmus of Rotterdam lived. Then the Rathausplatz, the Town Hall square, closed between a Franciscan monastery, the church of San Martino and the former Renaissance Rathaus, next to the current 19th century Town Hall.
AFTERNOON
From Friborg, in 25 km up through pine and larch forests, you reach Hinterzarten, a village at the foot of the Feldberg, the highest mountain (1493 meters) in the region. Hinterzarten is the historic ski resort: the world‘s first ski lift was installed in its valleys. Today it is a paradise for winter sports lovers: it has 44 kilometers of cross-country trails; and its ski lifts serve illuminated slopes for late evening skiing. And those who love walking can follow 40 km of paths, kept clear of snow in winter. You can also ice skate.
PRICE
In Freiburg, the Zum Roten Bären restaurant in Oberlinden 12 serves Swabian specialties: smoked ham, spätzle, trout and for dessert the famous Black Forest cake.
Black Forest Cake
SECOND DAY
MORNING
7 km from Hinterzarten is Titisee, crowded in summer as in winter, because on its small lake you can skate in the harsh January climates, or practice water sports between June and September. It is quieter in autumn and spring: ideal seasons for tasting lake trout and for shopping in the village shops, mostly devoted to gastronomy (honey, cold cuts and wines) or filled with cuckoo clocks. The largest lake in the Black Forest, however, is 21 km further south of Titisee, it is the Schluchsee with a beautiful cross-country ski ring: the best view of its waters, surrounded by coniferous forests, can be enjoyed from the road that leads in Fischbach.
AFTERNOON
72 km from Schluchsee is Furtwangen, a center for the production of watches and precision instruments. It houses the German Clock Museum with clocks, pendulums and cuckoos from all over the world. 6 km from Furtwangen you reach Brend, where from a viewpoint at 1148 meters above sea level you can enjoy the view of the Simonwald Valley and Donauquelle, the source of the Danube river. This wooded environment inspired at the beginning of the sixteenth century the works of painters of the Danube School, artists united by a profound sense of nature. Their brushes depicted the secrets of the forest, inseparable in the German imagination from the legendary spirits and the myth of wandering.
Black Forest Schluchsee
A myth, the latter, also cultivated by numerous German writers, first of all Hermann Hesse who set many of his novels in the Black Forest. Leaving Furtwangen, after 17 km, we meet Triberg: a center for the production of clocks and pendulums, its great attraction, however, are the Guttach Falls, waterfalls that plunge 162 meters in seven jumps.
PRICE
In Triberg, the restaurant of the old Parkhotel Wehrle where Ernest Hemingway stayed in 1922 when he came fishing in the Black Forest, specializes in trout (grilled, baked, crusted or pot-au-feu).
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