Schlossberg and the Schwarzwald at Night
11 September 2017, continued
We stepped back out to the streets of Freiburg to find that the rain had cleared up, and it had become a surprisingly nice day! We walked through the streets of the old city, down the cobblestones and by the ever-present Bächle, and through the popular Augustinerplatz. The scenery in the city was truly beautiful, from the ivy growing up the old buildings to the paintings in the park. We wandered back to the Schwabentor, where you could cross to the large park on the hill called the Schlossberg. The stone stairways and dirt trails leading up were a nice walk through the woods, and even with leaving such a great city behind us and the sky growing overcast again, it was pleasant to get out into the woods. We walked through the Kanonenplatz with its panoramic views of the city, then continued up to where the old castle stood. Small stone ruins lined the pathway that led to another stairway. It was a long climb up to the top.
At the top of the stairs was a metal observation tower. There are a good bit of these throughout the Black Forest, but unlike the large stone tower by the hotel, this was thin and metal. The majority of the tower was an open-grate spiral stairway going around the center pole. Open grate stairways are not Beth's favorite, neither are spiral stairways, so combining the two into one narrow, open-air tower was not her cup of tea. She did make it almost to the top though, and went up to the bottom of the platform. There was one more spot above though, and I climbed up there for a great 360 degree view of the city and the surrounding countryside. So amazing! Unfortunately the overcast skies opened up to more rain, which made a mess of the pictures I tried to get from up there. The giant cathedral we just walked through looked so tiny from all the way up there. After a few pictures, there was one more spot to go. From the top platform, the center pole continued about another six feet up, with the stairs set to take you all the way to the top. I climbed up those stairs, and stood on the single point high above the forest. It was amazing! A nice gust of wind came by, and wow did that top point really wobble... and that was enough of that!
The skies cleared up again as we walked back through the park to the car. Too bad it didn’t clear a bit earlier, to where I could have had great pictures from the tower. But we did shoot a few more at Kanonenplatz, then bid our farewell to Freiburg as we drove back along the windy road. It was windy this time around, and those tight curves through the rocks made for an intense wind tunnel!
As we were on the Rt 500 heading back north, the sun was dipping towards the horizon. We found a spot we could pull over that had a specacular view out to the west. That amazing light that blankets the ground just before the sunset illuminated the forest and the fields off to the horizon, and the sky lit up in brilliant orange. We stood and watched as the sun set, coloring the Black Forest and the sky above like a surreal painting.
We intended one of the two days in the Forest to get dinner at our hotel. The restaurant looked good and the breakfast was wonderful, but it did close somewhat early and we spent more time than expected in Freiburg. So, we stopped at Rewe in Furtwangen for another supermarket adventure! We brought our groceries back to the hotel and made a quick dinner in our room. Salami and Gouda, fresh baked rolls, German potato salad, and the rest of our tomatoes made for a hearty spread. We cracked open a few of the beers we picked up along the way as well - Rathaus Radler, Rathaus Eis Zäpfel, and Ramseier Cider – all Swiss, though the Rathaus seems to be fairly popular in this area. We hung out at our little table by the window and enjoyed our hotel room dinner for our last night in the Schwarzwald.
We were having an easy night in the room when I had realized that I left the camera out in the trunk of the car. While I doubt it would get cold enough to cause damage or that someone would take it, I would rather have it inside. I went out to grab it, and as I crossed the field to the parking area the night seemed to close in around me. The wind was ripping through the trees something fierce! Unlike last night where the moon cast its glow and the countless stars shone overhead, tonight the overcast sky blocked out the stars, and the night was pitch black. I hit the remote unlock, followed the flashing headlights to the car, grabbed the camera, and locked up again. The lights went out, and turning to face the field and the forest beyond, I just stood and looked around, and I listened. The wind loudly howled through the trees. My eyes adjusted where they could, but it was absolute black everywhere I looked. That darkness from the forest we peered into earlier was now all around me. Actually, it seemed to be penetrating right through me. A weird sensation built in my chest, a feeling somewhere between unease and dread, that defied all rational understanding of the world as it chilled right to the core. As I walked across the grass back to the hotel, it felt like the very darkness itself was following me. No wonder all those creepy stories came from here, no wonder this forest is filled with such superstition and legend! It was easily as dark here as it was in Ireland or all those times camping in Canada. But this felt different, like I could actually feel the dark. I could feel the night as if it were a presence standing right behind me. I got to the hotel, and as I pulled out the keys to unlock the lobby door, I fumbled and dropped them. Great, this is how it happens in literally every horror movie! Luckily I managed to recover the keys, open the door, and left the forest and whatever terrors that lurked within out in the night.
Back in the room, I figured this was a perfect time to settle down with some light reading, and what better than the stories that were born here in this forest? I called up the Brothers Grimm Fairy Tales on my Kindle, poured out some of that Swiss cider we still had leftover, and read the stories with a much greater sense of appreciation.
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