Höllsteig - Monday 11th May 2009 - Cuckoo Clocks, Water Falls and the Freaky Bar.

That a day! It was superb!
Höllsteig is a small place just on the road and rail in the direction of Freiburg. It has a large Best Western hotel on site and is essentially a place for coach parties to stop off, buy glassware and cuckoo clocks and also, as we found with most places in the Black Forest, a place to walk. It is also home to Germany's LARGEST cuckoo clock! (We sweens know how to rock and roll).

The first thing we looked at were the clocks, they were just simply amazing. The intricate details on them really impressed me and almost every one was completely different with different characters and ornaments. One of them even, as part of the workings, had a water wheel on the side with actual running water,... very odd and over the top, also deafening on the hour as all the little hatches opened and the cuckoos appeared.
Under the clock shop was a glass blowers, nothing really special here, loads of lovely, very expensive vases and ornaments.
The main reason for our visit was to walk up the water falls and valley of the local river. The trip took us up gangways and ladders, over tall drops and through thick woodland. The whole trip smelled of wet pine forest and at times the crashing of the water on the rocks was deafening. There is not really much to say about it, have a look at the photos, i took enough of them!
At the top of the river, as it opened out from the forest we came across a bar and guest house. We decided to stop and relax for a bit. Just as we were tucking into our very sexy plum and apple cake (by this time we realised that two portions could feed the four of us) the owner came up for a chat. He was a scary looking fella with tatoos on his arms, a thinning mullet and a biker mostache. He spoke in a very thick accent and i could not make out a single word he said, he would bang on the wall as well, it scared all of us quite a lot, mainly becuase the chap looked absolutely plastered. Luckily he had a friend closeby who was able to translate. Aparently there had been an earthquade in the region two nights before. The owners friend gave us directions and we left pretty quickly, stopping only to blaspheme on the way out.

The rest of the walk took us mainly down hill back to Hollsteig where we rested before the trip back to Titisee.