Home of the cuckoo clock, the Schwarzwald (Black Forest)
gets its name from its dark, slightly sinister canopy of evergreens:
this is where Hansel and Gretel encountered the wicked witch. The vast
expanse of hills, valleys, rivers and forests stretch from the swish spa
town of Baden-Baden to the Swiss border, and from the Rhine almost to
Lake Constance.
Twenty minutes walk - or a five-minute bike ride - fom populated spots will almost always put you out in nature - in the middle of quiet countryside dotted with traditional farmhouses and amiable dairy cows, perhaps, or in a thick forest where Little Red Riding Hood's wolf may lurk.
The northern section, with its hilly but relatively gentle terrain is home to several charming towns. Freudenstadt makes a good base for exploring the Northern area. Many of the Schwarzwald's most impressive sights are in the triangle delimited by the lively university city of Freiburg, 15km (9.3mi) east of the Rhine in the southwest; Triberg, cuckoo clock capital of Creation, in the north; and the charming river-valley city of St Blasien in the southeast. Even smaller towns in the area generally have tourist offices.
Germans are famous for excelling. While notoriously well-organized and efficient, they are also experts at relaxing. Explore Germany's Black Forest — with its venerable trails and world-class mineral spas — and you'll know what I mean.
A mix of Edenism and hedonism, the Black Forest is popular with German holiday-goers and tourists looking for serious R&R, clean air, cuckoo clocks, countless hiking possibilities and chocolate cakes layered with cherries and drenched in schnapps. The forest stretches in a hilly 100-mile range along Germany's southwestern border with France. The region got its name because its forests are so thick the locals called them black.
Tooling around by car, you get a feeling the area is steeped in tradition. That feeling is confirmed and explained at the Black Forest Open-Air Museum in Gutach. Built around a grand old farmhouse, the museum makes folk life vivid, using its collection of antique farms as racks upon which to hang artifacts illustrating otherwise long-gone lifestyles. Here you'll learn why and how the farmers with little to do during the long winters were absolutely cuckoo for clock-making.
With its clock-making heritage, it's no wonder this region has what I consider Europe's best clock museum. The German Clock Museum in Furtwangen is more than a chorus of cuckoo clocks; it traces the development of clocks from the Dark Ages to the space age.
The Black Forest's top attraction — and a fine springboard for all that woodsy fun — is the spa town of Baden-Baden. A hundred and fifty years ago this was the playground of Europe's high-rolling elite. Royalty and aristocracy came from all corners to take the Kur — a soak in the curative (or at least they feel that way) mineral waters — and to enjoy the world's top casino. Today this lush town of 55,000 attracts a more middle-class crowd.
During non-gambling hours the still-impressive casino welcomes visitors with tours every morning (call several days ahead for a tour in English or pick up the paltry English language brochure). Built in the 1850s in wannabe-French style, Marlene Dietrich declared this "the most beautiful casino." Inspired by the Palace of Versailles, it's filled with chandeliered rooms honoring French royalty who never set foot in the place. But many French commoners did. Gambling was illegal in 19th-century France...and Baden-Baden was conveniently just over the German/French border.
Even if you're not a gambler, it's fun to witness this casino in action. Sipping a glass of sprightly white German wine, you can lean against a gilded statue and listen to the graceful reshuffling of personal fortunes.
In the German-speaking world, when you see a town with the word "Bad" in its name, it is (or was) a mineral spa. Bad Ischl, Bad Ausse, Bad Neustadt, Bad Kissingen...there are plenty. But there's only one Baden-Baden — and (as its name suggests) it offers what I consider the ultimate spa experience in a park overlooking the old town. Be warned: the dress code is nude (and can be coed, if you choose) — a surprise for many Americans.
Baden-Baden's venerable Roman-Irish Bath is traditional, stately, indoors, not very social, and extremely relaxing...it's just you, the past, and your body. Enter a steamy domed world of marble, brass columns, herons, and lily pad tiles.
Like many Americans, I feel awkward when I'm naked in public. Being naked and unable to speak the language...in a steamy place where I can't wear my glasses...I'm somewhere between Woody Allen and Mr. Magoo.
I go for the works. First, a stern women dressed like a nurse gives me industrial strength flip-flops and directs me into a torrential shower. Then she instructs me to lay — face down — on something as charming as an X-ray table. With her coarse mittens scratching me from my heels to the small of my neck, she lathers me up and gives me a rub down. Then with a fat Teutonic spank she makes it clear...the rub down's over. Wrapped in a hot towel, I'm set free to work my way deeper into the steamy complex.
Following the suggested regime (posted in English on the walls), I begin a two-hour ritual of steam rooms, hot pools, cold plunges and finally the quiet room — where my nurse reappears. She wraps me in a thick warmed blanket and tucks me in — cocoon-style — on the nearest of a roomful of beds where I lay in pre-natal peace.
Since Roman times this series of rounded granite summits, which topographically forms a counterpart to France’s Vosges on the other, western, side of the Rhine Valley, has been a border region. The Romans found it harsh and rather impenetrable and the region took centuries to populate and even then was considered an oddly backward part of Germany. Inevitably the Black Forest first rose to commercial prominence for its timber, and forestry naturally spawned woodwork – giving farmers something to do in the winter – and so the famous cuckoo-clock industry, the associated precision engineering, and the manufacture of musical instruments followed. All these continue to provide jobs, though the regional mainstay is now tourism, which continues year-round thanks to skiing and spa facilities. So you won’t find yourself alone exploring this attractive region, but escaping the crowds at the various hotspots is easy, particularly if you’re keen to explore on foot or by bike. Relative to its fame, the Black Forest region is not terribly big – about 150km long and maybe 50km wide – and so easily explored by car in just a few days, though of course that rather misses the chance to drop down a gear in one of Germany’s most treasured regions where good scenery is matched by many time-honoured traditions.
Dozens of attractive slow-paced small towns and villages make touring a delight, but perhaps the best way to explore is to base yourself in one of the two largest towns and strike out from there. The most genteel base is Baden-Baden, a grand old nineteenth-century spa town in the north that specializes in dignified recuperation and pampering. Bad Wildbad, is another smaller, less expensive alternative in the Northern Black Forest, which is otherwise known for its attractive marked drives, particularly the scenic Schwarzwaldhochstrasse, or the Badische Weinstrasse, which travels the range’s foothills through wine country. Both drives can be used to access the attractive Kinzig Valley which, along with the adjoining Gutach Valley, is considered the most quintessential and traditional Black Forest area. South of here, the attractive and upbeat university town of Freiburg dominates. Exploring its usually sun-soaked narrow streets is fun, but its main attraction is as a handy base from which to explore the entire Southern Black Forest. Deep valleys are flanked by rounded peaks like the Feldberg that tops out at 1493m, and include many minor ski and lake resorts.
Twenty minutes walk - or a five-minute bike ride - fom populated spots will almost always put you out in nature - in the middle of quiet countryside dotted with traditional farmhouses and amiable dairy cows, perhaps, or in a thick forest where Little Red Riding Hood's wolf may lurk.
The northern section, with its hilly but relatively gentle terrain is home to several charming towns. Freudenstadt makes a good base for exploring the Northern area. Many of the Schwarzwald's most impressive sights are in the triangle delimited by the lively university city of Freiburg, 15km (9.3mi) east of the Rhine in the southwest; Triberg, cuckoo clock capital of Creation, in the north; and the charming river-valley city of St Blasien in the southeast. Even smaller towns in the area generally have tourist offices.
Germans are famous for excelling. While notoriously well-organized and efficient, they are also experts at relaxing. Explore Germany's Black Forest — with its venerable trails and world-class mineral spas — and you'll know what I mean.
A mix of Edenism and hedonism, the Black Forest is popular with German holiday-goers and tourists looking for serious R&R, clean air, cuckoo clocks, countless hiking possibilities and chocolate cakes layered with cherries and drenched in schnapps. The forest stretches in a hilly 100-mile range along Germany's southwestern border with France. The region got its name because its forests are so thick the locals called them black.
Tooling around by car, you get a feeling the area is steeped in tradition. That feeling is confirmed and explained at the Black Forest Open-Air Museum in Gutach. Built around a grand old farmhouse, the museum makes folk life vivid, using its collection of antique farms as racks upon which to hang artifacts illustrating otherwise long-gone lifestyles. Here you'll learn why and how the farmers with little to do during the long winters were absolutely cuckoo for clock-making.
With its clock-making heritage, it's no wonder this region has what I consider Europe's best clock museum. The German Clock Museum in Furtwangen is more than a chorus of cuckoo clocks; it traces the development of clocks from the Dark Ages to the space age.
The Black Forest's top attraction — and a fine springboard for all that woodsy fun — is the spa town of Baden-Baden. A hundred and fifty years ago this was the playground of Europe's high-rolling elite. Royalty and aristocracy came from all corners to take the Kur — a soak in the curative (or at least they feel that way) mineral waters — and to enjoy the world's top casino. Today this lush town of 55,000 attracts a more middle-class crowd.
During non-gambling hours the still-impressive casino welcomes visitors with tours every morning (call several days ahead for a tour in English or pick up the paltry English language brochure). Built in the 1850s in wannabe-French style, Marlene Dietrich declared this "the most beautiful casino." Inspired by the Palace of Versailles, it's filled with chandeliered rooms honoring French royalty who never set foot in the place. But many French commoners did. Gambling was illegal in 19th-century France...and Baden-Baden was conveniently just over the German/French border.
Even if you're not a gambler, it's fun to witness this casino in action. Sipping a glass of sprightly white German wine, you can lean against a gilded statue and listen to the graceful reshuffling of personal fortunes.
In the German-speaking world, when you see a town with the word "Bad" in its name, it is (or was) a mineral spa. Bad Ischl, Bad Ausse, Bad Neustadt, Bad Kissingen...there are plenty. But there's only one Baden-Baden — and (as its name suggests) it offers what I consider the ultimate spa experience in a park overlooking the old town. Be warned: the dress code is nude (and can be coed, if you choose) — a surprise for many Americans.
Baden-Baden's venerable Roman-Irish Bath is traditional, stately, indoors, not very social, and extremely relaxing...it's just you, the past, and your body. Enter a steamy domed world of marble, brass columns, herons, and lily pad tiles.
Like many Americans, I feel awkward when I'm naked in public. Being naked and unable to speak the language...in a steamy place where I can't wear my glasses...I'm somewhere between Woody Allen and Mr. Magoo.
I go for the works. First, a stern women dressed like a nurse gives me industrial strength flip-flops and directs me into a torrential shower. Then she instructs me to lay — face down — on something as charming as an X-ray table. With her coarse mittens scratching me from my heels to the small of my neck, she lathers me up and gives me a rub down. Then with a fat Teutonic spank she makes it clear...the rub down's over. Wrapped in a hot towel, I'm set free to work my way deeper into the steamy complex.
Following the suggested regime (posted in English on the walls), I begin a two-hour ritual of steam rooms, hot pools, cold plunges and finally the quiet room — where my nurse reappears. She wraps me in a thick warmed blanket and tucks me in — cocoon-style — on the nearest of a roomful of beds where I lay in pre-natal peace.
Since Roman times this series of rounded granite summits, which topographically forms a counterpart to France’s Vosges on the other, western, side of the Rhine Valley, has been a border region. The Romans found it harsh and rather impenetrable and the region took centuries to populate and even then was considered an oddly backward part of Germany. Inevitably the Black Forest first rose to commercial prominence for its timber, and forestry naturally spawned woodwork – giving farmers something to do in the winter – and so the famous cuckoo-clock industry, the associated precision engineering, and the manufacture of musical instruments followed. All these continue to provide jobs, though the regional mainstay is now tourism, which continues year-round thanks to skiing and spa facilities. So you won’t find yourself alone exploring this attractive region, but escaping the crowds at the various hotspots is easy, particularly if you’re keen to explore on foot or by bike. Relative to its fame, the Black Forest region is not terribly big – about 150km long and maybe 50km wide – and so easily explored by car in just a few days, though of course that rather misses the chance to drop down a gear in one of Germany’s most treasured regions where good scenery is matched by many time-honoured traditions.
Dozens of attractive slow-paced small towns and villages make touring a delight, but perhaps the best way to explore is to base yourself in one of the two largest towns and strike out from there. The most genteel base is Baden-Baden, a grand old nineteenth-century spa town in the north that specializes in dignified recuperation and pampering. Bad Wildbad, is another smaller, less expensive alternative in the Northern Black Forest, which is otherwise known for its attractive marked drives, particularly the scenic Schwarzwaldhochstrasse, or the Badische Weinstrasse, which travels the range’s foothills through wine country. Both drives can be used to access the attractive Kinzig Valley which, along with the adjoining Gutach Valley, is considered the most quintessential and traditional Black Forest area. South of here, the attractive and upbeat university town of Freiburg dominates. Exploring its usually sun-soaked narrow streets is fun, but its main attraction is as a handy base from which to explore the entire Southern Black Forest. Deep valleys are flanked by rounded peaks like the Feldberg that tops out at 1493m, and include many minor ski and lake resorts.
The gardens are home to about 150 Wisteria flowering plants spanning 20 different species (white, blue, purple, violet-blue and pink). This is the reason why the “tunnel” is so colorful and graceful.The best time of the year to go from late April to mid May (depends on the weather each year). The peak is normally at end of April to the Golden Week. Not every year wisteria bloom so magnificently. To get to the garden from JR Yahata station, take Nishitetsu bus #56 and get off at Kawachi Elementary School. Then walk 10-15 min to the garden. It is difficult to imagine Kawachi Fuji Garden any other way but in full bloom, yet according to Atlas Obscura, visiting the place outside the mentioned time period will lead you to a “disheartening mass of lifeless, twisted branches”. If you had the chance to walk along this flower-covered pathway, feel free to drop a line and tell us how it felt!The gardens are located about a 4-hour drive away from Tokyo, and the best visiting time is late April to mid May. At this time of the year, the wisteria flowers are in full bloom. Moreover, an annual “Wisteria Festival”, also known as “Fuji Matsuri“, is hosted on April 27-29 to offer additional festivities in the gardens. Once in the gardens, many visitors experience an overwhelming zen-like peace and calmness. It’s no wonder that wisteria is an important symbol for Buddhists, representing prayer and reaching out to the divine. These metaphors are mostly inspired by the spiraling shape and manner that the flower grows, sometimes reaching as high as 65.6 ft above the ground.Wisteria (known as fuji in Japan) is said to be one of the archipelago's most ancient noted flowering trees, even being described in the collected poems of the Man'yōshū (Collection of Ten Thousand Leaves).
Noda fuji, a species native to Japan, comes in varieties named for their cascading trusses: Usubeni fuji (light pink), Murasaki fuji (purple), Naga fuji (long), Yae kokuryu (double-petaled black dragon), and Shiro fuji (white), which come into bloom in that order. Finally, a yellow variant of wisteria (known as Golden chain or Common laburnum; [Laburnum anagyroides]) - and widely considered difficult to grow in Japan - can also be enjoyed for over a month.
Three massive wisteria trellises extend for more than 1,000㎡, in addition to a large trellis of rare double-petaled wisteria, others suitably arranged as shrubs, an 80-meter tunnel of white and yellow wisteria, and some draped like a living screens, while the early evening sight of wisteria mirrored in the pond takes on an ethereal yet breathtaking beauty.Whenever we think of wisteria, our first recollection is usually of its purple cascades. Clusters of Noda wisteria hanging about 40 to 50cm are arranged uniquely within the garden. Almost as if designed as art, each stem is subtly different in color - just like any other distinctive substance, radiating a singular tone (purple, bluish purple, and light bluish purple) to emphasize their beauty.This is the third of our wisterias to come into bloom.
Visitors can hardly hold themselves back from proclaiming: "Wow! So beautiful." Many people struggle to find anything else to say. Whenever we hear such compliment, our belief that this garden is a power of good is reinforced. Walking through the 80-meter tunnel of white wisteria, gently assailed by its sweet aroma, is all but guaranteed to leave you feeling exultant.The Yae kokuryu (Double-petaled black dragon) wisteria is thought to be a mutation of Kokuryu fuji, which is in the Noda Wisteria family. This double-petaled wisteria is reputedly the largest one in Japan, and has the strongest aroma, appearing almost like a bunch of grapes from a little distance. It is much appreciated. Many people can be heard to profess: "I've never seen this before," while admiring the trellis in the middle of the garden.Golden chain [Laburnum anagyroides vossi] was said to be imported to Japan in around 1970, and it is found in Austria and Switzerland. This has the largest and longest clusters of the Laburnum anagyroides family. It is known as "yellow wisteria" in this garden, since that is its common name in Japan. Our 80-meter tunnel of yellow wisteria is the longest one in Japan, and comes into bloom from early May - representing the final chapter in the wisteria Stories.
About 200 yellow wisterias can be enjoyed until around the third week of May.
The spectacular view of the pastel-colored passageway of wisteria flowers at Kawachi Fuji Gardens, in Kitakyushu, Japan is truly a fairytale setting, a place you would never want to leave. This enchanting tunnel exploding with colour is known as Wisteria Tunnel where the flowering Japanese wisteria (known as fuji in Japan) hang overhead and the different colored rows create a spectacular place to walk through. The gardens are located about a 4-hour drive away from Tokyo, and the best visiting time is late April to mid May. At this time of the year, the wisteria flowers are in full bloom. Moreover, an annual “Wisteria Festival”, also known as “Fuji Matsuri“, is hosted on April 27-29 to offer additional festivities in the gardens. To get to the garden from JR Yahata station, take Nishitetsu bus 56 and get off at Kawachi Elementary School. Then, it is a 10-15 min walk to the garden.
Kawachi Fuji Garden is home to about 150 Wisteria flowering plants spanning 20 different species (white, blue, purple, violet-blue and pink). The Wisteria Tunnel is an example of using living trees as an part of a structure, a practice sometimes referred to as arbortecture. Wisteria is one of the most beautiful climbing plants. It is a large deciduous climber with a hard woody stem. Easily trained, the woody vines tend to reach maturity within a few years, at which point they bloom in cascades of long, lavender flowers of varying pastel shades.
Located
in the city of Kitakyushu, Japan, Kawachi Fuji Garden is home to an
incredible 150 Wisteria flowering plants spanning 20 different species.
The garden’s main attraction is the Wisteria tunnel that allows visitors
to walk down an enchanting tunnel exploding with colour.
Located about 6 hours (according to Google Maps) from Tokyo, the best
time to visit is from late April to mid May, typically peaking at the
end of April. The garden is private so there is an entry fee. -
See more at:
http://www.thestupidstation.com/home/image/341/3734/The-21-Most-Incredible-Places-On-Earth-to-visit-before-you-die#sthash.WRbd4QiD.dpuf
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