And Outside The Rain Fell...

22.10 There were few parts of Europe that held my fascination more than the Eastern countries, the formerly Communist countries, then under the Iron Curtain. A 10 day stretch now at my hand, there was much I could now see. East Europe, especially the former Prussian and Austria-Hungary empires beckoned - its history, the grandiose empires that once stretched its landmass.

Today, however, had to be different. Black Forest. The heart of it. Schwarzwald. This part of Germany had always fascinated me, mostly due to the fact that one of the most testing tracks in Need for Speed Porsche Unleashed was located here, and I absolutely love that track.

Schwarzwald was different. Tall, towering trees, so dense, little light streamed through. Icy, cold streams gushing downhill amidst fallen tree trunks covered green in moss. Walking trails with the floor so densely packed with dried leaves and acorn, it felt like you were walking on a soft bed of straw.

A change in plans at Karlsruhe station. We had planned to visit the city of Freiburg for the day, a little town that was at the edge of the Black Forest. On second thoughts, we did not want to visit another city. And thus, we picked up a little town completely off the radar, Triberg.

The heart of Schwarzwald, this place was home to Germany's highest waterfall, the world's biggest cuckoo clocks and nothing else at all. Hell, we did not come here for this. We were here to experience Black Forest at its best, and wow, we loved it.

The countryside changed quickly, with densely covered hills transpiring out of nowhere. Logging mills, little rivulets, and leaves were now everywhere.

The only ones to alight at the station, probably for the first time ever, it was the kind of place you'd fall in love with immediately. The kind of place you'd just want to stand and admire, without saying much. A hill flanked one side of the station, complete with rock climbing stubs and safety nets. The other side, as you might guess, had a stream on the other side. And the station and the avenue by it had leaves strewn all over and completely deserted.

Walking down the road, we came across a winding highway and little shops all around, selling handcrafted wooden artefacts that were both intricate and attractive (did I mention expensive? Did I? Did I?)

The area around the waterfall was dense forest, dark, cloudy and black. A nature trail snaked around to the waterfall, which although hardly a cascade, was impressive, with an icy, cold shower of water spraying across the rocks, some of it on us, as we stood on the guard rail.

As we wound up the hill, along the waterfall, the forest only got denser, until the road forked into several smaller ones. We picked up one marked the "nature trail", and Patwa and I quickly found ourselves hiking our way up the steep hill amidst fallen branches and trees. The forest floor was cushioned with leaves, so thick; it appeared we would have to dig several feet through them if we were to strike hard ground. Rocks around were covered almost entirely in bright green moss and the trees were daubed in lichen. The air around was cold, moist and very, very fresh. The forest smelled off fallen autumn leaves and of moss, the smells mingling together to leave a slight tinge in the nose! The roar of the fall quickly fused into the background, with the sound being broken only by breaking branches and an occasional bird flying across (and of course Patwa ji spewing fundae about everything). The forest floor had acorns strewn all over, bent and broken branches, and slippery pebble. This was Schwazwald of my dreams - beautiful, scenic and untouched.

We walked around the hill, a mile or so, taking our time, stopping often for photographs. We even had our little picnic on a bench near the fall, taking our time. We had much time.

Out of the hill, we rummaged through the cuckoo clock shops, for Triberg is home to the Black Forest cuckoo clocks, including the largest one existing which is in fact an entire building! We rounded off all this delicious, sumptuous Italian pizzas. Sau should have been here, he would have loved it!

Boarding a two coach train, we changed three trains to reach München, sleepy eyed, to meet DJ, PritS' delight of a friend. He took us out to Marienplatz, and we chilled out outside (quite literally) till almost 3 in the night, including being treated to McDonald's Kit-Kat ice-cream, and talking randomly about everything on earth, including beloved Bangalore. By the time we returned, we found the S-Bahn metro closed, and walked all along the city back home.

I actually worked on our presentation for college, finally hitting the sack at around 5. We had to wake up at 6.30 again, to probably experience our most fascinating days yet.

Sleeping with the thoughts of heavy blanket of leaves, tall trees overhead and the sound of water gushing forth, I quickly fell asleep.