day two . 2 may

schwarzwald-mannheim, deustchland

today was the day for our long awaited trek to the highest point in schwarzwald – feldberg. the climb was very different from what we usually do in the malaysian rainforest. instead of mud and leeches, we got lots of snow and erm, more snow. it wasn’t easy balancing ourselves on the snow, but it was an interesting experience.


trekking in black forest


mums pushing their babies up the hill




atop feldberg


we have reached!

we also introduced trail mix to yinghao (smux invasion! yay!) and it felt like trekking all over again.

snow capped @ 1493m!

walking on snow

in the afternoon, we packed our bags and took a train out to mannheim, where zhirui kindly took us in for the night. actually it was more like he managed to borrow a room from his friends who are away on holiday for us.

that night, we met up with more singaporeans from ntu, on exchange at mannheim university. their hostel, though located at some seedy area (just a week ago, there was a shooting case in the neighbourhood!) had a nice pub, so we kinda just sat there and chatted the night away.

day one . 1 may

schwarzwald, deutschland

having heard so much about schwarzwald (black forest) and the mystique surrounding it, we were excited to finally set foot on this place after all this while in germany. this place had inspired many tales, one of the most famous of all being hansel and gretel. the place got its name as the trees in the forest are apparently so dense that the canopies overlap one another, causing it to be “eerily dark” when one is in the forest.

we reached freiburg in the afternoon (after which we took another train to feldberg-barental) and finally reached our hostel at hebelhof slightly after 2pm.


@ feldberg barental station

lunch was at a quiet italian restaurant, after which, we headed over to titisee, the place of cuckoo clocks. it was also here that we got our taste of the original blackforest cake! in fact, their version of the blackforest cake is quite different from what we usually eat in singapore. the cake is nice and soft, the berries, a little stronger (and sour) in taste.


black forest cake @ its place of origin!


streets of titisee


boating on titisee



we also went boating in the beautiful titisee! it was a nice and relaxing afternoon just to row along and enjoy the scenery.




lovely view on titisee





the cuckoo clocks are really pretty, but the hefty price tag and transportation cost is enough to put us off.


in the cuckoo clock shop. the original cuckoo clocks are made from the wood found in black forest!

for dinner that night, we tried the gluwien, a local specialty, and goulash soup.


high on gluwein