You Can’t Sit There- Matt and Leslie try not to F up in Europe, Ch. 3 Triberg, Freudenstadt, Baden-B

(Continued vacation story/how-to.. See “You Can’t Sit There- Matt and Leslie try not to F up in Europe, Ch.2 - Freiburg and Todtnauberg” for previous)

So as mentioned previously, after walking around the market in Freiburg for an hour or two, we decided it was time we got to gettin. So we navigated from Freiburg to the Triberg Wasserfalle which is the tallest waterfall in Germany (I believe). We didn’t know exactly where to park to walk near the falls, so we followed navigation to the top. On the way up we saw 2 other small parking lots which would have been MUCH better choices ha. One lot was at the bottom of the hill and one was midway. The path near and over the falls is basically a bunch of switchbacks next to and over the falls, so the other lots were more ideal because that put the uphill part of the hike early on and a downhill back. On the other hand the top lot puts a steep downhill to start and then a biiiigggg uphill back to the car……….

Unfortunately, though, we just weren’t [Read: “I wasn’t”] quite sure about the other lots as we passed them so… up we went.

Regardless, we hiked down, catching glimpses of this non-dramatic cascading waterfall. You can only get so far until you hit a little hut where you have to pay 5 Euros per person to continue on (or slightly more if you get a combo ticket with the falls and the museum in town). We debated for a bit but decided that it was one of the few reasons we really came to Triberg so… even if it wasn’t worth it, it would be worth it.

For us, the ticket basically just got us a good view of the waterfall by allowing us onto this bridge that crossed it, but… that was about it. We debated going down some of the little side trails we saw signs for, but we ALSO had previously decided we wanted to watch the Germany World Cup game in a bar with a bunch of Germans, so we didn’t think we really had time to amble or explore. Steep climb back to the car it was.

We drove back down into town since we were planning to do a quick stop in the Black Forest Museum before finding a bar. After parking and walking to the museum entrance, we decided that Triberg seemed a littttlleee gimmicky, and we wanted to get to a bigger town for the game. So we skipped the museum and got back in the car.

If I didn’t mention it already, we had not planned a hotel for this night to allow us some flexibility, so we had no specific destination we had to get to by the end of the day/night. It almost made it worse though because the “freedom to end up where we wanted” really translated to “having anxiety about accidentally ending up in a small stupid town that didn’t have anything going on or some such other horror.” Sigh.

I tried to do some research en route, struggled a bit, but we landed on heading to the town of Freudenstadt. It seemed like a decent sized city with an organized city center and looked promising for spots to watch the game. We navigated to the city center and somehow ACTUALLY found a parking lot pretty quickly. It was a little weird. We had been fairly stressed out, though, trying to figure out what city to navigate to and how much time we had and what bar we would go to when we got there, so even though parking was easy we were still a smidge flustered.

Anyway, we park successfully. We had seen a few bars/restaurants with TVs set up outside and a bunch of people sitting to watch the game. It felt very promising! We walked past the two places closest to the parking lot, and although both had seemed hoppin from the car, once we were actually there they were both a bit… odd. I mean. In American terms, it would have been like walking past a bar full of people there to watch an NFL playoff game that’s about to start, and they are all just... sitting there… still… and almost silent. You probably wouldn’t go in, right?

Well, we did anyway. Ha. And of course they didn’t speak much english and of course when we asked for a food menu they replied to Matt, “hot dogs,” and of course when we indicated we wanted to sit outside they pointed us to this tiny side room inside that was very claustrophobic and filled with Germans staring at us. Of course.

We managed to order beers, at which point we decided that we had been through the stress of getting there and if we wanted to sit outside, gosh darnedit we were going to sit outside. So we grabbed our beers and walked to their patio seating. We got lucky and found a cushioned bench available so we popped a squat. We ended up watching the whole game there, and through the whole game the other patrons (I am assuming they were all German) sat there and barely cheered. And when Germany lost, they barely showed disappointment. It was seriously bizarre. But we managed to have 2-3 beers and it put us at ease enough to get over it haha.

After the game, we were pretty hungry and decided to walk over to a beer garden that had popped up on the map. It was only about a 10 minute walk. Upon arrival, it looked like it was closed due to construction, but we eventually found an entrance. We decided to be bold and just walk right in and take a seat, knowing that we would likely be told we couldn’t sit there. Instead of getting yelled at, though, we got ignored. Completely. Matt even made eye contact with a couple of the waitress types… and nothing. We waited it out probably a solid 15-20 minutes, and still did not have one person come ask if we needed anything (like a menu…. or a beer), and we DID see other people get waited on in the same area, so we weren’t just sitting in a “No table service” kind of area (which also happens a lot). At that point I think the stressful moments of the day added up and combined with our hunger leaving us a bit fed up. We walked out and eventually decided to go back to the car and head towards Baden-Baden. By now it was about 7 or 730pm, and Baden-Baden was about an hour or so away. I was soooooo hungry but snacked on chocolate and snack bars to survive.

While we were driving, I found some random hotel on Booking.com called Hotel Haus Reichert that looked to be near the center of the town at a semi-decent price. There was a garage nearby called Kurparkgarage. Again, I don’t remember the price for one night, but it wasn’t awful. By the time we got there and parked it was nearing 9pm, and I was SO. HUNGRY. So we left the bags in the car and decided to find dinner before checking into the hotel.

We basically walked out of the garage, saw a restaurant across a small river/creek/canal kind of situation with outdoor seating and more World Cup on called Wallstreet im Hamilton, and we decided to go there. No questions. No research.

Basically, the food wasn’t mind-blowing, but we still kind of hit the jackpot. The food was good. The menus were in english. Our waiter spoke english. We could see a TV playing World Cup. The weather was beautiful. The beer was tasty and cold. And there was “in-flight entertainment” if you will….more in a second. Matt later looked it up and apparently it was actually one of “the places to eat” if you’re in Baden-Baden. Sometimes things go our way :-)

So. Entertainment. Baaaassiiccalllyyyyy, we watched two guys sit down at a table maybe… 20 ft from ours. One of them looked like a DOUCHENUGGET. Yea, I said it. He wore motorcycle gloves while he drank his beer and had an air that he thought he was the king of the world. Anyway. So we’re watching these guys, and all of a sudden a 3rd guy sits down, but we realize after a bit that he was not joining them. Friends? Stranger? Asking for money? Trying to talk Soccer? Intriguing. 3rd guy walks away. Third guy walks back and then has 2 more friends that stand nearby. All 3 walk away. I think this happened maybe once or twice more, and the last time the passerby group had grown to maybe 5 or 6 guys. Drug deal? Drug deal gone wrong? Friends? Enemies? So many questions! They come back one more time, things get testy, and the guy who had been sitting down at their table grabs the douchenugget’s helmet and they all walk away!! So obviously this blonde goon goes after them. All of a sudden there is running and yelling. Then less than 10 minutes later, we see the helmet-stealing group walking back on the other side of the road….DN nowhere to be seen. This whole time DN’s friend has been sitting at the table finishing his coffee (HA), and eventually someone comes back over to him, says something, and friend of DN goes running in the direction that his friend had. Another maybe 5-10 minutes pass, and they both walk back, DN’s face looking a little less smug and little more cut and bleeding and swollen than it had previously…. Yiiiikkkeeeesssssss. Still have no idea what it was all about, but… drama.

Anyway.

We finish up our dinner and beers and decide to once again just go to our room, drink some wine from a water bottle (we had poured the leftovers from the night before into a big water bottle so we could bring it with and it wouldn’t spill) and make a game plan for the next day. All we knew was that we needed to end up in Munich, but didn’t have too many specifics for what happened in between. Once again, I had one glass and called it quits haha. Matt stayed up, though, and made an Excellent plan for Thursday….

Thursday morning came and we showered and packed then ran our bags to the car. We then walked over to Cafe Konig just to walk past. This place is a little cafe that opened in Baden-Baden around 1750 and was said to be a spot visited by the likes of Tolstoy and other notables that i can’t remember or find the names of right now. Matt had found a number of reviews online saying that they were essentially rude to/ignored all foreigners, though, so that is why we decided to just walk by instead of stopping in. After our drive-by of Cafe Konig, we walked to the other coffee spot that Matt had found called the Kaffeesack. It gave us a chance to walk through a little bit of town on the way, too, which was nice.

The guy running the shop was basically a German hipster. Big long curled mustache, a paperboy cap, pants rolled up to show off his patterned socks and oxfords. He was super, super nice though, and although his english wasn’t great, he tried, which is more than many people are willing to do.We grabbed a table outside and ordered two pastries and two pour-over coffees (hipster status at medium alert). It was a lovely morning with the sun shining and the streets quiet (as always in Europe before 11am).

My goal for the Black Forest was to eat “Black Forest Cake.” I honestly didn’t know what it was exactly, but it was one of those traditional foods I had read about and wanted some! Cafe Konig had come up as a place to get it, but since we had vetoed that, we were hoping this Kaffeesack would have some. No go. So we ask the guy at the counter,

“Where could we get Black Forest cake?”

Oh no, we exceeded his english capacity.

He paused, changed the deer in headlights look to one of determination, and he grabbed a customer (and I’m assuming friend) to come over and talk to us instead haha.

So we asked her, “Where should we go to get Black Forest Cake?”

“Ooooh ooh wow, well, Cafe Konig. Everything they have is amazing.”

Drats.

So we thanked her for so generously talking to us and giving us her input, and we headed back braced for the worst. It was still pretty slow at Cafe Konig so there were only a few people sitting outside and a few people in the shop. We walk in and take our time looking at the counter, deciding which one was Black Forest Cake (not all of the signs were clear) and to decide our path forward.

“Do you think we pay first? Should we sit down? Or do we order and tell them we want to sit??”..

It’s amazing how such a simple task can feel so complicated when we aren’t sure of the typical customs or cultural etiquette..

Long story short, we order then sit down at the cute little tables outside and they bring us the slice of Black Forest Cake with the almond croissant we had ordered. We also ordered two cappuccinos and while we enjoyed breakfast dessert, we sat trying to imagine being in this same cafe over 100 years prior planning our next novel…

After indulging in dessert before noon, we decided it was time to head out of town. Matt had found a neat funicular called the Merkurbergbahn not too far from Baden-Baden that went up a mountain and let you look one way into Germany and the other into France. We navigated to the funicular on the map and were able to park in a little lot right by the station. We went over and unfortunately got there RIGHT after a french senior citizen tour group. It took us a little bit to realize that the ticket “office” was inside the building to the left which was separate from the line we were in the actually get on the funicular. Matt was able to just pop out of line to get our tickets and come back. We did end up getting on the same ride as the french group, but there is a lot of seating in the funicular so we had no issues.

At the top of the mountain there is a little restaurant, picnic area, and a small tower to allow for the best viewing. So we walked over to the tower but it took us a minute to figure out how to open the door to get IN the tower (there’s a little button on the wall to the right when looking at the door haha). I think we took the stairs halfway and the sketchy elevator the other for some reason, not sure, but eventually worked our way to the very top. There was a little observation thing for 1 Euro I think. I tried it… it didn’t blow my mind haha It was difficult to really focus in on anything, but it was neat to stand in one place and know you were looking at two countries.

Maybe around 1:30 or 2pm, it was time to get back in the car and head east. The only potential stop I had found between Baden-Baden and Munich was a town called Ulm pretty much exactly halfway between. We set that as our destination. We started on Avoid Highways but decided we just didn’t have enough time to take the 3 hour route there instead of the 1.5 hour route. This was the first time we were REALLY on the highway in Germany (aka, Autobahn). And yes, there is a speed limit most of the time, but it fluctuates between about 80 km/hr and 130 km/hr (about 50 mph to 80mph… nothing crazy). It started to rain a bit, and between that and the highway driving (versus windy back roads), we were both getting a little sleepy.

The main attraction in Ulm is the church (of course), Ulm Munster. It was built between 1377 and the 19th century. The spire on the church remains (I believe) the tallest spire in the world at about 530 ft, and for awhile the church itself was one of the tallest buildings in the world, period.

So that was our destination. We found a parking garage and decided we would grab a late lunch/ early dinner somewhere before walking over in hopes of waiting out the rain. We were lucky to stumble onto Restaurant Zur Lochmule. It ended up being this ADORABLE German pub type place with good beers, good food, and huge umbrellas so we could sit outside even in the pouring rain. Honestly, after an anticlimactic drive, we were both brought back to a place of deep content sitting there without too many other people around, eating, drinking, listening to the sound of the rain hit the umbrella and the river next to us, and of course, watching the world cup.

After dinner, we zipped up our raincoats, put our hoods up, and started walking towards the Munster. We saw the spire peeking out over other modern buildings as we got closer. We turned a corner around a shop and… there it was. Huge, gothic, and beautiful. Even in the rain. We walked in front of it a bit to get different views, and then walked towards it to get a better look. We found that it was actually open for another 10-20 minutes! So we walked inside and gave Matt a good view of his first old Renaissance church haha.

We walked back to the car, and I finally offered to drive (yes, I’m pretty sure Matt had driven this ENTIRE time until this moment… I was nervous about not having the IDP [see Ch. 1] and he LOVES driving, so...there ya go). The rain continued to pour. I took the highway the rest of the way to Munich and actually had fun trying to continually do the math of, “Ok, the speed limit is X, what’s that in mph? How fast am I going? I wonder if I could go faster…” ha. And Matt took a nap and then did research on the brewhouses we were going to patronize.

Munich, here we come!

See you soon as our story continues!