Weekly Photo Challenge: Unique

Black Forest, Germany – The Fasnacht

The festival of Fasnacht is a carnival in Alemannic folklore that takes place in the few days before Lent in Southern Germany, Switzerland and Alsace.  The Alemanni were German tribes who lived in this part of Europe nearly two thousand years ago and this area remains characterised by a form of German with a distinct dialogue called Alemannic.  The celebration literally means ‘Fasting Eve’ as it originally referred to the day before the fasting season of Lent.  The schools are all closed for this festival and all over the Black Forest there are six days of parties and making merry.

Read the full story…

Germany, Gengenbach and Six Nations Rugby

After a short journey we arrived in Gengenbach which is a small town and a popular tourist destination on the western edge of the Black Forest.  Gengenbach is well known for its traditional fasnacht where the residents of the town closely follow tradition with the wearing of costumes and carved wooden masks and clapping with a Ratsche which is a wooden rattle like those we used to take to football matches before they became a health and safety hazard. After parking the car we walked into the Altsadt which was gaily decorated with bunting and flags for the festival.  In the main square Gengenbach has a traditional town hall which is claimed to be the World’s biggest advent calendar because the twenty-four windows of the eighteenth century town hall represent the twenty-four windows of the calendar.

Just behind the main street there was a warren of tiny crooked streets surrounded on all sides by the most picturesque half timbered buildings and it was almost possible to imagine that we had wandered into a secret fairy tale village of uneven cobbled streets, colourful houses and cottages and might at any moment bump into Little Red Riding Hood or Hansel and Gretel.  This part of the town presents such a traditional image that it was here that some of the scenes from ‘Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory’ were filmed.

Sadly the weather that had temporarily improved while we were in Shiltach had taken a turn for the worst again and it was grey and miserable and we were disappointed by this because we had hoped to get some good pictures of the pretty houses and quaint cobbled streets but after only a short time had to concede that this wasn’t going to happen so we walked back through the market square where some men were erecting a temporary wooden bar in preparation for that evening’s fasnacht but we couldn’t hang around for that and although I offered Kim wasn’t keen to return later either.

So at just after four o’clock we found ourselves back at the Rammersweier Hoff much earlier than we had planned.  The hotel was good with a satellite television station showing the six nations rugby match between Italy and Wales which was much better than what is usually on offer in European hotels, CNN or BBC World, which quickly become repetitive and irritating.  Later there was more rugby football, this time England versus France and although I have never associated Germany with rugby football I was interested to discover that they are in fact ranked twenty-sixth in the world out of a total of ninety five countries affiliated to the International Rugby Board which, let’s be honest, is really quite respectable.

We watched TV, read our books and quite frankly drank too much beer and wine and by the time we made our way down to the restaurant Kim was a bit wobbly on her feet.  The dining room was full and this was not really any surprise because the evening meals were one of the best things about the hotel and we made our selections from the menu which was mostly in German but with some helpful English translations that didn’t always match up exactly but was good enough to prevent against any ordering disasters because if we had been forced to rely on the ethnic version there was a distinct possibility of ordering and receiving something quite unexpected.

The food arrived in generous portions with a big steak for Kim and what looked like a double portion of wiener schnitzel for me and we drank more beer and wine and on account of that the evening ended prematurely early.

Germany, The Fasnacht Festival

The fasnacht carnival was in the town of Hausach and it took about forty minutes to drive there passing through Waldkirch again where there were preparations in place for a carnival there later that evening which caused a bit of congestion but nothing too serious and we arrived on schedule in Hausach and finding the place curiously quiet we parked the car in a town centre car park.

There were a few folk in costume wandering around the streets but nothing that made us confident that there was to be a big event here in just about two hours time.  Eventually we enquired of a man in an elaborate green costume and he confirmed that soon the road would be closed in preparation for the event.  Fearful of being stuck in the car park with no way out until tomorrow morning we returned and moved it to a location about five hundred metres out of town where we were confident we would not be inconvenienced by the road closure and later we were glad that we did.

As we walked back into town we passed final preparations for a couple of beer tents and judging by the amount of alcohol being delivered there was going to be some serious drinking tonight.  The festival of Fasnacht is a carnival in Alemannic folklore that takes place in the few days before Lent in Southern Germany, Switzerland and Alsace.  The Alemanni were German tribes who lived in this part of Europe nearly two thousand years ago and this area remains characterised by a form of German with a distinct dialogue called Alemannic.  The celebration literally means ‘Fasting Eve’ as it originally referred to the day before the fasting season of Lent.  The schools are all closed for this festival and all over the Black Forest there are six days of parties and making merry.

During this period a sort of doughnut is popular and these are called fasnachts that are a traditional fatty treat that are produced as a way to empty the pantry of lard, sugar, fat and butter, which are forbidden during Lent.  This is a catholic tradition but in protestant England we call this Shrove Tuesday and serve pancakes instead of doughnuts, it is much the same thing.

The tradition dates back to pre-Christian days and has the appearance of an almost pagan affair in which the old traditions of driving out winter have mingled with pre-Lenten celebrations. The participants dress as spirits, demons, and witches wearing heavy wooden masks that are intricately carved and handed down from generation to generation.

There was a couple of hours until the start of the parade so we found a friendly looking gasthaus where people were starting to gather for the event and ate a good meal and drank a couple of beers while we watched the event stewards preparing for their duties by drinking several litres of pils each.  As the start time approached we paid our bill, left the gasthaus and took up a viewing position at the side of the road.

In the distance we could hear music and then in an adjacent street we could see the torchlight parade approaching.  This particular Fasnacht takes place every two years and celebrates the driving out of the witches that represent the banishing of winter.  First came the witches with their gruesome masks who swished the streets with their besom brooms then a procession of goblins and other fantastic creatures.  Every now and again there was a band of drummers beating wildly, ringing bells and playing trumpets and trombones to drive the witches out of town.  There were seventy-two groups participating and these are all unique guilds or clubs who have the same uniform and identity.  Some were scary witches with grotesque features others wore animal masks of all kinds, as well as masks of mythological characters that figure in local folklore and history, everyone in the group wears the same costume, walks the same and behaves in the same way.

 

That’s only until they have had too much drink of course and as the groups kept coming the parade became more and more boisterous as the marchers kept darting into the crowd to play pranks and encourage participation.  People were dragged to the floor in mock fighting, others had hats and shoes stolen and one group picked on the pretty girls and had a trick of tying their legs together at the ankles with plastic cable ties.  It was all good fun and the marches whooped and shouted and jumped about on wooden poles as they all made their steady progress towards the beckoning beer tent.

As it came towards the end we walked alongside the marchers and not being brave enough to join them at the bar we made our way back to the car past groups of tidily teenagers in fancy dress who were all getting ready for Hausach’s biggest night of the year and with the booming of the drums ringing in our ears we drove out of the town and took the direct route back to Offenburg and the Rammersweier Hoff hotel.

Germany, The Black Forest

We had selected the Rammersweier Hoff hotel again because it was inexpensive and because of its location about half way between the main cities of Baden-Baden and Freiburg and on the western edge of the forest in the Rhine Valley.    We had enjoyed staying there the previous year because it is a homely place, very traditional with Teutonic décor and an interesting collection of Black Forest ornaments, friendly staff and a great restaurant.  In the morning we had breakfast in the brightly coloured conservatory and there was a good selection of hot and cold food so we filled ourselves up on the basis that this would last us through until evening meal.

We hadn’t made any firm plans because we were waiting to see what the weather would bring and this morning it was dull and overcast so we decided to drive into the forest and visit some traditional towns and villages.  We drove out of Offenburg through a string of places all squeezed into the narrow strip of flat land of the Rhine Valley on the German side of the river.  We were right on the edge of the forest and to our left thickly wooded hills shrouded in a spooky swirling mist rose up dramatically towards the soaring mountains beyond.

As we drove through Gengenbach, Haslach and Hausach it was rather grey and dull and driving conditions presented no real challenges at all.  We were heading for the city of Freiburg but really wanted some excitement so in need of snow and scenery we turned off the main road and into the mountains and started to go up.

The car climbed steeply and negotiated a succession of hair pin bends first through deciduous trees surrounded by the remains of autumn leaf fall and then into dense conifer forest but even as we climbed there was no sign of snow and we had to concede that we weren’t yet high enough. 

From the highest point on this road we dropped back down and followed an  attractive route that passed through the towns of Waldkirch, Denzlingen and Gundelfingen and then we swung south to Saint Peter and then Kirchzarten to bypass Freiburg and head for the highest point in the Black Forest, the Schauinsland which literally translates as ‘look into the country’.

We now set off on a twelve kilometre climb to Todnau at the top through a series of sharp twists and turns through hair pin bends and narrow gorges and as we climbed the temperature dropped to just above zero.  At one thousand, two hundred and ninety-five metres we reached the top and living in Lincolnshire that is about one thousand, three hundred metres higher than we are normally used to so we had to watch out for nose bleeds.  There was some snow but not as much as last year at this time and the top of the mountain was a place of winter pastimes and people were skiing down the slopes, children were sledging and families were walking together through the wet snow.

Because recent years have seen the warmest winters on record every year the number of days of snow cover in central and southern Europe is steadily reducing and the snow line is retreating and climate projections predict even higher temperatures in the future.  Scientists say that this is due to global warming and some warn that within twenty years skiing will not be possible below two thousand metres.  It was interesting that there was quite so much snow here but the answer was that there were artificial snow machines on the ski slope because most ski resorts now rely on snow cannons to create simulated snow.  They achieve this by pumping thousands of gallons of water into the cold air that turn into ice crystals to provide an artificial skiing surface.  Unfortunately, these machines use so much energy and consume so much water that they are also contributing to the environmental damage that they seek to overcome and this solution to the no-snow problem may in the long run be self defeating.

Germany, Winter Tyres

It took only fifty-five minutes to fly the short distance and land at Kahlrsrue-Baden Airpark at nine-thirty in the evening and after quickly clearing immigration and customs we were soon at the Hertz desk to pick up our hire car.  Following our snow experience last year and the protracted and painful debate about winter tyres, this year I had ordered them in advance so without a discussion with the clerk on duty about whether these were really necessary, on this occasion I just paid the exorbitant additional charge of €55 and very quickly we had taken possession of a royal blue Ford Fiesta and the car hire company winter tyres sting was complete.

I say ‘sting’ because this is an additional charge trick that Ryanair themselves would be proud of because at €13.45 a day I calculate that if they are on the car for a third of the year that is an extra €1,600 or €400 a tyre and I cannot believe that they can be that much more expensive than a regular tyre.  And of course they are not because I have checked and they can be bought for as little as €40 each.

The reason that this year I had given in so easily was that last year we experienced four days of blizzard conditions, sub-zero temperatures and heavy snowfall.  Since May 2006 German motorists have been required by law to use the most appropriate tyres for the weather conditions and that driving on snow covered roads is permitted only if a car is equipped with winter tyres. Motorists are obliged to make sure they have correct tyres to suit the winter weather conditions because if a vehicle becomes stuck because the tyres are unsuitable drivers are liable to an on the spot fine, and further more if the vehicle causes an obstruction or aggravation to other traffic, the fine may be doubled.

Winter tyres use a tread rubber compound and block pattern specifically designed to retain flexibility in low temperatures and give good braking and traction performance on snow and ice covered roads so I thought it would be a good idea to have them fitted again this time.

Unfortunately we had no real need of the winter tyres tonight because the roads were dry and the temperature was hovering around 5º centigrade so there was no danger of sliding on ice of running into snow drifts.

Driving to the Rammersweier Hoff hotel on the outskirts of the city of Offenburg should have been really straight-forward, after all we had been there before so should have known the way, but additionally on this occasion we had the support of a Nuvi-Garmin satnav so we were confident that we could be there and in the bar with a jug of wine and a glass of cold Pils lager easily within an hour.

Things went well at first and we followed the instructions of the lady navigator and although I had lost all sense of direction in the dark I had no reason to suspect that there was trouble ahead.  This came when we reached the entrance to the A5 motorway and it was closed with two large no entry signs that really couldn’t be mistaken for anything else.  Still taking instructions from the little black box I foolishly ignored these and drove through only to find that I had put us in a dangerous situation going the wrong way against oncoming traffic.  I quickly turned the car around and the lady became confused.

I followed the diversion sign and clearly she must have wondered what on earth I was doing and kept trying to persuade me to turn around and return to the closed motorway junction.  After fifteen minutes we were in a real tangle, going around in circle, becoming more and more confused and completely unaware of where we are.  We found ourselves lost on the back roads driving through small villages and searching for clues from the occasional unhelpful road signs and ignoring the instructions to turn around and go back.  Even the traditional paper map didn’t help because although Kim has improved recently as a navigator she was off duty tonight so we just had to keep going and trusting in our natural sense of direction.

Eventually, after several detours and a heated argument with the satnav lady, we reached the motorway and then the right exit and then after only one more mistaken wrong turning which we quickly corrected found the Rammersweier Hoff hotel without any difficulty at all.  It was nearly eleven o’clock and the forty-kilometre journey had taken us nearly two hours!  Fortunately the bar was still open so after inspecting our room and throwing down the bags we were able to unwind for an hour with that jug of wine and a couple of German lagers.

Black Forest, Schiltach and a Blizzard

At breakfast on the final morning the sun was shining and there was a blue sky so we weighed up the options and decided to drive through the northern half of the Black Forest and spend the afternoon in Baden-Baden before catching the late flight home.  Unfortunately by the time we had packed our bags and checked out of the Rammersweir Hoff the sunshine had disappeared and had been replaced by the familiar grey sky.  (There was no additional charge for the repair of the cuckoo clock by the way).

Read the full story…

Black Forest, Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte

The station at Triberg was a little way out of town so we caught a bus with lots of other people into a busy main street full of activity but whatever was going on must have just finished because within only a few minutes Triberg was just as quiet as Villingen.

Read the full story…

Black Forest, a spot of bother with a Cuckoo Clock

Despite the detour Kim navigated us back to the main road and suddenly there was a complete change in the weather, the clouds parted and let the sun through and there was a late afternoon blue sky.  We were glad of this because this meant that we could return to Gengenbach to try and get the pictures that we wanted.

Read the full story…

Black Forest, Cuckoo Clocks

Triberg looked stunning under a covering of fresh snow and we started out to walk the main road which was difficult in the snow and ice because the town is very hilly and the main tourist road runs up a steep straight incline toward the waterfall at the top.  The snow on the path to the waterfall was completely undisturbed and we were the first to use it this morning as we made our way towards the lower and middle falls.

Read the full story…

Black Forest, Over the Mountains to Triberg

We had selected the Rammersweier Hoff hotel (http://www.rammersweier-hof.de/) because  it was inexpensive and because of its location about half way between the main cities of Baden-Baden and Freiburg and on the western edge of the forest in the Rhine Valley.  Also because last year when we had to cancel at the last minute they were really good about it and didn’t charge a cancellation fee even though they were entitled to.  It also had excellent guest reviews and these were entirely correct.  It was a homely place and very traditional with Teutonic décor and a collection of Black Forest ornaments.

In the morning we had breakfast in the brightly coloured restaurant and there was a good selection of hot and cold food so we filled ourselves up on the basis that this would last us through until evening meal.

Read the full story…