Somewhere in ... the Black Forest

It has been a long while since we updated this blog and what best excuse than our first wedding anniversary? Yes, it has been one year since that amazing night in the beautiful castle of Palmela. We found ourselves celebrating it in yet another beautiful old historical building, a charming hotel called Parkhotel Adler which has been in the same family since the 15th century, and lies in the south of the famous Black Forest in Germany, in the resort town of Hinterzarten.

Godzilla by the hotel

Hinterzarten is an old skiing resort, a little town with quite a few alpine-looking chalets combined with old germanic architecture - the pinnacle of which was the old church by our hotel whose bells certainly made themselves heard, tolling their song each morning and evening - unfortunately we were to hear it only one morning and one evening, although as soon as we saw the hotel and its surroundings, we wished we could stay here for a much, much longer time!

The weather gods smiled at us - the usually wrong weather forecast had warned of rain, and on the way to the Black Forest we had seen some scary looking clouds, but as soon as we got there, the sun beamed at us and we knew it was time for a hike.

Walking in the Black Forest with Lenka is like going through a (very) interactive biology class - the flora there is not too unlike that of the Czech Republic, which means I learned the czech names for each flower, fruit, tree and mushroom that came our way - learned which ones were either poisonous, full of blood-sucking monsters, or those which could be used as nose accessories.

These pretty flowers can possibly kill you

The trek took us from Hinterzarten to a very pretty lake called the Titisee lake, where people can eat german cakes in busy restaurants, rent a boat to go around the lake, buy all sorts of souvenirs or hold "waldfests" (forest parties) with lots of food and beer. Unfortunately people were doing all of this. Many, many people. So after a short rest we decided to go back to the quiet of the Black Forest and hike back to the peace, relaxed atmosphere of Hinterzarten. All in all, we did nearly 10kms of hiking, and it was absolutely stunning. To finish off the evening we rewarded ourselves with a lovely dinner in our hotel's very old, charming restaurant, and toasted to our first wedding anniversary. So far so good.