Weather seemed to get angry on us in the morning of the third day of our European trip. It was cloudy for most of the morning and early afternoon, but the worse was yet to come. Weather would play as we shall see later a role in our trip in the Black Forest, in which we decided to do in two days the three itineraries recommended by the green Michelin guide.
wind energy stations near Freiburg
The first itinerary was a loop drive in the mountains of the Southern extremity of the Black Forest. Here are located the highest peaks of the area, and they can offer good opportunities for hikers. We chose to conquer two of them using the tele-cabin services. On the way we made a first stop to take pictures of the wind energy stations. After the sun energy panels we have seen in the previous days this was another proof that ‘green’ energy is on focus in this area of Europe. The ‘windmills’ also allow for spectacular pictures.
view from Mount Belchen
The first peak we reached was Mount Belchen. It is 1414m high, and offers good views of the Alps on the South, Vosges on West and the Rhine valley to North. The elevator takes the tourists over the forest areas and we could admire from there the dark green of the forests that gave the name to the whole area. If you drive the area you need to pay attention to the roadsigns, as the GPS software for some reasons does not know Belchen – so rather look for Wieden which is the closest inhabited place.
Maltese Beer in the Black Forest
The next stop was at Mount Feldberg, which has also a couple of hotels and restaurants at the down station of the elevator. We ate a soup at a pizza place which for some reasons was advertising a Maltese beer that I never heard about during my trip to Malta 🙂
the lighthouse on Mount Feldberg
Feldberg has an altitude of 1493m and a wide and windy plateau was waiting for us at the upper station. If I was to complain that my passion for lighthouses could not be satisfied during this no-sea vacation, here I got the closest thing to the true thing – a structure (communication tower? just observation point?) which resembles a tall lighthouse on the peak of the mountain!
Bismarck's Monument on Mount Feldberg
A monument to the 19th century German chancellor Bismark is the other landmark on the peak of the Feldberg mountain. The two are quite spectacular, and for the mountain lovers this is a nice place to spend some time. It was getting cold for us however, and we decided to descend and continue our trip. We were heading towards what proved to be one of the unexpected discoveries of our excursion.