End of summer marks the beginning of the harvest season in our region. Many villages have started with the harvest of their grapes last week and the forecast is promising. If you happen to visit the Black Forest region right now – or within the next few weeks – make sure to participate in one of the famous ‘Weinwanderungen‘ – literally a ‘wine hike‘ in which thousands of people participate. They usually last a few kilometres and you will be equipped with a tasting glass and a map of the area. Every few kilometers there will be a wine-tasting station set up and local chefs create the appropriate appetizers, snacks and desserts to go with it. There is a shuttle service which will bring you back to your initial starting point.

Weinwanderung

Besides the popular ‘wine hikes’ there are about a hundred wine festivals and other wine-related activities scheduled for the months of September and October. If you are lucky, you will even meet a wine princess.

If you are not sure where to get started planning your wine vacation, please contact us or come along on our famous Wine Tours! See you soon in the Black Forest!

For more pictures visit our photo album on Picasa or click below:

Harvest Season has begun

Ready?

There are many mountain coasters in Germany and specifically in the Black Forest. Many of them aren’t that exciting. The one we really like is the Hasenhorn Mountain Coaster in the town of Todtnau. The ride is almost 3 km long and super exciting with tons of sharp bends and a few mesmerising 360º turns. The best thing is that you are in charge of your own speed. This mountain coaster is something you shouldn’t miss during your Black Forest vacation. We usually try and make time for at least one coaster ride during our sightseeing tours. Fun!

Ready!

If you are not sure when to visit this area you might want to see if there is a public holiday during the time frame you are considering for your Black Forest vacation. If that’s the case if it always a good time to visit. Because public holidays usually mean that there are tons of celebrations going on all over the area. A quick look into the local events calendar will tell you in which town you can encounter a parade with people wearing traditional costumes or a procession of some sort. On Sundays there are festivals happening everywhere because people always find a reason to celebrate. (we also have an events calendar on our website which we update regularly)

Last week we ran into a Fronleichnam (Corpus Christi) procession in a small town in the Black Forest which is famous for its approximately 1 km long Flower Carpet. Everyone in the town is supposed to get involved. The different streets in town get assigned a specific portion of the carpet. That means if you live in that specific street you will start to collect flowers a week prior to the event. The night before the event people lay the flower carpet within designed patterns and motifs. On the day of the event people get up at 5 AM to finish the carpet. By 9 AM the project is done and the procession can begin! If you have never seen a flower carpet have a look at the pictures we took - you are in for a treat!

Black Forest Schnaps

What’s the most important thing when visiting the Black Forest?  Eat a big piece of the world-famous Black Forest Cake, right?  Well only authentic Black Forest cakes contains original Black Forest Kirschwasser - a distilled schnaps.

We have added a Schnaps Tasting Tour to our Black Forest vacation tours. There are more than 14,000 approved distilleries in the Black Forest today and we will take you to some small local distilleries  so you can taste some of the finest schnaps made. The best distilleries produce small batches of schnaps of a wide variety fruit, but typically apples, pears and cherries.   See you soon in the Black Forest!

If you are lucky enough to be in the Black Forest this holiday weekend (Monday is a holiday!) we hope you were able to stop by at the Mountain Bike World Cup in Offenburg today. With sunshine, blue skies and 25 degrees Celsius it was a perfect day for this race.

Have a look at some of our pictures on Picasa if you missed the event!

20100523 Mountain Bike Worldcup Offenburg, Black Forest

The women’s race started at 10.45 AM, the men followed at 2.30 PM.
For the fourth time in a row French rider Julien Absalon won the UCI Mountain Bike World Cup in Offenburg. The women’s race was won by Canadian Catherine Pendrel.

If you are interested in exploring the Black Forest on a mountain bike have a look at the mountain bike tours or other vacation tours we are offering. See you this summer in Germany!

Spargel (shpag’-el) is the German name for asparagus and if you have been to Germany in Spring you know that April marks the beginning of Spargelzeit (asparagus season). Whereas green asparagus is available in the US year-round, (white) asparagus in Germany is very seasonal. Just as apples are a sign of fall season, asparagus marks the beginning of spring. Spargelsaison in Germany begins in April and ends abruptly on June 24 (Midsummer Day).

Americans almost exclusively get only green asparagus whereas most asparagus in Germany is white. Rarely green asparagus can be found in Germany. It is then specifically called “grüner Spargel” (green asparagus). White asparagus has a sweeter taste and is more tender than green asparagus. It is grown in sandy soil and covered with black plastic sheets by the farmer. This prevents the asparagus from turning green from exposure to sunlight. Using machines during the harvest can result in broken stalks which have a very low commercial value. Therefore harvesting the white spargel is done by hand.

The states of Baden-Württemberg and Lower Saxony take special pride in being prime Spargel growing regions. The scenic “Asparagus Route” in the Baden region runs through the town of Schwetzingen which claims to be the “Asparagus Capital of the World”.  Many towns along the Asparagus Route in our area celebrate Spargelfest (asparagus festival) which attracts visitors from all over the world. Practically every restaurant along the Asparagus Route create special Spargelmenus featuring frischer Spargel (fresh asparagus) allowing you to order this vegetable as an appetizer or soup, an entree or even as part of a dessert.

During Spargelsaison you will run into many roadside stand’s where farmer’s sell their harvest. Gourmets know that Spargels tastes best “picked in the morning, eaten at lunch” and therefore more than 50% of German’s Spargel is purchased directly from these farmer stands. At the beginning of Spargelsaison, the cost can be anywhere from 15 to 25 euros per kilo.

No matter if you are booked on one of our culinary tours right now to have us show you the restaurants with the most exciting Spargel-recipes or if you are travelling by yourself.  If you happen to be in the Black Forest right now – ENJOY SPARGELSEASON!

Voted as the world’s best mountain bike event of the year  the Mountain Bike World Cup is coming up on May 22 and May 23rd 2010 in the town of Offenburg in the Black Forest.

The preparation of this year’s 5.2 km long Mountain Bike circuit has begun about 5 months ago and is known for its steep slopes and climbs.

We are expecting over 20,000 spectators to cheer for the world´s best mountain bikers on this upcoming weekend. There are also more than 280 course marshals, section leaders and the mountain rescue service attending the race. If you happen to be visiting the Black Forest in May, join us for this event and watch some of the most spectacular mountain bike races you’ll ever see. Tickets can be purchased online or contact us for assistance.  If you miss the event but are visiting the Black Forest in the summer you can book a mountain bike tour with us to see how challenging the area is.

If you have visited the Black Forest before you might have noticed a dish in many local restaurants called ‘Wurstsalat‘. Literally translated to ‘sausage salad‘ you might have hesitated to try the dish (seriously – do you want to eat a sausage salad??) and probably ordered some more well-known German specialty like a Schnitzel. Not that there is anything wrong with ordering a Schnitzel. But during your next visit you might want to try a Wurstsalat. This dish is so popular in the Black Forest that there are plenty of websites dedicated to it. Many make it their goal to find the best Wurstsalat in the region and have online polls to show you where the best one can be found. Unfortunately all of the websites we have found are in German.

Wikipedia describes a Wurstalat as a ‘tart sausage salad prepared with vinegar, oil and onions normally made from a sort of boiled sausage like lyoner, stadtwurst, regensburger or extrawurst.’ As shown in the pictures a hard-boiled egg, onions, tomatoes or pickles can be added to the sausage salad. The salad is served cold with some farmer’s bread on the side.  It is a refreshing plate preferred on warm days. Many times you might see a  ‘Elsaesser Wurstsalat‘ on the menu. In this variation from the Alsace region some cheese is the additional ingredient in the  salad.  Order a local beer or local white wine with it and  enjoy!

We would love to hear your feedback on this. Have you tried a Wurstsalat yet?

The Black Forest is not only being associated with Black Forest Cake, Black Forest Ham and Cuckoo Clocks but also with the so-called Bollenhut – a PomPom Hat which comes in 2 colors. The Bollenhut consists of 11 handmade pompoms (14 pompoms altogether but only 11 are visible). The hat can be up to 2 kilograms heavy and comes in the colors red and black. The rule is that unmarried women wear a red hat until their wedding. Once married, they wear a black hat.

Although the Bollenhut is one of things people might associate with the Black Forest, it is actually only being worn in 3 communities – Gutach, Wolfach-Kirnbach and Hornberg-Reichenbach. The origins of the hat and the appropriate dress can be traced back to the mid-1700s which makes it one of the oldest Black Forest Costumes. These days it’s only worn on holidays or other big events. Click here to see some of the Bollenhut pictures we took over time.

The latest marketing campaing of Gutach shows a VW beetle wearing a typical Bollenhut. Watch out next time you are driving on the Autobahn!

New7Wonders of Nature is an initiative started in 2007 when more than 440 locations in 220 countries were submitted to be considered as one of the ‘New7Wonders of Nature’, criteria to be a breathtakingly beautiful, natural place.

In July 2009 it was announced that the BlackForest Germany is one of the elite 28 Official Finalists in this global election. It is expected that more than 1 billion people will participate in this poll over the next few months to vote for  the winner of the competition.

Please help us in having  the Black Forest become one of the ‘New7Wonders of Nature’ by voting for it here.