Further in than the usual afternoon.
Clock valleys, forest lakes, and the road that connects them.
Germany begins a short way north of Zurich, and most visitors only ever meet the near edge of the Black Forest, tacked onto a waterfall for an hour in the afternoon. Go further in and it becomes a different day altogether: a working forest with a craft inside it, valleys that have made clocks and nothing else for centuries, dark water at the bottom of them, and a ridge road that is the reason people drive here in the first place.
- Duration
- A full day, and the road is a real part of it rather than the gap between two stops.
- Pickup
- Zurich hotel, north across the Rhine, and the forest starts almost as soon as the border does.
- Group size
- Your own party. Narrow valley roads and a car that stops when somebody wants it to.
- Languages
- English, German or Turkish, and German is useful in the smaller workshops.
- Season
- Green from late spring, gold in October, and genuinely beautiful under snow if you do not mind a cold walk.
The shorter version of this exists and it is a good day: the Rhine Falls in the morning, then the first ridge of Germany after lunch. What that day cannot do is reach the middle of the forest, and the middle is where it stops being scenery and starts being a place with a job.
THE ROAD
The forest is crossed by a set of named touring roads, and the one along the high ground runs above the tree line of the valleys with the Rhine plain falling away to the west and, on a clear day, the Vosges standing on the far side of it. Motorcyclists come from across Europe for this stretch, which tells you what kind of road it is.
Between the ridges the roads drop into gorges so narrow that the sky closes to a strip. We break the drive where the valley opens rather than where the car park is largest, and the stops are chosen the night before around what the weather is actually doing.
THE CLOCKS
Farmers in these valleys carved clock movements through the winters and sold them along the roads out, and the trade never left. Triberg and the villages around it still make cuckoo clocks, and the difference between the ones sold at the roadside and the ones made in a workshop by hand is obvious the moment they are put side by side.
The German clock museum at Furtwangen is the serious version of the story, and it holds far more than cuckoos. If somebody in the party likes mechanisms, an hour there beats every gift shop in the region combined.
And the cake exists. Kirsch soaked sponge, cream and sour cherries, eaten where it was invented rather than in an airport. It is worth the detour and it is a very short detour.
THE WATER
Titisee is the famous lake and it is busy, so we go early or we go to Schluchsee instead, which is larger, quieter and better for a walk along the shore. The falls at Triberg come down the hillside in a series of steps through the trees, and the path up beside them takes as long as you want it to.
Further east the Wutach has cut a gorge through the forest that you walk into rather than look at. It is the one stop on this day that people talk about afterwards without being prompted.
SENSIBLE QUESTIONS
How is this different from the Rhine Falls day?
That day is Swiss with a German afternoon attached. This one is German from the border onward and reaches the clock valleys and the high road, neither of which fits into an afternoon. If it is your first time in this direction, take the falls day. If you have already seen them, take this.
Is winter a mistake?
No, although it changes the shape of the day. Snow closes some of the high road and makes the valleys and the workshops the whole point, which suits people who wanted the craft rather than the view. We will tell you which version you are getting before you commit.
Is there anything for children in it?
The gorge walk, the falls, the cake, and any workshop where a clock is taken apart in front of them. What does not work with children is the long ridge drive, so on a family day we shorten it and spend the difference on the water.
This is the deep version of the German direction among the day trips from Zurich. Its shorter Swiss cousin is the Rhine Falls day, and both are listed with the rest of the private tours.