Monday, August 17, 2020

Steinwasen Amusement Park

After exploring Triberg, we made our way to Steinwasen Amusement Park in the Southern part of the Black Forest.

The scenery while driving through the Black Forest is incredible & I wish my pictures did the beauty justice.  There is simply something magical there!



Steinwasen Park is a great little amusement park for the whole family.  It's small compared to other parks we've visited, but there's something about small parks that make them really fun too.  We were able to ride every ride in the park several times & there were NO lines all day.  It was wonderful.

There is a great hike along the mountains that allow you to visit all the animals (so you can feed them), as well as a huge suspension bridge that goes from one side of the park to the other.







The kids loved riding the ski lift over & over & over again.  The views from the top were just breathtaking.  Plus, you had to ride the ski lift in order to ride the rodelbahns down the mountain which we did a bazillion times.  The kids had a blast.


I can't get blogger to load my videos for some reason, (they're probably too long), so watch for some links throughout the post to see videos of our time in Steinwasen.







The kids also enjoyed feeding & petting the pigs, moose, deer, rabbits, & more.  They love the animal parks in Germany.  They love getting up close with animals.



There were a few "little" kid rides at the park as well.  Taya & Bladen enjoyed this ride for "toddlers."  They thought it was fun to paddle around the river.


Craiger & my favorite ride was the bobsled through space.  It reminded me of space mountain at Disneyland.  It was SUPER fast & worked just like a rodelbahn where you could control how fast or slow you went.  We loved going as fast as we could.



Lunch was incredible.  Most of us got either pasta, schnitzel nuggets, or loaded fries.  I got fries with tomatoes, sour cream, & guacamole.  YUM.





Trek got fries with chilli, cheese, & jalapenos.



Lorien got a typical German lunch with bread, cheese, butter, & slices of meat.  It was DELICOUS.  She shared with all of us.



And Cadence got the Black Forest Fries which had schnitzel gravy, cheese, & onions/radishes.



Everyone's favorite ride was the newest rodelbahn.  (There were 3 in the park).  It went REALLY fast & had a ton of loops (not upside down, just loop arounds).  It was SO MUCH FUN.




We also loved the raft ride.  Watch the video above to watch how it worked.  There was a really interesting elevator that moved us to the top of the slide & then dropped us in the water.  We got SO sick on it by spinning the raft in circles.  I think we rode this one about 6 times.  It was so fun.



It was a really fun day.  Steinwasen is only 3 hours from home so we spent all day there, & then drove back home so we'd be ready for church on Sunday.  It was a WONDERFUL vacation.

 

Sunday, August 16, 2020

Black Forest & Triberg

We decided to take an impromtu trip to the Black Forest for 2 days.  We really haven't gone anywhere far this summer & we were itching to get away.

We left home after Trek got home from work on Friday & drove to Triberg to stay the night.  We stayed in this adorable little village just outside of Triberg.  We spent the evening walking around the small river next to the main road & exploring the hill with the church near out hotel.













The kids were excited to find a stray cat on the hill.  It probably belonged to someone in the village, but the kids sure loved cuddling with it.


Saturday morning we woke up early & drove to Triberg village.  This is the "heart" of the Black Forest.  The village was beyond adorable.



We hiked up to the Triberg Waterfalls which are the highest/tallest waterfalls in Germany.  They are absolutely BEAUTIFUL.  There are SO many layers to the waterfalls that you can't capture them all with a camera.  We tried to take pictures of each layer, but the layers literally went up & up & up the whole mountain.  It was a lovely hike.





















We also loved this wooden bed that sat in front of the lowest level of the falls.  You could lay on it & just watch the waterfall & hear the rushing water.  It was SO peaceful.












After hiking, we visited the House of the 1,000 Clocks which is the biggest cuckoo clock in the world.










It was SO worth the trip.  We loved every second of our time there.  

We left Triberg & drove an hour south through the Black Forest to visit the Steinwasen Amusement Park (which will be my next blog post.)

But if you ever get a chance to visit the Black Forest. . . THIS is where you want to go.