Just call me Little Red...

Oh the Black Forest. The mystical setting of Grimm brother fairy tales, rolling green hills covered with flowers and evergreen, grazing herds of cows. I imagined myself running through lush fields, beer and brat in hand, hair braided and singing German songs...

Yeah right.

The day started fairly clear, took a train and then bus to Kirchzarten, then proceeded on foot to the Schniederlihof Museum, an old school German farmhouse in the Black Forest, preserved in its original form. We got a tour of the old place, learning about how they lived and worked, while outdoors, the day turned from ok to worse.

Rain and wind pelted us as we continued to hike upwards to the peak, Schauinsland, which stands at 3281 feet. I'm sure behind all the clouds and rain there were the hills and flowers I had so fondly imagined, but at that point all I saw was the heels of the person in front of me and the steep incline we were ascending. We were essentially within a cloud by the time we reached the peak, where we huddled in groups, eating our sandwhiches.

So yeah, I wasn't in the best mood. Rain + cold + wind + steep incline = not so happy Janie.

Convinced that this was now officially the worse experience so far, we trudged down into the heart of the forest. I seriously thought I had walked into Middle Earth. Trees the size of sky scrapers towered above us creating a dense leafy ceiling while moss and slippery roots carpeted the floor. We skipped along the forest path, pretending I was Little Red Riding Hood (which was accentuated by the fact that I indeed had a red hood on), stopping every now and then to breathe in the fresh mountain air. You may think you've breathed fresh air before, but you have no idea what you're talking about until you hike the Black Forest.

I absolutly loved it. With every fiber of my rain-soaked body, I love the Black Forest. I love its beauty, its serenity, its mystery.

After the forest, we finally found ourselves in the rolling hills of my imagination, where wild flowers grew. Though I restrained myself from running through them like some Taiwanese Heidi, I couldn't wipe the smile from my face. We stopped by the Rappenecker Hutte (hiker's inn...or in my case, grandmother's house) for some cheesecake and coffee and proceeded on our way.

Let me just say: the weather here is bipolar.

We're barely in the forest again before it starts raining...again. But by this point I was so stuffed with cheesecake and soaked with rain that I didn't even care. Slippery roots and scary cliff ledges only made me laugh as we kept hiking down to the village of Oberried. The forest continued to astonish me with its wonder and I promised myself I would come back again...preferably not in the rain.

Though this wasn't necessarily the hike of my dreams, it was definitely a crazy adventure. And luckily I didn't run into any big bad wolves along the way.