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3.3.60

Dear Folks,

Well, it wasn't Switzerland, but it was surely beautiful. The Black Forest is
not really high mountain country like the Swiss Alps or the Sierras - you see very little
granite or sheer rock of any kind. Instead it's more like high rolling hills covered
with thick stands of pines, with occassional deep river gorges cutting through the country.
There are many high grassy meadows sloping sometimes right up to the pines. But never
a craggy snow-capped peak which we usually associate with mountains. And yet
the smell of the pines and the clear, fresh air, and the ever present rushing mountain
streams are so familiar, even more present than in American mountain country.

We left Saturday noon by train from Stuttgart, after a morning of errands and
shopping - a tripod for my camera ($5) and maps and guide book for our vacation trip ($10!).
We didn't really plan a train schedule, but just sort of made connections as they
came along. We stayed in each place until ready to go, then headed for the next.
Our route, if you have a map: Stuttgart, Eutingen, Hausach, Triberg (long stop),
St. Georgen, Villingen, Titisee (2nd long stop), Freiburg (3rd long stop). Then
on Tuesday we came directly back from Freiburg: Titisee, Villingen, Rottweil, Eutingen,
Stuttgart (a 4 3/4 hour trip, much slower on the way down, what with breaks + detours).

Triberg is a beautiful little town, wedged in the winding gorge cut by a
rushing stream over the centuries. The main stream runs through the center of
town (at one edge is Germany's highest waterfall, not particularly more beautiful than
many other parts of the stream), and also countless other small streams and rivulets
which feed into the large. Everywhere the sound of water - rushing, tumbling, roaring,
pounding, or trickling, rippling, gliding easily - is present as background music,
so that the scenery is heard as well as seen.

Saturday night in Triberg we went to a party in one of the large hotels; for this
was Fasching weekend, the four days of constant party and gayiety which climax
the pre-Lenten carnival season. During these 4 days people wear wild costumes
(like ours of Halloween, but really fancy sometimes) and never seem to sleep.
The party we went to was really fairly quiet - (1) because about 1/3 of it was American
a group on a weekend bus trip from Frankfurt, and (2) because the really gay celebrations
go on in the large cities - especially Mainz, Köln, Munich. Still it was fun -
polkas and fast waltzes and even a little jitterbug - singing and laughing, etc. We
gave up at about 10 to get some sleep, but I'm sure the party went on far into the
morning hours. We spent the morning walking through the town and the forest overlooking
it - it was really wonderful to be out in the woods again, to feel the earth and leaves
underfoot.

Titisee was even better than Triberg. It is very much a resort town, on the
shore of a lovely lake, with both thick pine forests and meadows with small farms
surrounding it. But this is the off season - many of the hotels and chateaus looked
almost closed and the streets were empty and quiet, the paths and roads around the
lake quiet and undisturbed by cars or crowds. In summer I can imagine it
would be ghastly, but right now it's great. We spent Monday morning on a 5 mile