Wutach Gorge in the Black Forest is 33 kilometers long and consists of 60- to 170-metre-deep gorges. You can hike along the river (note that it goes up and down all the time and can be quite slippery) and enjoy the amazing flora and fauna.

A good starting point for a hike down the river in the gorge is Schattenmühle (shadow mill). From here you only follow the signs (or the other hikers) and are in the gorge within minutes.

You will hike through lush green vegetation and pass interesting geological formations. For those of you interested in geology: The Wutach gorge is a beautiful example of the South German Scarplands. While hiking down the gorge you will pass several layers of sedimentary rock showing granite, bunter sand stone, tufa and keuper. It’s like walking through the history of our earth.

The hike itself is a treat. You will enjoy the beautiful vegetation, several waterfalls and if you’re lucky you might even see a fire salamander.

At one point you will pass the area where famous Bad Boll, a spa resort, was located in the early 20th century. Nothing is left of this resort nowadays but an alley of old trees and a small chapel.

I will leave you with some more impressions of the hike along Wutach gorge and, at the end of this post, some links to websites with more information.

Please note that you should only hike Wutach gorge when you have proper boots and don’t mind slippery and steep hiking paths.

More information about:

Wutach gorge (only in German)

Great places to stay are the campsite or hay hut at Bruderhof or the beds at Schattenmühle:

Schattenmühle (only in German)

Bruderhof (only in German)

There is a bus for hikers that runs between several entrances to the gorge: http://www.suedbadenbus.de/suedbadenbus/view/angebot/buslinien/wanderbus_wutachschlucht.shtml

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Tábor in the Czech Republic is a medieval city located in the South Bohemian Region. It is a 6 hours drive away from Stuttgart. One of my very good friends, Moni, lives there with her family and I went to visit them for the weekend.  I arrived on a Friday night and we headed out for some sightseeing on Saturday.

Tábor in the Czech Republic is located next to the river Luznice…

… and has a picturesque old, medieval town with winding, little streets and a castle.

In the center of the old town you find the large “Zizka Square”. Here you really feel thrown back into medieval times…

… especially when you meet these guys

Fun fact: Tábor hosts an awesome medieval festival every year. Moni once invited me and even borrowed costumes for us and we took part in the huge parade. That was an amazing experience!

This time, we only paid Jan Zizka, the famous Hussite leader and founder of Tábor, a visit.

We met this guy who made some sort of Italian sandwiches on the terrace of one of the restaurants at the square. Very yummy!

Afterwards we had  ice cream at “moccacafé” (where they have a miniature train circling above the counter!! ) for dessert:

And then it was time for the fabulous  “Museum of Chocolate and Marzipan”!

Yep guys, a whole museum only for chocolate and marzipan. Heaven on earth, guys, heaven on earth.

They have a lot of figures made out of chocolate and marzipan on display from all sorts of settings, from fairytales over modern stories to the royal family…

They even have a miniature Tábor Do you recognize Zizka Square?!

But the best part was the kitchen where you could participate in creating your own little piece of marzipan artwork. I had lot’s of fun

OF COURSE the museum has it’s own little coffee shop. And OF COURSE we tried different types of hot chocolate and marzipan cakes. Yuuuuuuummmmmmmyyyy!!!

I had to leave on Sunday again but before I hit the road, we visited the monastery Klokoty.

Klokoty was built in 1708 by the order of Saint Benedict.  We visited the beautiful church of Saint Mary (where I was not allowed to take pictures, unfortunately) and strolled along the arcades, passing baroque chapels.

And of course, I lit a candle. Whenever I visit a church or monastery, I light a candle for my grandma. So now, a little flame burns for her on the outskirts of Tábor.

Well and then it was time to say goodbye to Tábor in the Czech Republic. What a wonderful town!

More information about:

Tábor in the Czech Republic

Museum of Chocolate and Marzipan

Klokoty Monastery (on Trip advisor)

The post One weekend in medieval Tábor in the Czech Republic appeared first on Living in Stuttgart.

As hotels are ridiculously expensive in Switzerland, we had decided on staying in a hostel. And what can I say, we were very pleased with our decision…

Hostel Rotschuo is located in Gersau, right at Vierwaldstättersee in Switzerland. The main building looks like an old farmhouse and I loved the cozy hallway and rooms.

For some reason, our room looked a lot like a honeymoon suite!?

The main reason we had chosen Switzerland for our reunion was our wish to do lot’s of hiking. So on Saturday morning, we headed towards mountain Rigis.

We took the bus to the village “Vitznau” and after the friendly lady at the tourist office told us, it takes three hours to hike to the top of the mountain where the main hiking trail begins, we decided to take a gondola, operated by local farmers.

Say “Hi” to Anne:

Those of you who follow my blog for a while might remember Anne as Moritz and I were invited to her wedding two years ago. Anne is a blogger, too. Check out her fun food and fitness blog www.fannetasticfood.com .

On top, we found our trail straight away and followed it uphill for a while. Even though the first hour of the hike was quite a bit exhausting, we got rewarded with stunning views.

We had lunch in an old farmhouse before we arrived at Rigi-Kalthaus.

Rigi-Kalthaus is a small village where the station of the incline is located and where you find the most unusual thing I’ve ever seen on top of a mountain: a mineral bath and spa!

Relaxing in warm water with an amazing mountain view after three hours of hiking? Let’s do it!

After two hours in the spa we took the incline back down to Vierwaldstättersee.

The incline brought us down to Weggis, another picturesque village at the lake. We had dinner in a lovely restaurant next to the water.

That’s what happens when you bring two bloggers together: You can’t even cling glasses without some picture action going on…

What a lovely Saturday we had. And Sunday was just as great:

We got up early in order to hire a kayak from our hostel and explore the lake.

It was 8 a.m. and we had the lake to ourselves. We couldn’t believe it.

After our little kayak adventure we had breakfast at our hostel and took the ferry to Luzern afterwards.

Luzern is a lovely city with a beautiful old town and lot’s of bridges. The most famous one is Kapellenbrücke (Chapel Bridge).

There are remains of the old city wall, too:

We enjoyed the afternoon in Luzern and took the ferry back to our hostel in the evening.

Monday was our last day in Switzerland. We had planned to drive to Zurich first thing in the morning but as we had enjoyed the hike on our first day so much, we changed plans and drove to Melchsee-Frutt in order to do another hike. However, on this day we were not very lucky, weather-wise. It was raining when we drove up the mountain and even though it stopped when we started our tour, there was heavy fog.

Even though we didn’t have much of a view it was a beautiful, very mysterious hike in the clouds.

Well and then, after three amazing days full of fun and adventures at Vierwaldstättersee in Switzerland, it was time to say good-bye to Anne. We drove to Zurich from where her plane left on Tuesday morning. But this was definitely not my last weekend in Switzerland. It really is a beautiful country with amazing mountains and very lovely people!

More information about:

fannetasticfood.com

Luzern

Hostel Rotschuo

Rigi Mountain hiking trails

Mineral Bath and Spa Rigi-Kaltbad

Melchsee-Frutt

The post A fun weekend at Vierwaldstättersee in Switzerland appeared first on Living in Stuttgart.

We booked the class with “Alpine Welten” and drove to Blaubeuren last Friday. The class lasted two days, Saturday and Sunday. At 9 am we met our group and our guide Fabian. We were six people who took the class. At Alpine Welten, that’s the maximum number of pupils in one class and I liked that very much. There are a few rocks around Blaubeuren so we needn’t drive anywhere else but could start right away.

At first, Fabian explained the most important knots to us.

Then, the fun could begin. Man, was I nervous… And the reason for my nervousness was this wall:

Can you see the nose sticking out, right above the first carabiner? That was a really nasty point.

On the first day, our mission was “simply” to get on top of this rock…

OK, I can do this…

Let’s see, there’s the nose, nothing to hold on to or to step on… hmmm

Oh well, who cares about the style…

Hurray, not very ladylike but successful!

I made it! I made it to the top!! Wooohoooo!!

What do you mean with “You need to get down now”, Fabian??

Abseiling??!!!

Feels like Spiderman! Awesome!!

When I was back on the ground, I was so proud – and relieved!

We did some more abseiling on the afternoon, 25 meters to be precise. Very scary, too, but awesome when you made it.

On the second day, we learned how to use carabiner, how to abseil yourself and did some lead climbing. And of course, safeguarding was a big topic, too.

You can imagine how awesome I felt after these two days of my climbing class. I’m still afraid of heights, but now I know I can get over this feeling if I want to. And in my whole life, I never thought I would be the proud holder of a climbing license one day… But now… Tatatataaaa:

Did I mention that I am very proud?

One of our lovely class mates was thoughtful enough to bring sparkling wine on the second day so when we were finished and had all gotten our licenses, we were able to clink glasses on our achievements.

Thank you again, Thorsten! That was a fantastic idea!

Blaubeuren is only a one hour drive away from Stuttgart. Alpine Welten offers a variety of climbing classes, ice climbing, fixed rope routes and more. I can highly recommend booking a climbing class with them as I felt very safe with and well educated by our guide Fabian. For the near future, my friends and I decided to do some indoor climbing in Stuttgart. Either at Kletterzentrum Stuttgart at the Waldau or at Climbmaxx Stuttgart.

More information about:

Alpine Welten (only in German)

Kletterzentrum Stuttgart (only in German)

Climbmaxx Stuttgart (only in German)

The post A weekend full of fear and fun – climbing class in Blaubeuren appeared first on Living in Stuttgart.

As we started into our Mini-Moon the day after our wedding – and after an extended breakfast with our friends and families – we were looking for something not too far away from Stuttgart. But we still wanted a place in a remote area with nothing around us but nature. It didn’t take long until we decided the Black Forest was just the perfect spot.

On the website booking.com we found the “Hotel Restaurant Waldsägmühle”, a four star hotel in the middle of nowhere. PERFECT!

And if you wonder now if this is a cooking spoon and a egg whip in front of the hotel then I can assure you: Yes, it is. And they are there for a reason. But we’ll come to that later.

We had a lovely room…

… with a balcony…

…facing the black forest:

And guys, the best thing was that you could smell the forest! I’ve never experienced anything like that.

The hotel also offers a spa. It’s small but very nice.

So that’s were we went straight away

But we didn’t only hang out in the spa area, we also went outside because the Black Forest has a lot to offer. As we had three days, we tried three different things:

1.) Barefoot Park

The Barefoot Park in Dornstetten is only a few minutes away from the hotel and it’s great fun.

You walk through ice cold water, across wood, grass, fir cones and – yes – nails and glass. The sensation in your feed is just incredible. It feels like a foot massage!

But my favorite underground is definitely the mud!

Before:

Meanwhile:

After:

Aaaaah, that’s what I dreamed of when I was a child!

When you leave the park, you should wash your feed before entering the car again…

2.) Wolf and Bear Park

The “Alternativer Wolf und Bärenpark” in Bad Rippoldsau-Schapbach was another attraction close to our hotel. The park provides shelter for abused animals, like circus bears. When we went there, it was a very hot day and we thought we won’t see much of the animals, but we were proven wrong:

This feller enjoyed a cool bath in the basin that’s originally meant to hold the drinking water for the bears…

But he wasn’t the only bear we saw:

But we were even more lucky that day. We also saw one of the shy wolfs:

The park is located in a very nice setting, in the middle of the forest, with a little stream running through it.

It was great to see these beautiful, wild animals from a very short distance. And I am a big fan of the concept of the park. It’s horrible what some humans do to animals and there should be more places like this. You can support their work, for example by donating a bucket of food or becoming godfather or –mother of an animal. Check out their website for more information: https://www.baer.de/site2010/index.php?option=com_proforms&jid=3&cid=1&Itemid=80

3.) Hiking

When visiting the Black Forest you have to go hiking. It’s the law! Well, actually, that’s not true but you really shouldn’t miss out on exploring this wide, green area on your own two feet.

There is a bunch of hiking trails that begin or pass the Waldsägmühle. Just pick one of them, all of them are very nice

Again, I was stunned how you can really smell the forest. This spicy scent is really something special. And can you believe how green everything is?

The Black Forest is a magical place and the Hotel Restaurant Waldsägmühle is just the perfect location to stay for a few nights when you want to visit this area. But there is one more thing that’s important for a great Mini-Moon: the food! And man, were we lucky!

Hmmmmmmmmmm!!!!!

Our Mini-Moon was just the perfect final to our wonderful wedding. And  the Full Moon made our Mini-Moon event more special.

More information about:

Hotel Restaurant Waldsägmühle

Barefoot Park (only in German)

Alternativer Wolf- und Bärenpark (only in German)

The post Mini-Honeymoon at Hotel Waldsägmühle in the Black Forrest appeared first on Living in Stuttgart.

I’ve been there lately with my mom. My dad and I invited her to a wellness weekend and I accompanied her – best decision ever! ;-)!

We have booked a “Komfort Room” for two people for the weekend. It came with a very comfy double bed, a sitting area and – of course – a very clean bathroom.

The only – and truly the only thing – I didn’t like, was the glass door to the bathroom…

Seriously – a see-through glass door to the bathroom??? Well, you better like the person you share the room with a lot and are very close to her. Definitely nothing for the first romantic weekend-trip with the new lover. You won’t have any secrets after this stay, that’s for shure. And yes, this is the toilet right behind me – right in front of the door… 😀

We arrived late on friday night so we had no time to check out the spa area but went down to the restaurant for dinner straight away.

The hotel offers three restaurants: The “Silberberg” for hotel guests, the “Anitastube” where they serve traditional meals from the Black Forrest and the gourmet restaurant “Schlossberg” where chef Jörg Sackmann himself creates the menu. It has one Michelin-Star and offers a truly amazing menu. However, my mum and I went for the “Silberberg” and didn’t regret it.

If you want to dine in the Schlossberg, make sure to make a reservation before you arrive, otherwise you might not get a table.

So here comes our dinner: We got a little starter, then had a salad (the dressing was a dream!), then both meat and after this, we were too full for dessert.

As you can imagine, we slept like babies after this dinner 🙂

We began the next day by participating in the aqua fitness. It takes place between 8 and 8:30 am and is free for all hotel guests. This was also the first time we set eyes on the spa area – and fell in love with it (sorry dad, it’s true, mum’s in love… ;-))

After this little morning sport programme, we were very hungry. We went back to our room got dressed and went down to have breakfast. We got the same table as the night before and were eager to find out what the breakfast buffet has to offer. And we were very happy with what we found: Sackmann offers a huge selection of cheese, sausages, fresh fruit, jam, bread, fish (!) – and you could even have a glass of sparkling wine for breakfast.

Round No. 1:

And round No. 2:

For me, it’s always a sign of quality when a hotel offers fresh fruit. And Sackman had a lot of it…! 🙂

Next to the buffet, you could also choose different items from a menu, like eggs, cooked the way you like it, or some sweet dishes.

After breakfast, we had not much time to loose as we both had appointments for massages. I had chosen the Abhyanga Ayurveda Massage and my mum went for the Samvahana Ayurveda Massage. Both took 1.5 hours and it was my turn first. Obviously, I could not take any pictures while enjoying the massage, so you just have to believe me that it was AWESOME!! Soooo relaxing and wonderful! Same was apparently true for my mother’s massage, at least that’s what she told me when she came back 🙂

We spend the rest of the day in the spa, trying the different saunas and relaxation areas.

Man, was I relaxed after this day!! 🙂

You want to know what I liked most? Definitely the salt sauna… and the water beds… and the jacuzzi… and the steam bath… and.. oh well, it was all so great… 😀

Another nice fact about the spa: They offer tea, fresh water, dried fruit, apples and – in the afternoon – little cakes for everybody.

What can be the perfect end to such a perfect day if not a perfect dinner? Today, my mum and I went both for fish (were we in the water for too long?? ;-)) So here’s what we got:

We started our next day again in the pool, doing aqua fitness, and enjoyed another great breakfast afterwards. We’ve spent a wonderful weekend in Baiersbronn, in an extraordinary hotel. We only hated that we had to leave again… 😉

More information about:

Romantik Hotel Sackmann Baiersbronn

The post Finding paradise – in Baiersbronn… appeared first on Living in Stuttgart.

If you’ve missed part I, you’ll find it here.

The second day of our wonderful weekend in winter wonderland Prague started as the first day had closed: with lots of snow!! We saw little snow men everywhere! Very cute 🙂

We had decided that we want to spend this day just wandering around, sucking in the atmosphere of this beautiful city. After breakfast (which was very nice in our Grandhotel Bohemia!), we headed to the Old Town Square again and walked to Charles Bridge.

When in Prague, make sure to look up from time to time. There are so many beautiful, historical houses. You’ll find a lot of Art Nouveau for example.

But you don’t have to get a stiff neck, there’s also a lot to explore by looking straight ahead:

And sometimes, it’s also worth looking to the ground…

Isn’t that cute? Four hearts in a golden circle. I nearly missed it… 🙂

We crossed Charles Bridge and entered the “Kleinseite” (“Malá Strana” in Czech – which translates to “Little Side” and refers to the part of Prague in the west of the Vltava River).

When you leave Charles Bridge, you’ll find the park Kampa on your left. I’ve never been there in winter so we wanted to find out what it looks like covered with snow. And our undertaking got rewarded: Suddenly the sun came out and the snow was sparkling. We had such a beautiful view from Kampa over to Charles Bridge, with a blue sky over it.

It was so magical, time could have stopped moving, I wouldn’t have minded…

But to bring you guys back to reality, too, that’s what we found in front of Kampa Museum:

Yes, it’s a museum for modern art, why are you asking…? 😉

There’s a little canal leading around Kampa and that’s why this part of Prague is sometimes called “Venice of the east.”

A very romantic spot. 🙂

We left magical Kampa and started to walk up the winding streets to the castle.

The last part of the street is a bit steep but it’s worth the climb because you get rewarded with a stunning view.

Even this little snow man liked what he saw… at least I think so, he didn’t talk much… 😉

We didn’t visit the castle, we just had a look at St. Vitus’ Cathedral from the outside.

OK, I couldn’t resist, I had to get this touristy picture taken:

We also had a look down on the city from the other side of the castle…

… and descended by using the stairs next to this wall:

On our way back to the city center, we passed Charles Bridge again.

When you’re on Charles Bridge, you might observe many people touching pictures of a saint. Let’s talk about this cult for a moment: John of Nepomuk was drowned in the Vltava River at the behest of King Wenceslaus in 1393. As the confessor of the queen he refused to divulge the secrets of the confessional – and thus got in trouble with the king. Today, he is considered the first martyr of the Seal of the Confessional and a protector from floods. And many people touch his picture for good luck. But some people get confused by who exactly they have to touch…

This is one of the pictures of Nepomuk. So, if you have to, touch it…

Here’s another picture of Nepomuk – but there are other individuals on it, as well. Question: If you want to touch this picture for good luck, what figure would you go for?

a) the random dog

b) the rubberneck, watching poor Nepomuk getting killed without doing anything

c) Nepomuk, falling down the bridge

d) none of the above because by touching this picture, I’ll get in contact with billions of bacteria, the hundreds of tourists, who touched it before me, left.

Well, this woman is not on the right track, she’s touching the rubberneck. Don’t know what luck will come from that… 😉

On our way back to the city center, we passed two more points of interest, I would like to share with you:

1.) My favourite shop in Prague: Manufaktura!

Here you find cute Czech folk craft and traditional wooden toys and (even more interesting! ;-)) cosmetics inspired by balneology and Czech natural ingredients. I LOVE their soaps, shampoos, body lotions, creams… 😀

I got two body lotions and a shampoo for kids…

2) Marionette shops: You’ll find a lot of marionette theaters in Prague. Many of them are performing Don Giovanni (and they are doing it quite well, I can tell you ;-)).

But even better: You can buy a marionette as a souvenir, too. You’ll find a lot of cheap puppets in many of the souvenir shops, but there are also a few professional marionette makers, too. They sell high quality puppets and they are absolutely worth their price.

When I left Prague after living there for 7 months, I wanted to buy myself a souvenir that’s worth my good memories of this city. So I went to some of the marionette shops and chose a little wooden replica of Mozart. I still love it.

We had again an awesome time in Prague. This city is simply something very, very special. It was great being in Prague in winter when there is heaps of snow. But I am also looking forward to coming back one day soon in summer, when you can sit in the parks, climb one of the hills and enjoy the view from there. Good bye Prague, see you soon again!

More information about:

Museum Kampa

Manufaktura

The post Prague – the “Golden City” (part II) appeared first on Living in Stuttgart.

I’ve lived in Prague for 6 months in 2005 and again for 4 months in 2008, to do an internship and to write my thesis. And somehow, this magical city became very important to me and I HAVE TO come back again and again and again.

It takes six hours to travel from Stuttgart to Prague. You can take the train to Nürnberg and switch into a bus there. Very convenient! We arrived last Saturday in the early afternoon and found the “Golden City”… all white! Covered all in snow! Very beautiful, I have never seen the city like this.

We walked from the train station to our hotel, the “Grandhotel Bohemia”, close to the Municipal House (Obecní dům) and the Powder Tower.

A fantastic hotel. Don’t miss the huge breakfast buffet!!

We quickly put our luggage into our room and off we were, enjoying this beautiful city. We went to the Old Town Square  (Staroměstské náměstí) first. Here you find the Old Town City Hall with its famous Astronomical Clock,…

… the Church of Our Lady before Týn (in the background)…

…and the Jan Hus Memorial:

We left the historic Old Town Square and went to the modern Wenceslas Square (Václavské námestí).

Here you find a lot of shops and restaurants, but also the old Museum.

We went into some shops and soon it got dark and were hungry. So it was time for some typical Czech cuisine, so we went to the “Novomestsky Pivovar Restaurant & Brewery”, close to Wenceslas Square.

It’s easy to miss the entrance to the restaurant as it doesn’t look like much from the outside.

But the interior is really something special:

In the main room you find big brew kettles, when you follow the labyrinth of corridors and stairways to the other rooms, you can admire all the wall paintings along the way…

As all the tables in the main room were already full, we followed our waiter to one of the rooms downstairs.

What I like a lot about this place is a) the waiters are very friendly and b) they have menus in many different languages. Moritz and I ordered a Czech beer first. Even though I am not at all a beer drinker, I don’t mind the Czech beer very much. It tastes lighter than German beer and I managed to finish half of my glass (Moritz volunteered to drink the rest, he’s such a gentleman :-))

We shared a garlic soup which came with breadcrumbs and a piece of Camembert cheese…?! Very tasty though!

As the main course, Moritz chose the Bohemian Platter…

…which consists of roast pork, pork neck, sausage, two kinds of dumplings and sauerkraut.

I went for one of my most favourite Czech dishes: Svíčková!

Marinated sirloin with dumplings, cranberries, cream, brown sauce and – very important – a piece of lemon – what a dream!

After this rich dinner, we had to have a Becherovka of course, a cordial from Karlsbad.

We definitely needed an after-dinner walk! As it was already dark when we left the restaurant, we decided to go to Charles Bridge and take some night pictures.

On the way back to our hotel, we passed the Old Town Square again and found some stands where they sold mulled wine and Trdelnik, which consists of grilled dough, wrapped around a stick and topped with walnuts and sugar. “That makes a perfect dessert for our traditional Czech dinner” we thought and had some. Mmmmmhhhh! 🙂

That was our first day in Prague. “Czech” out my next post about what we did on our second day! 🙂

More information about:

Prague

Grandhotel Bohemia

Novomestsky Pivovar Restaurant & Brewery

The post Weekend getaway to Prague – the “Golden City” (part I) appeared first on Living in Stuttgart.