Black Forest Open Air Museum - Triberg - Donaueschingen - Source of the Danube - Freiburg im Breisgau

Route: Strasbourg - Black Forest Open Air Museum - Triberg - Donaueschingen - Source of the Danube - Freiburg im Breisgau - Strasbourg
Duration: 10 h
Our first stop in this tour will be at the museum of Black Forest architecture, which tell  how people used to live and work in the Black Forest. The tour around the museum shows the different regions of this mountain range: from the Hotzenwald and the Dreisam Valley via the Schauinsland to the day labourer’s cottage from Oberprechtal, the “Hippenseppenhof” from Furtwangen and, finally, the mighty farmhouses from the Valleys of Gutach and Kinzig. In total, six completely equipped Black Forest farmhouses from the 16th to the 19th century, a day labourer’s cottage, a 600-year-old sandstone building from the northern Black Forest and 15 additional buildings such as mills, sawmills, a chapel, and storehouses also can be visited.Our next visit will be at the Donaueschingen Palace Park is one of the largest landscape parks in Southwest Germany. Though Donaueschingen is a charming old town, its only real tourist attraction is the Donauquelle, the source of the Danube, marked by a small blue pool of water. The basin is framed by wrought iron fence and a group of allegorical statues sculpted by Adolf Heer in 1895. These depict the Baar, Germany’s great central plateau, as a mother showing her daughter, the Danube, the way out into the world. After short stop we will drive to geografical point  where the danube river starts. The Danube is conventionally taken to be formed by the confluence of the two streams Brigach and Breg just east of Donaueschingen. The source of the Donaubach, which flows into the Danube, in Donaueschingen is often referred to as the source of the Danube (Donauquelle). Hydrologically, the source of the Danube is the source of the Breg as the larger of the two formative streams, which rises near Furtwangen. Our next stop will be at Triberg , home to Germany’s highest waterfall, heir to the original 1915 Black Forest gateau recipe, and nesting ground of the world’s biggest cuckoos, Triberg leaves visitors reeling with superlatives. It was here that in bleak winters past folk huddled in snowbound farmhouses to carve the clocks that would drive the world cuckoo, and here that in a flash of brilliance the waterfall was harnessed to power the country’s first electric street lamps in 1884. The Gutach River feeds the seven-tiered falls, which drop a total of 163m and are illuminated until 10pm. A paved trail accesses the cascades. Pick up a bag of peanuts at the ticket counter to feed the tribes of inquisitive red squirrels. Next we will stop at Freiburg im Breisgau. Thanks to an extraordinary location in southern Germany, the city of Freiburg is considered the gateway to the Black Forest and one of the top tourist destinations in the Baden-Wurttenberg region. Visitors to Freiburg can look forward to enjoying a relaxed holiday, as the city offers plenty of opportunities to get away from it all and enjoy a well-deserved break. We will walk through the Altstadt (Old Town) where you will see monuments round the Münsterplatz (Cathedral Square) ,"Wolfshöhle" (Wolf´s Cave),Oberlinden, the Schwabentor (Swabian Gate), the medieval cathedral, the old Merchants’ Hall, the town hall, the courthouse, St Martin’s Church, the city gates (known as Schwabentor, Martinstor, and Breisachertor), Colombi Palace, and the Whale House, Charming little alleys and public squares, theatres and art galleries, parks and gardens. After we will return to Strasbourg.
Price: Per person