The Black Forest is a densely wooded area in southwestern Germany, that has been around since the Middle Ages. The road was narrow with sharp curves that wound through tall straight fir trees stretching for the sky and blocking out the sun. Over the centuries, areas have been cleared and I’m pretty sure our guide said that for each tree that is cut down, two more are planted. I couldn’t help but think about Hansel and Gretel being lost in the cool, bleak woods.

Suddenly we turned right, beneath an impressive wooded entrance, and drove up cobblestone streets to the small village of Breisach, situated on a small plateau between the mountain ranges. The buildings had the wood gingerbread look with baskets of colorful flowers attached to railings or arranged throughout the town.

The Black Forest is the home of the cuckoo clock and our guide quickly pointed out the building that resembled a cuckoo clock. If you look closely, you can see two couples and the clock on the wall behind us. Every hour, the clock chimes and the couples dance across the balcony.

Cuckoo clocks are a fine art that have been in existence since the eighteenth century. We walked into a store and were surrounded by floor to ceiling walls of ticking clocks. A guide demonstrated how the clocks evolved and I was amazed that it once took a village to make the clocks as families used scrap wood to carve the different parts that were put together almost as an assembly line. Even today, families whittle parts during the winter months to supplement their income.

They were made in all sizes; for the wall, mantle even stand alone to fill a corner. Each clock depicts a theme – hunting, family, church, love, marriage, death, mythology – and the detail for the animals, birds and vegetation certainly justified the high price tags that were attached. They were just beyond our budget.

I just remembered the clock on my parent’s mantle and need to remember to check it.