Around the World: Part Thirteen

In which I visited a clock factory in the heart of a forest

12.05.2019: Tour Day 6, Country 5, City 2

The Black Forest was a part of our Class VI Geography syllabus; we then thought that the leaves on the trees would be black in color so the name as Black Forest. Our teacher explained us that the stretch of pine trees is so dense that the sun struggles to reach the forest floor. And today I was going to travel into the very same forest. We drove into the dense green canopy surrounded by very tall pine trees. The Black Forest is a large forested mountain range in the state of Baden-Wurttemberg in southwest Germany. There were wooden farmhouses in the vicinity. We traversed the convoluted roads passing through small water streams and valley into the heart of the forest. We reached the Cuckoo Clock Factory by quarter past eleven. The temperature was as usual cold, with no sun effects.

Cuckoo Clock Factory

The cuckoo clock is a pendulum regulated clock that strikes the hour with the cuckoo’s call. The clock factory, in Drubba, Titisee, is a big wooden house. The front view resembles a cuckoo clock with the 12 hours in the bottom center and a cuckoo door at the top and the dancing dolls in the middle. At the stroke of every hour, the cuckoo sang for a few seconds and then the dancing dolls revolved in the middle circle for a minute. There was a water wheel adjacent to the house; the clock draws power from this water flow which falls on the wheel. There was also a navigational pole which specified distances from major cities to the clock factory. We went upstairs to the clock room. First there was a demo session on how the cuckoo clock is manufactured. The guide started with what type of wooden surface to choose, then how to carve it in the desired shape of a house or whatever shape, how to fit in the small automated cuckoos, how to attach the strings of the pendulum and so on. 

Later we browsed through the floor for different types of clock hangings and other wooden souvenirs. I went through the adjacent house, full of clocks and other German souvenirs. There was also a Glas Manufaktur house having a variety of blowing glass articles: glass balls, glass plates, glass bowls, glass marine creatures, glass birds, etc.

We had lunch on the ground floor restaurant in the cuckoo house. The lunch was a variety from street cuisines to main course. The desert was an original blackberry cake slice; I had it with Sulakshana Phondba. While relishing each piece, I wondered what the blackberry was I had been eating so far. At the stroke of 1pm, everyone was ready with their cameras to capture the cuckoo. We left the venue at quarter past one and waited at our bus. Here Photographer Shilpa clicked many photos of all the ladies. Then we proceeded towards our next country, the dream destination. The Antakshari, stories, jokes, poems, chit chatting was on while driving through the journey and we crossed the Germany - Swiss border.

Read next: Around the World: Part Fourteen