Posted on by Peter

Schiltach Alstadt, Black Forest, Germany.

Tuesday 14th October 2025

We have moved on a little further north and east today, to stay in the astonishingly beautiful town of Schiltach Alstadt, but before we left Triberg, we visited what is claimed to be the largest cuckoo clock in the the world.

Big clock!

We arrived just before 12 noon, so was able to see the action!

Schiltach Alstadt:

It is hard to believe that Schiltach Alstadt was so quiet. Given the surroundings, you would expect to find loads of visitors, souvenir shops and places to eat, but no, everywhere was very quiet (though there were a few expensive clothing shops open).

The town square
The Rathaus (town hall)
The old Schoolhouse
Built in 1604, timber-framed construction is nothing new.

The town’s history mostly revolved around the harvesting of timber from the surrounding forests. Some of this was processed to some degree locally and there is an old water powered sawmill, now a museum.

Inside the sawmill museum

Most of the production however, appears to have been assembled into huge rafts which were ridden downstream, linked together in a long train, one man per raft. They travelled to the River Rhine and then ultimately to Holland.

A huge log, prepared for making a raft.
Used to temporarily dam the river to raise the level before releasing and floating the rafts of timber downstream.
Reconstruction of one of the rafts.
images from the museum, for illustration.
Later assembled in huge rafts on the River Rhine

That is it for today. TTFN and see-u-later.

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