In the city of Schwarzwald, in the state of Baden-Württemberg in southwest Germany

 "I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived."

-- a few lines from Walden (or, Life in the Woods) by -- Henry David Thoreau
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(in the state of Baden-Württemberg in southwest Germany) As deep, dark, and delicious as its cherry gateau (cake), the Black Forest ("Schwarzwald") gets its name from its canopy of evergreens. With deeply carved valleys, thick woodlands, luscious meadows, stout timber farmhouses, and wispy waterfalls, it looks freshly minted for a child's bedtime story. Wandering along its many forest trails, you might half-expect to bump into a wicked witch (or an over-eager hunter), and could regret not having breadcrumbs in your backpack. to retrace your tracks.

+ Fairytale villages, thermal baths, casinos, and pine and birch-blanketed mountains lure travelers to the Black Forest. Scenic drives and train trips showcase the best of this area -- where skiing, hiking, mountain climbing, boating, and ice-skating are popular activities. My favorite place to visit in this large forested mountain range is Baden-Baden, with its popular Roman-Irish baths, 19th-century performance hall, casino, and fresco-adorned Pump Room. Historically, the area was known for forestry and the mining of ore deposits, but tourism has now become the primary industry.

+ The Black Forest stretches from the High Rhine in the south to the Kraichgau in the north. In the west it is bounded by the Upper Rhine Plain (which, from a natural region perspective, also includes the low chain of foothills); in the east it transitions to the Gäu, Baar, and hill country west of the Klettgau.

+ The natural regions of the Black Forest are separated by various features. The main division is between the gentle eastern slopes with their mostly rounded hills and broad plateaux (so-called Danubian relief, especially prominent in the north and east on the Bunter Sandstone) and the deeply incised, steeply falling terrain in the west that drops into the Upper Rhine Graben; the so-called Valley Black Forest (Talschwarzwald) with its Rhenanian relief.

+ Shown here is the Schwarzwälder Freilichtmuseum that spirals around the Vogtsbauernhof, a self-contained early-17th-century farmstead. Farmhouses shifted from their original locations have been carefully reconstructed here, using techniques like thatching and panelling, to create this authentic farming hamlet and preserve age-old Black Forest traditions. Explore barns filled with wagons and horn sleds, Rauchküchen (kitchens for smoking fish and meat), and the Hippenseppenhof (Open Air Museum), with its chapel and massive hipped roof constructed from 400 trees. It is a great place for families, with inquisitive farmyard animals to pet, artisans on hand to explain their crafts, and many a demonstration (covering topics from sheep shearing to butter-churning.