Triberg is built in a steep, narrow fold of the Black Forest, a town that seems to have been poured down a gorge and set hard. Houses climb both sides of the Gutach valley, rooftops overlap, and the main street runs steeply uphill past shops full of cuckoo clocks, carved wooden bears and cherry schnapps. It is touristy, no question, but the tourists come because the place is the real thing, the heartland of the Black Forest clock trade, where families have been making timepieces in workshops since the eighteenth century.
The town's other big draw is the waterfall. The Gutach drops through a series of cascades in a wooded ravine just above the centre, a total fall of well over a hundred metres in seven stages, and it counts among the highest in Germany. A path with steps and bridges climbs beside it, and squirrels, who have learned that visitors carry nuts, will race along the rails to meet you. The spray, the smell of wet rock and spruce, and the roar of water make it a satisfying walk of an hour or so, best in spring, when snowmelt swells the flow, or after heavy rain.
Nearby Schonach claims one of the largest cuckoo clocks in the world, and rival towns argue with some energy about which one is biggest. The claim that the Black Forest cake was invented here is made by several places, and the argument has never been settled, but the cake itself, made with cherries, cream and kirsch, is easy to find in any café and generally excellent.
For riders, the approach is the reason to come. The B33 and the side roads that climb out of the Kinzig and Elz valleys wind through spruce forest in a long series of bends and hairpins, with the road gaining height steadily to over seven hundred metres around Triberg. Surfaces are good, the corners are smooth and well banked, and it is one of the classic bike roads of southwest Germany. That also means it is busy on fine weekends, with riders, cars and the occasional coach, and the police do monitor speed.
Triberg has about five thousand people and enough services for a stop: fuel, a supermarket, many cafés and restaurants. Parking is tight in high season, so arrive early or park low and walk up. Dress for cool weather, as it can be damp and cold even in summer.