Cuckoo! – The World´s Largest Cuckoo Clock

Cuckoo cuckoo! I’m sure everyone has seen or heard a cuckoo clock before. Even if just on TV somewhere. I think the first time I saw a cuckoo clock, that I can remember, is from cartoons on the weekends. Wasn’t it Tom & Jerry?

Well, a couple years back my husband (then boyfriend) flew me to Germany for Christmas to see him while on his deployment and to visit my family and best friend. We searched for Christmas presents for our families while we were there and for his mom we found a beautiful cuckoo clock. She LOVES it by the way, my father in law… not so much.

Fast forward to just recently and my MIL was here to visit and meet her newest grand baby. We didn’t do much traveling while she was here but we knew of one place that she would love to see so, of course we didn’t tell her about it…. instead we surprised her by just telling her to get in the car.

The drive wasn’t too bad…we had beautiful weather and it was roughly 3 hours with only one stop to potty and feed Baby S. Along the drive we noticed some very obvious changes in scenery, mostly the structure, style and look to the houses and towns. Also lots and lots of farmland. I mean we were driving from a very city oriented region down to Southern Germany so I expected it to look a lot more traditional, and that it was. So beautiful!

We stopped in a small town called Triberg to grab some lunch before making our way to the surprise destination. We sat outside at Wirtshaus Alt-Tryberg and all ordered their Schweineschnitzel (breaded pork) with fries for my husband and MIL and Spätzle (a traditional Schwäbische noodle) for me. My MIL and husband also enjoyed a beer while I got my usual Spezi (cola-orange mix).

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After that we walked around a bit, enjoying the scenery and surroundings. Including the Gutach river which flows through a couple cities in the German state of Baden-Württemberg and even forms the Triberg Waterfalls. We didn’t get to see the falls this time but there’s that reason and more to return.

Close to where we parked our car was a little Ice Cream shop. How can you pass up ice cream on a beautiful day outdoors after a delicious lunch? Well, the answer quite simply is, you can’t. Especially not when you peak at their list of flavors and see “Zimt”. If you don’t know, “zimt” is the german word for cinnamon. I know what many of you are probably thinking, “….cinnamon ice cream?! Ehhh, no thanks”. I’ve heard it a bunch of times but once you try it you’ll always be looking for it and unfortunately it’s not that easy to come by as it used to be.

I tried to research why it used to be everywhere versus being so hard to find now and the best answer I could find is that cinnamon is relatively expensive (who knew?) and probably, my own guess, the demand not high enough. But well, if you ever get the chance to try cinnamon ice cream….10/10 I recommend!

Then we made our way to our next stop, back home. At least that’s what we told my MIL and she pouted when we said it, but a quick 5 minute drive back down the road and we made it just in time!!!

We got out of the car, Baby S was sleeping so I put him in our carrier and we found the perfect spot right up front. We only had to wait 5 minutes and then it went off….the World’s Largest Cuckoo Clock!

It was actually pretty neat to see but, what was cooler was going inside and seeing the clockwork mechanisms that make it work. There is such an interesting science to making a cuckoo clock work and run smoothly and properly. It takes quite a bit of care.

The building of this specific cuckoo clock began in 1990 and was finished in 1994. Can you imagine the satisfaction when they were done building it?! The idea came from an original black forest clock that was only 7,5cm by 7,5cm. The size scale of the two is 60:1 making the World’s Largest Cuckoo Clock at 4,5 meters tall and wide. It would take almost 3 of me to be the same height!

In total the clock weighs 6 ton! The weight comes from many parts like the two pinecone weights that are mechanically driven. One is to operate the pendulum and the other is to operate the cuckoo call. Each of the pinecones weigh 200kg (that’s about 441lbs)!

If you’re not familiar with how a mechanical cuckoo clock works the weights are precisely built and hung so that over the course of a day they lower in time and rhythm to operate the inner workings of the clock for example, the hands and the cuckoo bird and sound. In the photos below you can see the inner workings of the Largest Cuckoo Clock (left) and the inner workings of a smaller cuckoo clock (right).

At the end of the day, or when the weights reach the end of their length they are pulled back up and this is like rewinding the clock. At the half hour the cuckoo will call once and at the full hour the cuckoo will call the same number of times as is the hour. Depending on the details of the cuckoo clock it may also have moving parts such as dancing figures or music that plays as well.

Back to the weight of the World’s Largest Cuckoo Clock, itself is made of many layers of 2mm wide pieces of beechwood that are glued together. This is how it holds and withstands the weather and aging since because of this process it can no longer warp as easy.

All of the rods are made of high grade steel or aluminum, including the pendulum which is 8m and weighs 100kg.

Above the clock in the very middle is a small “loft”. This is where the cuckoo bird sits. It is 4,5m long and weighs an incredible 150kg (330lbs)! I was amazed to find out that it was carved by hand – which naturally took several hundred hours! Just like any other cuckoo clock this one also calls once every half hour and then accordingly at the top of every hour.

The sound you hear from a cuckoo clock comes from bellows, in this particular clock they are 4m high. The bigger the bellows? The deeper the tone.

Once we finished the tour that took us through the inside and behind the clock we walked through the shop of cuckoo clocks. Some were more modern but the really beautiful ones were the traditional black forest style.

They ranged from small and simple to large and very detailed. Unfortunately I didn’t get a photo of the clocks hanging in the shop but my favorite ones had little figures of people outside and trees that even looked like they were covered in snow. All of it hand carved and painted!

It was a fun trip and I’ll be honest more interesting than I actually thought it would be. We don’t own a cuckoo clock [yet] but I told my husband that before we leave Germany I definitely want one!

The area has much more to see such as Germany’s tallest waterfall and even a church with a legend of curing water from a spring. We plan to make it back and of course I will share our trip here with you all!

Did you enjoy a travel blog post? It’s not my forte but I enjoyed sharing what we saw and learned! Can´t wait to share future travel posts!