Our first taste of fairy-tale magic was the epic hike to All Saints' Abbey. The trail starts at the parking lot for the Allerheiligen Waterfalls, which are breathtaking in their own right.

After scaling the side of the falls, we followed a river through the forest, past a farm and a seemingly out-of-place Romanesque sculpture.

Eventually, we found the ruins of an abbey, which we were free to explore. It was easy to imagine the structure that once stood here — and to dream of adventures our favorite fairy-tale heroes might encounter on a particularly foggy day here at the ruins.

I loved that the hike took us high up a mountain for spectacular views of the valley, then back down to the parking lot.

The Black Forest is known for many things, including its eponymous cake.

The chocolate sponge cake, with layers of whipped cream, is rich and moist, but the sour cherries and accompanying taste of the Kirschwasser (a brandy made from sour cherries) keep it from tasting too sweet.

I'm more of a savory guy who enjoys his pork schnitzel, but the Black Forest cake ranks high on the list of things I ate while abroad. You must try it if you ever visit.

Baden-Baden is a spa town on the northern edge of the Black Forest. Although it is a German city, it's known for its Roman-Irish baths.

Visiting its Friedrichsbad spa was one of the most adventurous things we've ever done. On most days, we had to get completely naked with a bunch of tourists and locals in order to enjoy the steam rooms, saunas, cold-water plunges, and other thermal treatments.

Once we got over the initial strangeness of being nude with strangers, it was a really relaxing experience.

We also visited the Caracalla Spa next door, which seemed better for families: Everyone wears their swimsuits, but you still get to enjoy the thermal waters. It's almost like an indoor water park.

Baden-Baden was a great starting point for our hike to the Hohenbaden Old Castle. The stunning ruins are on a mountainside and overlook Baden-Baden, the Black Forest, and the sprawling farm land to the east.

It took us about an hour to hike from the city center to the castle, which we were free to explore at no cost.

We went to the city of Triberg for two reasons: to see its famous cuckoo clocks and the waterfall.

We ended up arriving later in the day, so we had to skip the waterfall. This was fine since we'd seen several waterfalls that morning during our hikes for free, and we would've had to pay to see the one near Triberg.

Instead, we browsed the shops and saw some cuckoo clocks, but overwhelmingly, we felt like this city inside the Black Forest was mostly a tourist trap with a lot of souvenir shops.

It reminded us of shopping in Tennessee's Gatlinburg — definitely a fun time, but not quite the authentic German experience we were hoping for.

We missed out on hiking southern certain trails and seeing Lake Titisee because our home base was in Baden-Baden, the northern end of the long, narrow forest.

That made it challenging to see the southern end of the forest and still make it home before dark. If we ever go back, we plan to stay in Freiburg im Breisgau to explore the southern region.