Haus der 1000 Uhren

Most people are aware that cuckoo clocks, Germany and the Black Forest go hand-in-hand. When you go to Germany, especially in the Black Forest region, you will see these clocks all over the place. I love them. They are so intricate and fascinating and I desperately wanted to get one as a souvenir for our home. (Never mind that I have no idea where I would want to hang it once I got it home.)

So during my cuckoo clock window shopping I decided that I wanted something sleek and sophisticated. (Yes I know, sleek and sophisticated aren't generally the words one would use to describe a cuckoo clock.) So I had my eye on this one:
Then my SIL, who is obviously much smarter than me, pointed out that it would be silly to get a plain cuckoo clock as that's not really the point of them. They are meant to be intricate and fascinating so why not get one that could keep you mesmerized for hours? Like these:

If you look closely at the picture of the "sleek" clock, you will see that it cost €189.60. So if you calculate that against today's horrid exchange rate with the dollar, that small clock with no fun little moving parts will cost you $264.85. (That's with today's exchange rate of 1.3969) The really cool clocks in the latter pictures are well over $550.

Needless to say these pictures of cuckoo clocks ended up being my souvenir instead of the real thing.