The greatest gift we can give ourselves is time,

Because when you give your time to another person,

you share a piece of your life with them.

This saying adorns our Christmas card this year. We’ve never felt so strongly that the time we give to each other, the time we spend together, is precious. Perhaps because we haven’t experienced before that it was practically forbidden for us to be together.

All the more, we enjoyed the moments when we could be with our family. We especially liked the encounters with them – our guests – some already familiar, almost friends who come to visit, some experiencing this place for the first time, excited about what awaits them. Even in these encounters, the time they want and need to give to each other and to nature was a recurring theme. To unwind and, this year more than ever, to disconnect was important to them.

They gave themselves and their loved ones this time, enabling encounters. Encounters with nature, the forest, and with people.

We thank you for the encounters with you, for your loyalty and your trust in us and our beautiful homes.

We look forward to numerous inspiring encounters next year with you, our guests, and to time with family.

Yours, Sabine Naß and Martin Bickel

Our project for 2021 is (finally) complete. With a lot of effort and self-built work – complemented by the excellent work of skilled craftsmen – our “Oide Werkstood,” the new place to celebrate and enjoy convivial gatherings in the Old Customs House, is finished.

The “favorite place” of our father, grandfather, and great-grandfather – his workshop – has been transformed into a cozy hut with a magnificent view of the primeval forest. Equipped with a wood-fired stove, dishes, a coffee machine, and a large seating area, the Oide Werkstood offers a comfortable space to settle in and relax, to chat and linger, to eat and drink. It is available to all our guests – exclusively by reservation – free of charge.

Thanks to the very positive guest feedback on Booking.com, our Old Forest House has once again been awarded the Traveller Award. We are delighted by this recognition. Even more importantly, of course, we are pleased that you, our guests, feel completely at home with us. To ensure this continues, we used the time during lockdown to add further touches of comfort around our beautiful house. We’ve already introduced our sauna. New to us is our wood-fired oven for delicious homemade bread or a good pizza. Also providing culinary delights is an electrically heated tart oven in our wonderful "Baking Madness" hut.

Admittedly, the sauna was actually supposed to be operational back in 2018. But what takes time...

We used November to build the barrel sauna. The result is more than impressive. A modern sauna with a fantastic atmosphere. And after sweating, rubbing off with the freshly fallen snow, sitting outside and watching the moon rise over our forest – that’s something truly special.

It’s true that Corona has had (at least a little) positive impact. We were able to use the time to really push forward with our "Mountain Hut" project. What started as a pavilion on the slope has become a beautiful hut with a fireplace and cozy sheepskins – perfect for celebrating, chatting, making music, grilling, or simply being together. Here are some festive impressions.

On Valentine's Day, a fire broke out in our Siebenschläfer penthouse apartment. Triggered by a gas explosion, our guests bravely and quickly extinguished the fire with fire extinguishers, after which the fire department was called and professionally and carefully took over, extinguishing the remainder and ventilating the smoky apartment. We would like to express our sincere gratitude for this. Fortunately, no one was seriously injured.

The smoke and soot have caused quite extensive damage, so the apartment is currently uninhabitable. However, we hope that all work will be completed in 3-4 months and the apartment will shine in new splendor. All other apartments in the building are completely undamaged and can continue to be booked as usual.