SMAP 201 - One Flew Over The Cuckoo Clock

Hello everyone. Let's welcome Round 201 of the Show Me A Photo or SMAP Contest hosted by @nelinoeva. Check out the contest post here. Do read up if you haven't joined in this contest yet and join us in the fun.

The theme for this week is:

FREE THEME

I have always wanted to write something about cuckoo clocks for a SMAP Free Theme Round. For those not in the know here's what Wikipedia has to say about them.

It is unknown who invented the cuckoo clock and where the first one was made. It is thought that much of its development and evolution was made in the Black Forest area in southwestern Germany (in the modern state of Baden-Württemberg), the region where the cuckoo clock was popularized and from where it was exported to the rest of the world, becoming world-famous from the mid-1850s on. Today, the cuckoo clock is one of the favourite souvenirs of travellers in Germany, Switzerland, Austria and Eastern France. It has become a cultural icon of Germany.[

Why do they call it a cuckoo clock?
The farmers in the Black Forest (South West Germany) used logs to build the clock which housed the lucky call of the Cuckoo bird; and so the cuckoo clock was born! Centuries Later, the famous cuckoo clock is still very popular gracing the homes of countless countries around the globe for its beauty and good luck.

My daughter in a visit to Salzburg, Austria two years ago went to a souvenir shop that had a wide selection of cuckoo clocks. Here's a photo of the selection.

I looked closely and to my dismay only one of the clocks had a bird in its design. And to make matters even frustrating she wasn't able to even focus on that as her attention was on the clock beside it.

It wasn't even a good representation of a bird if you look closely. When I asked her if she had more photos, particularly of the one with the bird, she had none. So I shelved my plan to write about this topic. Until, yesterday. Yes, yesterday! My wife and I went to a department store to look for shoes for our grandson. While looking around, I saw this on display and I couldn't believe my good fortune.

A cuckoo clock with a feathered friend design. And a big bird at that.

It reminded me of a title of an old movie which starred Jack Nicholson and I unabashedly used it for the title of this post except for the last word. Sorry Jack.

I doubt if this clock is really a genuine cuckoo clock. My daughter said those clocks in the shop in Salzburg were anywhere from 80 to 200 Euros each. Now that's really expensive. This clock in the department store that I saw yesterday was not even selling for 30 Euros so my guess is it runs on batteries just like any wall clock. But still, fake or not, I found one that made it possible to finally do my cuckoo clock post.

My entry to this Round is the photo below.

That's all folks. Hope you enjoyed this post as much as I enjoyed doing it. Stay safe and may you all have a blessed weekend.

(Unless specified all photos are mine.)