Freiburg im Breisgau or simply called Freiburg technically doesn’t come under Black forest. I realised it when I asked our hotel if they would provide us with ‘Konus card’ and they replied that Konus card is a big boon for those who travel to the region but Freiburg is not covered as it doesn’t lie in Black Forest. So around 9000 hosts do provide you with this Konus cards on your arrival if you had registered with them. This meant travel by trains and trams would be free in the region including Freiburg during your duration of stay. But Freiburg hotels can’t give you this free travel card. So we did not get the Konus card and had to buy daily tickets during our stay for travel to different parts of the region.

Yet Freiburg is a great place to stay and explore the black forest region due to its terrific location and train network. So the best place to stay would be near the rail station – this we did as we had chosen ‘Alex hotel’ as it was just 10 minutes walk from the station. It was a decent hotel but rooms were too small. Perhaps a chain hotel like Novotel might have had better rooms. Novotel, Mercure, City hotel & Stadt hotel were located very near the station and the main shopping/commercial area was also easily accessible. The city of Freiburg has a very extensive network of trams. Uber wasn’t available but we could see a few taxis in town- not many but a few around the station.

Freiburg is located on the western edge of black forest near the Dreisam river. It is flanked by lush green Schollsberg hills (mountain of castle hill). There was a direct train from Frankfurt which took a little over 2 hours. Thankfully the train we had to come by got delayed so we could board it at Frankfurt as our flight had reached late from Faro, Portugal. Had we missed the train it would have been tough as then we would have had to change trains in between and god knows when we would have reached Freiburg at night. I was worried about getting dinner. The good part is that we had paid extra but bought ‘DB Flexi tickets’ for the IC (Inter city) train, which meant that we could have taken any train on that day so in that sense we were relaxed. A fixed train ticket is a good idea if you know for sure that you will be able to get on a particular train. This works out cheaper also and for our return journey we did buy the fixed train ticket. We reached Freiburg well in time to check in, stroll across to city centre(15 minutes walk from Alex hotel) and get some good dinner.

Lake Titisee & Feldberg Mountain

We had spent more than 11 days in Portugal enjoying the different places, sea, beaches and nightlife. It was now time to enjoy the greenery, mountains and lakes. The state of Baden-Wurttemberg is very near France and Switzerland. We could have reached Basel in Switzerland or Strasbourg in France in less than an hour by train. It had started getting warm in this part of Germany and the phone weather app showed that it was going to a warm day. We dressed accordingly in a T shirts and shorts & we took a day pass from the station and boarded the train to a small but very popular town of Titisee. This pass allowed us to travel on many trains , buses and trams till 3 AM the next morning. IC trains were not included. If 2 people travel together then it works out cheaper. There were some very charming lakefront hotels at Titisee. We had just walked from the station and in 10 minutes we were near the lake. A little further there were some lovely forest walks and Devicka and I really enjoyed walking there after a boat ride in the lake. I really thought I wanted to spend a night here and perhaps one should do it. I also know that this kind of place is very good for natural beauty, great hikes and relaxed atmosphere but there would be nothing much to do here in the evening.

Titisee had been nippy. When the sun would go behind the clouds it would become cold. But when we reached Feldberg ( Around 30 minutes by bus) the we realised that we were totally inadequately dressed. On the way we had stopped and hiked to a few waterfalls. It had started drizzling and it was cold and we were at the base of mountain. Feldberg is the highest peak of Black forest and it had a lot of ski slopes and is a very popular ski resort during the the snowy season . It also had a cable car going up but we didn’t have guts to go up knowing it would be extremely cold. We had lunch at the base of mountain and then looked around for some warm clothing. Luckily we found a shop which had some great deals on jackets so we bought a jacket each. It was then time to board the cable car and go up the mountain to admire the beautiful view of the Black Forest forests.

We reached back to the hotel around 6 PM and then it was time to stroll around the town of Freiburg. Much of the shops had started shutting down but some were open. Roaming around gave us a good idea about the ways and lanes of the city centre. It was a sweet little town with a prominent theatre, museums, a famous cathedral, shops, art galleries and great atmosphere. We had Indian dinner after a long time and then it was time to head back and plan for the next day.

Baden Baden

When you are in Black Forest then you are spoilt for choice. You could go to Heidelberg, Gengenbach, Triberg, Offenberg or many of the small scenic towns. We decided on Baden Baden. The Spa town of Baden Baden is in the Northern part of Baden Wurttemberg. On the way you can stop by at many of the Black Forest towns and can also visit Strasbourg which actually comes under France. We decided to go directly to our destination as it was going to be a hot day and it is no fun roaming around in such sharp sun no matter how lovely the cities may be. You can spend a week in this region and visit several towns of Black Forest and visit lovely cities like Basel which is in Switzerland. In Europe when you look at the map and train routes – so many exotic places look and are very accessible. With rail passes and good planning it really works well.

While most towns have main city centres near the rail station – at Baden Baden we had to take a bus to the city centre. Our day pass took care of trains, trams and buses. This pass was a bit more expensive as Baden Baden came under different category. While Devicka went window shopping I went to explore the nudist spa of the city.

Friedrichsbad built in 1877 is the most well known spa of Baden Baden. It is a ‘textile free’ spa meaning that it is a no clothes spa and is also unisexual. An entry fee of around Euro 35 is needed and then you just keep all your belongings and clothes in the locker and then after a long bath you can move from one room to another in this Roman style spa. The steam room has natural steam coming from thermal water springs which flow much below the building (around 1800 meters) and come up at a nice hot temperature. You do need 2-3 hours to do justice to the place. It has hot pool, cold pool, massage room, steam, sauna and many other things. Mark Twain is said to have commented on the Friedrichsbad spa as follows: “After 10 minutes you forget time, after 20 minutes you forget the world.” As Baden Baden is a spa city endowed with natural springs and steam, there are very many good spas here. The most famous are the Fridrichsbad and Caracalla.

The city had some interesting shops and some great forested areas to walk around and if you get in a gambling mood then there is a large casino. Panoramaweg is a the most beautiful hiking trail for which you need a lot of time and inclination. Oos river flows near the old town and there were some very high end hotels there like Brenners Park. There is a Funicular railway which takes you up the Merkur mountain for some great views. It was a day well spent here and then it was time to go back and enjoy a weekend evening at Freiburg.

As Freiburg is a university town, the students came out in strength to have an evening out on a Friday night. Normally the town used to go dead at 7 PM but this evening it was bustling with activity. The bars and pubs were full, the trams had high occupancy, you could get dinner late and people seemed to be in a happy mood. It was difficult to imagine that this quiet town had so many people. An evening before as we had walked back after having dinner- we could hardly see anyone on the roads. It was our last evening of the holiday so we tried to make the best of it by roaming around end to end of city centre and trying out several pubs. Münsterplatz or Cathedral Square is the largest square there and most students just sat around on the floor chatting and having drinks which they took out from their bags. We had wanted to watch some theatre but everything was in German. One thing that I missed out on was the Black Forest gateau or the Black forest cake which is the speciality of the region.

Next morning we bought some gifts before hopping on to the train to Frankfurt Airport. The train dropped us at terminal 1 from where we took a shuttle bus to terminal 2. Terminal 1 is mainly for Lufthansa while our Vistara flight to Delhi was from terminal 2. The 15 day holiday had gone off well with us seeing a new country (Portugal) and many nice cities and regions there. We had been to Germany a couple of times earlier but Baden-Wurttemberg was very different from the cities of Frankfurt and Munich.

Some points to be kept in mind while travelling to Black Forest

• We chose Freiburg as it had good connectivity and a decent city centre. One can stay a few days in one of the many quaint towns with small population in the area.
• Hiring a car is easy and the Autobahn (federal controlled access highway system of Germany) is simple to drive on.
• You can easily visit Freiburg from Munich (277 km), Stuttgart (131 km) or any of the German or Swiss towns.
• Do read about DB rail passes and Euro rail passes and choose the correct combination. Most passes work on buses and trams as well. There are several discounts for children & families travelling together.
• Food is not a problem in Freiburg or Baden Baden. You also get Thai, Indian, Chinese and Lebanese food besides German and continental food.
• We normally left 8-10% as gratuity at restaurants though it is not compulsory.
• Having data on phone was a boon as I was always looking for routes, train timings, distances etc. on phone while on the move.