Black forest day trips with car

Do you like huge model train layouts?

Or do you prefer clock museums?

Small waterfalls?

Rides on (free with your KONUS card) trains?

A logger museum?

A giant toilet and associated plumbing museum?

A walk in the forest?

Summer toboggan?

Swimming in a lake?

Woodcarving to watch or buy?

All these and many more are in easy distance of Gengenbach, a very good choice of base camp, in my opinion.

Any of those appeal?

When we stayed in Gengenbach we used the train to go to Trier and went hiking on the beautiful trails there. We took the car and 'accidently' discovered the quaint town of Schiltach. Parked the car and walked the old town; had coffee and cake in a little cafe in the tiny town square. We also spent nearly a whole morning and part of an afternoon at the Vogtsbauernhof museum, an open air museum of farmhouses representing different centuries. Very interesting.

You could have discovered Schiltach and the Vogtsbauernhof online and saved the cost of a car. Both are easily accessible by car from Gengenbach and for free with a Konus Karte. How often do people rent a car and wander aimlessly without "discovering" any thing?

Thanks for your help. I have the car for nearly 3 weeks. We are starting in Colmar then to Gengenbach then to Luxembourg City then to Bastogne, then to Huertgen Forest, then to Bayeux, then to Brugges..whew....We return the car in Brugges and then train to Haarlem for our last 4 days. This is my retirement trip (after 43 years of teaching)

We have been to Europe on two other occasions and I feel the car allows me the freedom to wander off the beaten path. Any ideas about things to see/do in the other areas I mentioned above that may be "off the beaten path?"

So you're not interested in anything on my list above?

Sorry Nigel. I was talking in general terms. I am very much interested in clocks, wood carving and hikes in the woods. This is exactly the stuff my wife and I want to experience. My wife's grandparents are from the Black Forest (we are trying to find out exactly where before we leave) but he had dozens of clocks and he was a wood carver. He used to tell my wife he learned that as a boy...