I Night Stop over Village

There are different train routes for this trip on different types of trains. Not sure whether you already have a train ticket for this trip, or a railpass, or the Deutschland Ticket, or nothing.

One route, the one with stops in Schnelldorf and Stuttgart, allows you to split the trip roughly in half if you get off in the village of Herrenberg, an old-world town on the German Half-timbered House Route.

https://www.deutsche-fachwerkstrasse.de/en/Routes_Cities/From-the-River-Neckar-to-the-Black-Forest-and-Lake-Constance/Herrenberg.html

https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attractions-g562795-Activities-Herrenberg_Baden_Wurttemberg.html

https://www.herrenberg.de/de/Stadtleben/Erlebnis-Herrenberg/Staunen-Erleben/Historischer-Marktplatz

The next day, you'll have a journey of about 90 minutes to Engen, on the Black Forest Railway ("Schwarzwaldbahn") route, one of Germany's most scenic train rides.** The Regional Express train takes you along the Schwarzwaldbahn directly to Gengenbach in around 90 minutes.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4d/Verlaufskarte_Schwarzwaldbahn_%28Baden%29.png

If you take the route through Stuttgart, I highly recommend stopping in Herrenberg. It’s a beautiful village on the German Half-Timbered House Route and splits your travel time almost exactly in half.

Wow. I thought I was the only one who knew about Herrenberg. I have to agree with the above recommendations. We stayed there in 2002 for it's easy access to the airport in Stuttgart (back then Delta had a direct flight to Atlanta from Stuttgart).

We were coming with the train from Sigmaringen and stopped for lunch at a riverside restaurant in Tübingen where we watched the punts on the Neckar.

We stayed in a Pension Kirchgasse (www.Pension-Kirchgasse1.de) right on the market square, which is filled with Fachwerk buildings). The owner (from the pictures, I think the same person still owns it) spoke English and was very gracious. My wife was experiencing some gastric distress, and our hostess made her scrambled eggs in the morning because they might be easier on her stomach. It's very reasonable for two people, less than $100/nt. Pension Kirchgasse, and the market square, are about a 9/10 km (about ½ mile) walk, from the train station.

Ellwangen nice town with Palace and Monastery nearby

Landesgartenschau 2026 (Gardening exhibition) in town 2026

ca.2hrs from Rothenburg to Ellwangen and onto Gengenbach 3hrs by train

Video Clip