Two days in Black Forest - Germany

If you stay in smaller town and villages and your host gives you a KONUS Carte you get free second class travel on all the regional trains in most of the Black Forest area, including trips into Freiburg im Breisgau.

I like Gengenbach - right on the Black Forest railway. As far as how to do it, if you have your KONUS card just hop on when the train stops and hop off at whatever interests you.

There are really only a few train lines through the Black Forest; most towns are connected by buses. The Konus card is also usable on the buses.

Thanks for the guidance. Very helpful.

I guess best option would be to take train from Zurich to Offenburg and then take Black Forest Railways to go to Gengenbach. Any recommendation for a hotel near the train station? I happened to find a hotel Hotel Hirschen at Oberwolfach which looks good. Any view on this area? I am trying to figure out how to plan if I stay there.

In fact I had booked at Leonardo Royal at Baden Baden but will cancel it as the purpose of our trip is Black Forest (Nature, scenic beauty), cuckoo clocks and some good black forest cake, wine and food.

Baden Baden is nice in its own way. Gracious, busy, quite nice trees, but not in the Black Forest.

If you can afford it and stairs and uneven floors are OK, the Reichsstadt is fabulous. Their new website is all in German but they (mostly) speak good English - their breakfast is EXcellent.
http://www.die-reichsstadt.de/de/hotel-reichsstadt-gengenbach/

I was in Freiburg im Breisgau for a few days last September and quite enjoyed it. It's a beautiful town and large enough that it has a good selection of restaurants and hotels, as well as good rail service. The Duomo is incredible and well worth a visit.

I stayed at Hotel Kreuzblume and would certainly recommend it - https://www.hotel-kreuzblume.de/hotel/

You should look into Baiersbronn if gourmet food is what you're after. The Bareiss and the Schwarzwaldstube are considered world-class - lots of Michelin stars shining in that town.

Gengenbach is a good location for an outing to Strasbourg or to Freiburg as well as to the towns on the Black Forest Railway (Gutach is a good choice.)

http://www.bensbauernhof.com/gutachimschwarzwald.html

Thanks all for your help in providing me guidance on where to stay and where to eat etc. It seems to me that there are several places to stay, eat and do sightseeing. I have decided on the following.

1Arrive at Offenburg from Zurich in the morning
2. take Black Forest railways train to Gengenbach (9.5 Kilometers)
3. stay at GASTHOF HIRSCH GENGENBACH. The rate for a double room is about Euro 85 per day including breakfast.
4. The hotel is about 5 minutes walk from the train station.
5. After lunch, return to offenburg and travel to Freiburg, spend time till about 6 PM (train timing to be checked)
6. Return to Gengenbach and have dinner in the hotel.
7 The next day after breakfast, take BF Railways train to Triberg, waterfalls, Museum, cake at cafe Schafer, Furtwangen for cuckoo clocks. Buy a good genuine German cuckoo clock.
8. Take train and go to Donaueschingen to see the origin of Danube River
9. Return to Gengenbach and walk aound
10 Dinner
11. Next day leave for Baden Baden, spend the day at Baden Baden and leave for Frankfurt around 6 PM.

I am assuming that there is a facility to leave our baggage at Baden Baden Station. Any suggestion will be of great help.

Thanks again to all of you.

Avinash

There are lockers at Baden Baden bahnhof. Opening hours for the station are
Mo
07:00-19:00
Tu
07:00-19:00
We
07:00-19:00
Th
07:00-19:00
Fr
07:00-19:00
Sa
08:00-16:00
Su
10:00-19:00