Visiting black forest area - should I base myself in Gengenbach or Offenburg?

If I have the D-ticket, would it already cover me for everything the KONUS pass covers?

Yes.

I'm planning to make my way to Garmish Pa, thats a 5-6 hour train journey

D-Ticket: It's 8 hours.

Ulm is roughly half way. I like Augsburg more.

Offenburg is a reasonable base for outings. G'bach is a lot cuter - but it adds a transfer to Strasbourg andd Freiburg outings.

Thanks @Russ, given that D ticket coverage is the same, I should also consider Offenburg as my base. Given they are only a few mins apart by train, it may make more sense to stay in Offenburg which also means two less transfer with my suitcase (there and back to Gengenburg).

Maybe I should take the ICE train to Augsburg (3 hours), spend the day exploring and stay overnight, then take the RE trains to GaPa (2.5 hours). Thats not too bad. Thank you for the suggestion. Are there still plenty to do in Augsburg on a Sunday when majority of things are closed?

I see that Frankfurt is only 10 min away by RE train. May even consider extending one more day in Offenburg, haven't been to frankfurt before.

you can't take an ICE (or an IC) with a D-Ticket

I meant I’ll buy a seperate ICE ticket, an additional three hours to the trip is a bit too much for an already long journey.

I loved Gengenbach and my vote would be for a stay there. As Russ mentioned, it's only one extra change for Strasbourg and Freiburg, and it would be worth it for me to stay in that lovely town; especially if you plan to visit the Vogtsbauernhof. Getting to Strasbourg from Gengenbach was easy as pie, with one quick transfer in Offenburg, The town itself is really lovely with beautiful half-timbered houses and a beautiful Altstadt, with quite a few restaurants and cafes to choose from.

Frankfurt is not 10 minutes away from Offenburg !

yes, Frankfurt am Main Hbf is 1:40 by direct ICE from Offenburg

What Mardee says! We did just that 2 yrs ago!

Oh dear. Why is this saying 12 mins? Are there two Frankfurts?

https://imgur.com/a/X2YnPUQ

You've confused OffenBACH with OffenBURG. Easy to do as both have B-syllables at the end.

Ah lucky it was picked up! If I had booked my accommodation in the wrong place that would have been a disaster! :D. Thank you for those who spotted it.

I thought it was the same thing just different spelling. I must have thought it was the *BURG and *BERG spelling - which I understand is the same thing?

No. “-berg” is mountain and “-burg” is castle and “-bach” is river. “Offen” is a Frankish personal name ‘Offo’ or “Uffo” which is often used to form place names all over Southern Germany: Offenburg, Offenhausen, Uffenheim etc. It is important for the traveler to distinguish them well.

It is important for the traveler to distinguish them well.

Yes, but it's really hard to do that. Problem is, English speakers who speak/write no German cannot distinguish
-berg from -burg in their own speech. German speakers often don't get what's so hard about this. But we have a good excuse.

There is no "e" or "u" sound + "r" sound sequence in English for syllables like this. Only the "rrrrr" sound is possible. Curd, Heard, Nerd, Bird... our own language trains us to IGNORE certain vowel letters that come before "r". So there is nothing one can latch onto, phonologically speaking, to make the distinction between Rothenburg and Rothenberg. Both get the "rrrr" treatment. And for us there is no difference in meaning, as there is for German speakers, to latch onto either - burg and berg are just arbitrary letter sequences to us. There is no castle in Harrisburg, PA. The town of Newberg, OR isn't on a mountain. These are just arbitrary suffixes at the end of proper nouns in our eyes.

Germans who can't speak/write English struggle in a similar way when they first take on English. They can't distinguish their W's from their V's. Vine is wine and vice-versa. They think Porky Pig is pronounced Poky Peak. Those who are mostly fluent in English often remain hamstrung by their German pronounciation system, pronouncing bend, band and bent in exactly the same way. That's because they grew up speaking Cherman.