train/car

I'm just back from a nice day-trip into the Black Forrest (yes, we can do that from Frankfurt). The best sceneries and sights in the Black Forrest are only doable by car, like the 60km long Schwarzwaldhochstrasse (Peaks Road) from Baden Baden to Freudenstadt. If you want to make Freiburg your base that's great. The drive from Koblenz to Freiburg is very nice and at times even scenic. Also you can stop e.g. at Heidelberg or- even nicer but smaller - in Roth unter Rietburg and Deidesheim in the Palatinate region. But the train works equally well, just without all the options.

In 2001, we took the train from just outside Baden-Baden up the Murg to Freudenstadt. It was a sunny day in December, just after a snowfall, and the whole valley glistened. It was nice being able to look at the scenery, not the road.

Andreas writes, "The best sceneries and sights in the Black Forrest are only doable by car, like the 60km long Schwarzwaldhochstrasse (Peaks Road) from Baden Baden to Freudenstadt. If you want to make Freiburg your base that's great." The Schwarzwaldhochstrasse provides handsome views. Of course, trains don't scale peaks and ride the ridges - they're engineered through river valleys, generally, but a couple of routes provide excellent scenery. The Schwarzwaldbahn route between Offenburg and Villingen has dozens of twists, turns and tunnels on the ascent to St. Georgen, the highest station, at around 2,600 ft. elevation: http://www.black-forest-travel.com/places-of-interest/black-forest-railway.html http://www.posten60.de/streckenbeschreibung/stb-bilder-itxt/strecken-sw5.gif Trains on this route are of the double-decker variety for better views: http://www.schwarzwald-tourismus.info/var/plain/storage/images/media/presse/bilder_logos/schwarzwald_mobil/die_schwarzwaldbahn_aussen/17594-1-ger-DE/die_schwarzwaldbahn_aussen1_large.jpg

(cont.)
Freiburg is a nice city, but consider a small village near Freiburg instead. If you stay in one of the "KONUS" villages you can ride the Black Forest trains for free throughout your stay. There are about 130 villages that offer the KONUS card (Freiburg does not): http://www.blackforest-tourism.com/konus A good village for using the BF railway and visiting Freiburg is Gengenbach: http://www.gengenbach.info/en/tourism/

Thanks for the help on the Schwartzwald (hitchhiking on John's thread). @Russ I've been looking at Gengenbach since your post. It looks really convenient and well located and small and reasonably priced. Did you have a favourite pension or hotel there, or one to avoid? Thanks