Suggestions of things to see/do in the Black Forest area
 

My wife, son, daughter and her husband (the younguns are all late 20s) will be spending a week in Mühlenbach in early June of this year.

Me, my son and son-in-law all have high interest in performance autos so a trip to Stuttgart is likely, possibly in conjunction with a trip slightly further East to visit the home where my father grew up (Kimmichsweiler, a suburb of Esslingen am Neckar).

Other than that, any "must see/dos" that FTers would like to recommend?

Further, when we leave Mühlenbach we will be headed to Interlaken/Lauterbrunnen - any particular route/sights we should catch on the way?

TIA

If you wanted an interesting drive in Bavaria, try visiting "Mad King Ludwig's" castle. I believe it was Walt Disney's inspiration for Disneyland (after he visited the castle).

Early June is a lovely time to be visiting the Black Forest.

You could make a day trip to Konstanz, an old university town on the shore of Lake Constance and right on the border to Switzerland (although not technically in the Black Forest). On the way there, you can stop in Triberg which is famous for its waterfall and cuckoo clocks, or climb one of the (no longer active) Hegau volcanoes near Singen, e.g. the Hohentwiel.

Other interesting cities are Freiburg (another old university town) and Strasbourg (just across the river Rhine in France).

For nature/hiking, you can climb the Feldberg (the highest peak in Baden-Württemberg) or check out the area around the Titisee/Schluchsee lakes.

If you're into theme parks and roller coasters, you'll want to spend a day at Europa-Park. Its older parts are very heavily "inspired" by Disney's parks, but it's changed a lot since then and there's loads to do for people of all ages.

I guess you already know that Mühlenbach is right in the middle of the Schwarzwald (Black Forest). Some interesting towns nearby are Schiltach and Gengenbach, just because they are quaint. Just south of Hausach there is an open-air museum with houses and other buildings showing life in the Black Forest 100-200 years ago. waffle is right about Freiburg and Strasbourg. If you want to see a castle, though, I wouldn't drive all the way to Bavaria: Hohenzollern Castle is quite spectacular from the outside and is close by, in Hechingen. And if you like Baroque palaces, just visit Ludwigsburg, 10 miles north of Stuttgart. You already know about the Porsche Museum and Mercedes Museum; you can also get a tour of the plant at Mercedes if you reserve in advance (I don't know about Porsche...) And Esslingen is also a very nice town, and is just 10 miles from Stuttgart, so by all means combine them. Another nearby town worth visiting is Tubingen, about 25 miles south of Stuttgart: it is an old university town set on the banks of the Neckar River. Have fun!

Spent a couple days in Freiburg and the Black Forest area in 2012.

As mentioned above, Freiburg is worth a visit. The Augustiner Museum (about the Monastic order, not the beer) is pretty interesting. For dinning in the Freiburg area, check out the Strausse (or Ostrich) restaurants in the area. You can get a list for the visitor information center (or probably online). These are small restaurants at local farms limited to seating 40 people and only open for a short season, serving food from onsite.

There's a clock museum in Furtwangen we visited. Only takes an hour or two. I'd recommend it if you're interested in that sort of thing. It covers the history of clock making with examples from over the centuries.

And of course outdoor activities like hiking are what the Black Forest is known for.

Thanks for all the suggestions. I apologize for not have mentioned that we have visited the area before (about 15 years ago) and visited several of the Big Sights such as Freiburg and Triberg.

We even brought back a cuckoo clock. Well, we had it shipped. But we brought the weights (wooden, filled with metal for weight) with us because they said it would save a lot on the shipping cost. But we put them in our hand baggage because of the weight limit on our luggage. At security they didn't like the look of them on the X-Ray and made us take them out and put them in a red "envelope" which they then put in checked baggage. This was 2 months before 9/11.

I appreciate all the additional suggestions. We prefer quieter, out of the way places and hiking, and I see quite a few destinations that seem worth following up.

My wife and I also visited Esslingen (with my father, on his first return since 44 years) and he gave us a tour of the town, showed us the house he was born in and the house where he grew up from 7 - 21 when he left for Canada. On a whim we stopped at his childhood neighbor friend's house, and he still lived there. We spent a delightful afternoon while they caught up on life. I would like to visit again, this time showing my children. Thanks be to Google Maps/Satellite, without which I'm sure I would never have figured out where to go.

Thanks,

If anyone in the party is at all a history buff, I highly recommend the Black Forest Open Air Museum: http://en.vogtsbauernhof.de/

It's a collection of original traditional buildings moved from various parts of the Forest to a single location. There's a working water-powered saw mill and grain mill, and a ton of other demonstrations and information about traditional rural life in the area. In early June, there MAY also be costumed docents, etc. providing extra demonstration, but check their schedule as that may not get rolling until deeper into the high-summer season (July/August). We enjoyed it in 2006 and we're returning there later this year with our young daughter.

This is EXACTLY the kind of thing we love.

Thanks!

One thing to note is that when you stay in (almost?) any hotel in the Black Forest area, you get a free travel card for the whole area (bus/train etc.) called "KONUS".

Mühlenbach is included:

http://www.schwarzwald-tourismus.inf.../konus2/(az)/M

Going around by train can be more relaxing (and giving you the opportunity to do one-way hikes) - Haslach, which has a train line running, is in the next village north (and connected by bus to Mühlenbach) - alternatively, Elzach on the south has a direct train going to Freiburg. And free parking (so you wouldn't have to take the not-so-frequent bus there, then switching for a relaxing ride all the way to Freiburg)

Also, Elzach has some nice old village centre itself, and a decent choice of restaurants (Gasthaus Rössle for a bit upscale local food, Gasthaus Zur Krone for more "down to earth" food, as two examples - but of course there is more..)

The Black Forest in summer is one of my favorite areas to go. It's hardly ever too hot, and even if it's warm, there are a lot of natural lakes to take a swim in to cool down.

On your question about which route to take towards Interlaken, I assume you'll have/buy a Swiss highway sticker?

You can either drive towards Freiburg (im Breisgau), then a bit on the unlimited German Autobahn if you fancy, then on the Swiss highway via Bern - or alternatively, if you've more time (and I mean more time, it will take you several hours longer) - especially if you want to save that sticker - all the way through the Black Forest. I'd suggest going North first via Haslach, east Hausach, then all the way South on Route 33, switching to Route 500 to Triberg, Schönwald, Furtwangen, along the Titisee (you might want to skip that one, super touristic), along the Schluchsee (still on route 500) - now going on smaller roads towards Grafenhausen. Several options South now, you just want to drive through the Schwarza-Schlücht-Tal, which is as much Black Forest as it can be (no worries though, the road is in excellent condition) towards Waldshut-Tiengen (Swiss boarder)

In Switzerland, go via Brugg, Lenzburg, Birrwil along the Hallwilersee, then cross over to Beromünster (Home of the "famous" Radio Beromünster - https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Landes...rom%C3%BCnster )

If you're into storks, Sempach has THE stork center of Europe (Vogelwarte Sempach) - plus, Sempach itself is a fantastic preserved old city.

http://www.vogelwarte.ch/de/voegel/v...issstorch.html

From there, go towards UNESCO Entlebuch (the city is called the same) - more information here: http://www.myswitzerland.com/en-ch/u...entlebuch.html

You can take the Rothornstrasse, then the Panoramastrasse, all the way over the mountain pass (in summer only)

http://fs5.directupload.net/images/170204/tqkcrpzy.jpg

In Giswil, turn South again, along Lungernersee, up the famous Brünigpass, then down to Brienz and long the right hand side of the lake all the way to Interlaken.

We're actually renting a house and will have a car (more likely two), but there may be times when public transport may make more sense. Will be on the lookout.

We will be renting the car from Zurich airport so it will have the Swiss highway sticker. Or, at least, it always has.

Sounds like the kind of route we search out. Thanks!

We have taken that route before, including both the Northern and Southern sides of Brienzersee. In fact we stayed 2-3 days in Brienz once :)

Thanks again for all your helpful suggestions!

There are some great drives in the area, if the younger ones are into that. The Schwarzwaldhochstrasse is legendary for that. Sadly the Bühlerhöhe Hotel is still closed. The drive from Freiburg to Friedrichshafen is very nice in places as well, and there is plenty to do in and around the Bodensee (aka Lake Constanz).

This is on the Romantik Road which I highly recommend. It's best to drive it from north to south as it progressively gets better. You can also follow the Castle Road (east-west) that crosses the Romantik Road at Rothenberg (Tauber), a historic town with Christmas shops.

If you're interested, do an excursion to some wineries near the Black Forest. Compare the locations of German wine regions to where you'll be.

I would travel south via the Bundesstrasse B33/B27 and then make a stop at the river Rhine falls in Schaffhausen/Neuhausen
http://www.rheinfall.ch/en/
which are stunning, take a lunch break in the area and then continue via the Autobahn A4 and the others in Switzerland towards Interlaken.

Good idea on the Rheinfall. My wife and I have been but not the kids.

We'll probably skip the wineries this trip. My wife and I would be interested, but not the kids.

who knows;)