Black Forest, Schiltach and a Blizzard

At breakfast on the final morning the sun was shining and there was a blue sky so we weighed up the options and decided to drive through the northern half of the Black Forest and spend the afternoon in Baden-Baden before catching the late flight home. Unfortunately by the time we had packed our bags and checked out of the Rammersweir Hoff the sunshine had disappeared and had been replaced by the familiar grey sky. (There was no additional charge for the repair of the cuckoo clock by the way).

For the final time we took the road out of the city, through Gengenbach, Haslach and Hausach and then drove east along the Kinzig valley crossing the longest river in the Black Forest several times on our journey towards Schiltach where we arrived soon after. We parked the car in a car park next to the river near the tanner’s quarter, which is the oldest part of the town. Here the timber framed buildings were built at the side of the Kinzig in the eighteenth century and were used by the tanners in the production of especially high quality leather goods, which the town was famous for.

Two thousand years ago the Romans passed through Schiltach and constructed a road that we followed now from the river to the Städle or Old Town where every building was half timbered with colourful facades and brightly painted wooden windows that imparted a fairy tale ambiance. There was simply nothing here to spoil the picture book mood and character and in the pretty triangular market place at the heart of the town the Fasnacht festival bunting hung high above the cobbled street and old town well, the merchant’s houses and the town hall with its striking Teutonic wall paintings. After walking around the town and before we left for the next stage of the journey we found a little place at the side of the river Schiltach and stopped for refreshment in the immaculate café that was serving fresh cakes and treats.

We left Shiltach and took the road towards the city of Freudenstadt on the eastern side of the forest and after a few kilometres the road began to climb and at the same time the sky darkened and it started to snow and the weather was in complete contrast to the beginning of the day. It became grey and bleak and the snow became heavy enough for us to abandon a plan to take a scenic back road to by-pass the city and we continued on the main road instead. When we approached the outskirts of Freudenstadt we became confused by the road signs that didn’t seem to cater for the route we had chosen and we went wrong a couple of times and nearly crashed the car looking for the road to Baden-Baden.

Freudenstadt had had a lot of snow and this current fall was adding to the deep piles at the sides of the roads. It was a blizzard really and although some residents were valiantly trying to clear paths they were fighting a losing battle and would have been better off waiting for half an hour or so or until it stopped. The road kept climbing out of the city until we reached the village of Kneibis where we had planned to stop for lunch but the blizzard was so bad that we couldn’t find the restaurant that we had visited two years ago and it wouldn’t have been sensible anyway because one again the road surface was disappearing fast. So we carried on.

Soon we were in the grip of a complete whiteout and this was probably the most snow that I have ever seen in my life. Houses, fields, trees, everything was obliterated including the road and fairly soon it was impossible to distinguish the tarmac from the verges. The temperature dropped to minus six and the windscreen wipers froze again and became completely useless. The map showed that the road ran a serrated course and the jagged route meant a succession of sharp twists and turns as we climbed towards the highest point at about one thousand one hundred metres which is just about the same elevation as Mount Snowdon in Wales. At its highest point the Black Forest Mountains reach one thousand five hundred metres which is just a bit higher than Ben Nevis. And at this height it was just about possible to appreciate the vast scale of the forest that covers an area of about twelve thousand square kilometres which is roughly the equivalent of Yorkshire which is the largest county in the United Kingdom.

This was the worst journey of the few days in Germany and we were counting down the kilometers to Baden-Baden and wishing them away. We looked for a way of getting off this dangerous scenic route on the high ridge and dropping down into the Rhine Valley below and the autobahn but there were only minor roads in even worse condition than this one, which by now could be used as an Olympic bob-sleigh run, so it wasn’t worth taking the risk. With about twenty kilometers to go the road started to drop and this brought with it the added danger of skidding under braking and I had to be ultra cautious on the pedals. At one point a car in front did a theatrical 360° spin which required more braking than I was comfortable with but the winter tyres did their job and although there was a bit of sliding the car came to a controlled and graceful stand-still.

Black Forest, Badische Schwarzwaldbahn

I woke early in the morning and now that the effects of the wine had almost completely worn away immediately recalled the incident with the cuckoo clock and I worried that I might have broken it and would be presented with a hefty repair bill when we checked out. Wide awake I checked the weather and instead of the blue sky that we had predicted there had been a significant fall of snow and it was still coming down thick and fast.

Over breakfast we agreed that this was probably not a good day to be driving around the Black Forest on snow bound roads even with winter tyres so we decided to take a train journey instead. The car took some clearing and de-icing and then we left the residential streets of Rammersweier and headed towards the city centre and the train station. This being Sunday there wasn’t a lot of traffic about and the snow that had fallen remained mostly undisturbed and lay like a thick carpet across the road and the pavements. We negotiated our way safely to the station, found a car park and because it was still snowing left the car hoping that it wouldn’t get completely snowed in while we were away.

We had missed the train by just a couple of minutes so this provided an opportunity for an early morning beer in a bar opposite the station while we waited before going back to purchase our €30 day return ticket for a journey into the forest on the Badische Schwarzwaldbahn. The Black Forest Railway (as we know it) was built between 1863 and 1873 and today is a twin-track, electrified railway line running in a north-west to south-east direction and links Offenburg on the Rhine Valley Railway with Singen on the Upper Rhine Railway. It passes directly across the Black Forest, through spectacular scenery on a route that is one hundred and fifty kilometres long, ascends six hundred and fifty metres from lowest to highest elevation, and passes through thirty-nine tunnels and over two viaducts. It is the only true mountain railway in Germany to be built with two tracks, and is the most important railway line in the Black Forest.

Being Germany the scarlet DBAG Class 146 locomotive and modern double-decker passenger cars arrived and left completely on schedule and we selected good seats on the top deck with excellent views on both sides. The first part of the journey was quite flat as we passed through Gengenbach on our way to Hausach as the train lines followed the route of the Kinzig valley through sleeping vineyards and lifeless orchards and then as the valley narrowed the train began to climb effortlessly towards the most dramatic and scenic part of the route through the Gutach valley to Hornberg and then to Triberg and on to Sankt Georgan.

In this middle section the train has to ascend six-hundred metres through a series of helical tunnels and this part of the line was the most complicated to construct and was completed last. The route passes through thirty-seven tunnels in this section alone and across one large viaduct at Hornberg. On its way from north to south, the line passes under the main European watershed (a geographical feature that divides the drainage basins of the major rivers of Germany north and south) twice, once via the Sommerau tunnel between Triberg and Sankt Georgen, which is one thousand seven hundred meters long, and then via the Hatting tunnel, between Engen and Immendingen, which is nine hundred meters long.

This was a brilliant journey through magnificent scenery, thick snow and blizzards and as I was not driving today I was able to enjoy the fabulous views. After Sankt Georgan the line began to descend again until it reached our first destination of Villingen-Schwenningen where we left the train after a journey of an hour and ten minutes. It had stopped snowing now but not before it had deposited several centimetres on top of the town and everywhere looked pristine and clean under a dazzling white mantle.

Perhaps Villingen is always quiet on a Sunday or perhaps the snow had kept people in doors because the place was curiously tranquil today and everywhere was closed and it was obvious that this was not the place to drive out to for Sunday lunch on a snowy day. The town was much like Freiburg only smaller with a main street with too many shops but pretty enough with pastel coloured facades and colourful window displays but as there wasn’t a great deal to do we only stayed for forty minutes and then took the next available train back to Triberg.

From the eastern edge of the forest we went back through the cork screw loops into the high mountains covered in pine trees all bearing a heavy burden of snow and standing in rows like an army regiment waiting for orders to march. Before we reached Triberg there was another blizzard and the train passed through the succession of long dark tunnels with each black void ending with the explosive contrast of the brilliant white cresta run channels of trackside snow as we passed out of them. It was simply wonderful and we enjoyed it.

Black Forest, Winter Tyres?

Two years ago we visited Germany and stayed in the city of Baden-Baden in the north of the Black Forest and enjoyed it so much that we booked to return a year later. We didn’t make it however because on the day of the flight there was a little bit of snow across the United Kingdom which closed down all of the airports and cancelled all of the flights. Not to be outdone by inefficient English bad weather emergency response planning however we booked again to visit in January 2009 and this time with mild weather at Stansted the flight got away as planned.

It took only fifty-five minutes to fly the short distance and land at Kahlrsrue-Baden Airpark at nine-thirty in the evening and after quickly clearing immigration and customs we were soon at the Sixt Car Hire desk to pick up our hire car. There was a pleasant young man on duty called Herr Schmidberger and he examined my hire details and then sighed and furrowed his brow and adopted a concerned demeanour, “You have a booking for a vehicle without the winter tyres” he said, “are you sure you want a car without the winter tyres?” I had no idea what he was talking about and must have given him my best blank expression because with that he rolled his eyes so far back into their sockets that if had laser vision he would have fried his brains. The winter tyres were an extra €55 and I was beginning to detect a well rehearsed scam so we took a while to consult with each other on the proposal of paying the extra and this started to test his patience.

I enquired why I might consider going to the unnecessary additional expense and although this was his opportunity to inform me that since May 2006 German motorists have been required by law to use the most appropriate tyres for the weather conditions and that driving on snow covered roads is permitted only if a car is equipped with winter tyres, instead he became even more theatrical and speaking in that clipped precise sort of way that Germans do when speaking English said “Look at the snow, you can see the snow, in just two minutes you can see the snow!” Obviously I could see the snow but I still failed to understand why he was so insistent (unless it was a scam). He could have told me that in Germany motorists are obliged to make sure they have correct tyres to suit the winter weather conditions and if a vehicle becomes stuck because the tyres are unsuitable drivers are liable to an on the spot fine, and further more if the vehicle causes an obstruction or aggravation to other traffic, the fine may be doubled. Instead he gave a look that suggested that I was the craziest customer that he had ever dealt with and that driving without winter tyres in snow was madder than wrestling with alligators, swimming in shark infested waters or sky-diving without a parachute.

I asked about the weather forecast and whether he thought it might be snowing in the Black Forest (which at over a thousand metres was an absolute certainty and a really dumb question) and then his eyes started to swivel from side to side like the symbols on a fruit machine and he was clearly losing his patience with me now. He might have explained that winter tyres use a tread rubber compound and block pattern specifically designed to retain flexibility in low temperatures and give good braking and traction performance on snow and ice covered roads but instead he just keep shrieking “Look at the snow, you can see the snow, in just two minutes you can see the snow!” By now we were beginning to understand that he thought snow tyres were a very good idea so finally agreed to the additional charge and he immediately calmed down and set about allocating us an appropriate vehicle for the conditions.

After that he went through the booking and paying procedures, explained where we would find the car in the car park and then clearly lacking any sort of confidence in my snow driving abilities and not expecting to see the car again in one piece bade us farewell with the words “please be sure to drive carefully in the snow, it is very dangerous…”

We quickly found the bright blue Nissan Micra hidden under a blanket of snow, cleaned it down, examined the tyres which, at this time not understanding about the special rubber compound looked quite normal to me and fairly soon after setting off I was certain we had been scammed. And we had been of course because at €13.45 a day I calculate that if they are on the car for a third of the year that is an extra €1,600 or €400 a tyre and I cannot believe that they can be that much more expensive than a regular tyre. And of course they are not because I have checked and they can be bought for as little as €40 each.

Preoccupied by this thought and how Herr Schmidberger had taken me for a mug I predictably took the wrong turn out of the Airpark and instead of reaching the motorway as intended we found ourselves on the back roads driving through small villages and searching for clues from the occasional unhelpful road signs. Although Kim has improved recently as a navigator she was off duty tonight so we just had to keep going and trusting in our natural sense of direction. It was still snowing but not as heavily now and I began to curse myself for having been rushed into the winter tyres decision. Eventually, after a bit of a detour, we reached the motorway and then the right exit and then after only one more mistaken wrong turning which we quickly corrected found the Rammersweir Hoff hotel without any difficulty at all. This is unusual for us and quite remarkable because the place was tucked away in a side street in the middle of a residential area and on a different occasion I could easily have spent hours searching for it.