Published on Oct, 2024
In our research at home in Sydney Australia, (M75, F71) Black Forest Tours became our preferred tour company, as they could personalise a tour to suit our requests. We spent eight days in the Black Forest area and stayed in three towns. At this point, I am not going to identify all the towns, as Simone likes to give each client an experience that matches closely their requests. A change was made close to our departure date from Australia, when accommodation became available in one of Simone's favourite towns, and we loved this small town. We did start, however, in Freiburg.
Our tour was for ourselves only, which meant when something popped up that we liked the look of, it was easy to accommodate our request to "stop and look" .
We had guided walking tours in two of the towns, with exceptionally knowledgeable local guides - clear spoken English (our only language), interesting history / stories and could take us through the smaller back streets to see things that we would have missed. One guide also kindly showed us the outside of her house, (as we walked passed on the tour) and explained many quirky things about the street, and the history of the individual houses.
The travel between each town was by car, with a driver who gave us a very good insight the countryside; took us through small towns; pointed out interesting features and stopped at shops where there were unique things to learn about the Black Forest. For example, we had a stop at a Cuckoo Clock shop, and there are so many things to learn about the history of the wood carvings, decorations, painting, how often clocks need winding and how this works. We stopped at waterfalls for walks; saw squirrels; took in scenery from the top of mountains overlooking a patchwork of green vineyards; saw grape harvesting; old buildings and churches; learned about traditional costumes.
When not travelling, Simone had provided very comprehensive booklets / brochures for things we could do on our own. We made good use of our free Konus card, for the trains. We visited the Open Air Farmhouse Museum, where the train station is adjacent to the site, so easy to access. The outdoor museum was very interesting with original buildings from a number of eras transported to the site; easy walking and a good restaurant for our lunch.
We used the trains and buses to do day trips on our own.
We took the train and bus to Freudenstadt, where the weather worked against us (cold and rain) to be able to see a great deal of the town. We did manage the plaza, which had many flower beds, fountains, an interesting Protestant church, with surrounding shops / cafes.
Having 3 days / 4 nights in each town gave us plenty of time to see things, and also rest a little, knowing that we would not be pushed for time.
A beautiful and unique part of Germany to visit.
