A truly wet night meant we struggled to sleep through the
forecast heavy showers. However we dashed once again to the 9.44 train and
collected coffee from the kiosk. Staying on past Gengenbach we travelled deeper
into the forest along the overcast and sodden Kinzig valley. At Hausach,
unexpectedly, the train terminated and we ran outside the station to squeeze
onto a rail replacement bus. Unheard of in our previous rail journeys in
Germany!
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| Fun on the swollen river |
Other passengers were
murmuring about the height and speed of the water and the wild looking river
was clearly a matter of comment.
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| Soggy Schiltach |
Gladly we got off at Schiltach which is nestled at the
foot of wooded hills. It’s a pretty half-timbered village with a charming
elevated square formed by its rathaus, an historic inn and large patrician
houses. Our walking tour in the mizzly rain to the top of the Altstadt offered
misty views of the valley as rain water gushed down the cobbled medieval
street.
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| The swollen River Schiltach |
Braving another bus we travelled up into the hills around
climbing hairpin bends to reach Alpirsbach, one of the most easterly villages
in the forest. It was clear why the trains were not running as gangs of workers
toiled at replacing whole sections of track. Initially confused as to why this
work would be done in the summer season we then stopped to consider the busier
needs of the winter skiing season and the double-life led by these small forest
communities.
Alpirsbach was founded around its Klosterbrau brewery,
which is still the main business of the day. Bus times didn’t allow a tour of
the impressive red sandstone abbey and its cellars but we enjoyed a glass over
a simple lunch of local onion soup and wurst in gravy in a rather grand hunting
lodge, once frequented by Kaiser Willhelm.
It was remodelled in the 1930’s and
still had authentic parquet flooring, wooden panelled walls and ceilings, a
gigantic curving bar, fluted and mirrored columns and lots of stuffed heads of
long-dead dusty animals.
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| Lunch at the Kaiser’s favourite |
The bus back down the hills was packed this time with
students. As the skies had cleared we enjoyed dramatic views along the way
commenting again on the size and modernity of the many isolated forest homes.
From Hausach our train slowly wound its way back down the
forest and filled up again at the main terminus in Offenburg. Alighting with a
host of commuters back at Oberkirch it was interesting to compare their journey
with our own daily travel to work. It had been a full day in the forest.
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| A wet and moody day in the Black Forest |
