We had five travel days left on our Interrail passes from the Summer Rails trip to Finland, and thought it would be a good idea to use them to visit the Black Forest (Schwartzwald) in South-western Germany for some relaxed hiking. And so we did. The Fall foliage was not at its fullest and finest yet, but the area is evergreen forest with pine and spruce trees anyway. We visited partially the same areas as we did on our Winter Interrail in December 2023, but unlike then, we enjoyed magnificent weather throughout the week. We had only one cloudy day, and the rest were sunny with about +10°C in the morning and a little above +20°C in the afternoon.
We spent the first night on the outbound trip in Lörrach in Baden-Württemberg, then four nights in Kirchzarten in Breisgau-Hochschwarzwald, and one night each in Basel and Biel in Switzerland on the return trip. Finally, we stayed one night in Lyon to visit the Illustration Festival before returning home.
Activity-wise we did not do much in Lörrach, but went for an early morning run by the river Wiese to the Grütt Landscape Park. It was a nice run on a smooth paved bicycle path, and on the covered bridge — although hard to see in the picture below, I am running downhill on a quite steep slope.
From Kirchzarten we did three more or less easy and scenic hikes, the first to the neighboring village of Oberried, the second to the hill of Pfeiferberg with beautiful views of the Oberriedertal and Dreisamtal valleys, and the third around the lake Titisee. The first two left directly from Kirchzarten, but to access the third we had to take a short train ride, part of which was replaced by a bus.
The first day was the only cloudy one on our trip, and made the landscape look somewhat dull.
Our second hike was more scenic. On the top of the Pfeiferberg hill we found whimsical wooden figures by the artist Thomas Rees. The one pictured below we found isolated from the others, and was called Coronus (he has actually made several versions of the COVID-themed sculptures). Note the curious black-and-white striped cows in the rightmost picture below.
The third hike was an easy stroll around the lake Titisee. The trail around the lake was busy, but not too crowded, and we were clearly one of the youngest tourists there.
I don’t know how Germans do it, but there were no bugs to bug us on our hikes. Wherever and whenever we go hiking in France there is always a swarm of bugs — flies, wasps, bees, mosquitos, but especially flies — circling around our heads trying to get in the eyes, ears, and nose. On our hikes in Germany I don’t remember even seeing a flying insect let alone them having been a nuisance. And no spider webs built across the trails, either.
For the return trip we had an ambitious plan to take a train/bus combination to Donaueschingen, and then to Blumberg-Zollhaus, and from there a historic steam train Sauschwänzlebahn — or “Pig Tail Rail,” so called because of the hairpin tunnel — to Weizen. We even booked an accommodation a little further away in Murg, but when actually checking the timetables and connections, we learned that despite the interesting hairpin train ride, it would be a very long and inconvenient day. So we changed the plan and took a short train ride to Basel, and then another short one to Biel, spending one night in each, and doing one run in each.
Basel was not very runnable city, at least the area we stayed in. Maybe it was because of the traffic, and that people smoked everywhere?! We never figured out the traffic rules, if there were any. There were no traffic lights, nor clearly marked pedestrian crossings. The pedestrians seemed to cross where ever they wanted, and the other street users — cars, bicycles, and sometimes trams — stopped for them. I don’t know if it was a carefully orchestrated system or pure anarchy.
Our check-in time in Biel was late, so we spent the day in Basel visiting the most bizarre Museum Tinguely. Jean Tinguely (1925-91) was a Swiss artist known for his (huge) kinetic sculptural machines that visitors could actually play with at the museum. Some of them were extremely noisy.
Our last destination was Lyon. We booked the apartment close to the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Lyon, the venue of the 4th edition of the Illustration Festival, and Parc de la Tête d’Or, one of the best places to go running we have been to.
The Illustration Festival comprised of exhibitions, workshops and masterclasses, talks, demonstrations, concerts, animated short films, a market where artists sold their works, and a beer garden with food stalls. We headed first to the last one for beers. Then we checked a couple of exhibitions (did not want to queue to the market), the most interesting being L’Ordre des Cubes Sacrés, a collection of solid wood cubes painted by different artists. The cubes were for sale for 400 euros each.
In the last morning it was time to run in the Parc de la Tête d’Or. The park is practically flat, provides enough shade, and has several water fountains and toilets. It is also large with a variety of trails and routes of different surfaces, thus suitable for longer runs. And there were so many runners and bicyclists! There always are. The photos at the entrance of the park are from the exhibition “Vivre Ensemble” (“Living Together”) by Yann Arthus-Bertrand, Hervé Le Bras, and the GoodPlanet Foundation.
We had some awesome dining experiences during our trip; whenever we are out of France we explore ethnic kitchens — like Asian or African — since good ones are hard to find in France. In Lörrach we stayed in a hotel, so naturally we had dinner at a restaurant. We chose Ama Kitchen – Panasiatisches Restaurant across the street. We started with fresh spring rolls, followed by papaya salad with shrimp for Tei and Ama’s Signature Curry with chicken for Tomi, downed with beers, pils and weizen.
In Freiburg we found ourselves at Pin’ Kitchen where we had eaten on our previous Interrail trip and found its Chinese cuisine excellent and authentic. Unfortunately, we did not remember what we had then. This time our choices were not equally delicious: Tomi had a fried noodle bowl with crispy duck, and Tei crispy chicken with veggies and rice. A little disappointing, and the portions were huge, too big!
Probably the most delicious and interesting meal was the lunch from Amani’s Afghan stall in Markthalle in Basel. Tomi had “Melting Kabul” and Tei “Hilly Faryaab”, both dishes consisted of mixed meats and vegetables in spicy sauces, and rice.
After the tour in Museum Tinguely, we had lunch at the museum’s Bistro|Restaurant Chez Jeannot. Tei had Dujardin, which that week was roasted sweet potatoes and Israeli couscous, with a green starter salad. Tomi had their Summer salad with cold smoked salmon that came with the same green salad Tei had for a starter.
Our apartment in Biel was very spacious with this long dining table, and we decided to dine like royals sitting at the opposite ends of it. In general, all apartments we stayed at in Germany and Switzerland were spacious and uncluttered, especially bathrooms had a lot of room.
