Monday 24 April 2006

Easyjet flight from London Heathrow (LHR) to Basel (BSL)
No. 50 Bus from airport (buy tickets from machine) to Basel rail station (SBB, Swiss Rail)
Train from Basel SBB to Basel Bad (Basel’s German station)
Train from Basel Bad to Zell im Wiesental
Walk to hotel

Hotel: Hotel Löwen, Schopfheimerstrasse 2, 79669 Zell im Wiesental
T: +49 7625 92540
F: +49 7625 8086
W: www.hotel-loewen-zell.de

Day 1: Zell im Wiesental – Todtmoos

Tuesday 25 April 2006

Map: 508 Lörrach

The Day in Brief: Steep uphill for the first few kilometres. Joined Westweg at the Rotsruh Hütte below Höhe Mohr — detoured to Schlechtbach for coffee at Gasthaus Blüme — a short steep ascent onto Schwelle ridge, then easy undulations before descent into Todtmoos from St Antonihütte. First encounter with the deep soft snow on the forest paths which made the going harder than we had anticipated. Weather mostly fair and dry except for light rain for about 20 minutes approaching Todtmoos.

Best bit: Finding the only bar in the village with a television where we could watch Arsenal qualify for the Champions’ League final — the Sports Bar, run by an ageing rocker who played Creedence Clearwater Revival loudly on the sound system before the match, at half time, and after the match finished.

Worst bit: Taking the wrong path near the St Antonihütte (my fault), meaning an extra 20 minutes tramping through soft snow.

Hotel: Hotel Maien, Hauptstrasse 2, 79682 Todtmoos
T: +49 7674 222
F: +49 7674 268
W: www.maien.de/eng/frames_h.html

Day 2: Todtmoos – Feldberger Hof

Wednesday 26 April 2006

Map: 508 Lörrach

The Day in Brief: Uphill (steep in places) to Ibacher Kreuz, undulating to beyond Rotes Kreuz, then steadily downhill to Bernau. Soft snow underfoot from before Ibacher Kreuz until leaving the forest above Bernau. Weather dull, turning to rain about half an hour before Bernau. There’s more on our experiences at the Feldberger Hof hotel below.

Best bit: Top quality Gulaschsuppe in the Scwarzwaldhaus Restaurant, Bernau.

Worst bit: Realising that given the snow conditions it would be foolish to try to walk from Bernau to our hotel and that we would have to take a taxi.

Hotel: Hotel Feldberger Hof, Dr Pilet Spur 1, 79868 Feldberg
T: +49 7676 180
F: +49 7676 1220
W: www.feldbergerhof.de

Day 3: Feldberger Hof – Hinterzarten

Thursday 27 April 2006

Maps: 508 Lörrach & 506 Titisee-Neustadt

The Day in Brief: A cold morning with thick fog, coupled with the depth of snow, put paid to our plan to cross the Feldberggipfel, the highest point in the Schwarzwald. Instead we went via the Feldsee lake (frozen), stopping for coffee and a large slice of rhubarb tart at the Raimartihof. Moving on, the waymarking failed and we navigated by map, compass and a good slice of luck through the snow-covered forest tracks to the Rufenhütte, where we picked up good tracks again to go via Am Feldberg and the Emil Thoma Weg (green circle waymarks) to Hinterzarten.

We went to see the modern octagonal church, which has an interesting combination of modern art and architecture and old artifacts from the previous building. Later we enjoyed early evening drinks in the bar of the smart Hotel Reppert.

Best bit: Pizza in the Ristorante Pizzeria Leonardo da Vinci, with its amazing selection of speciality grappas, in Hinterzarten that evening.

Worst bit: Not doing the Feldberggipfel.

Hotel: Hotel Schwarzwaldhof, Freiburger Strasse 2, 79856 Hinterzarten
T: +49 7652 120 30
W: www.schwarzwaldhof.com

Day 4: Hinterzarten – St. Märgen

Friday 28 April 2006

Map: 505 Freiburg

The Day in Brief: Hinterzarten had a webcam. Careful liaison with our home base allowed us to loiter around for our picture to be captured. [Note: By August 2015 this particular webcam was no longer functioning.]

A damp, drizzly, misty start uphill out of Hinterzarten, levelling out soon after the Fürsatzhöhe hut. Although high up and walking through fields as much as forest, the mist hid any views. Sandwiches in the bus shelter in the small settlement of Thurner, then coffee (Jonathan) and grog (me) in the dreary Wirtshaus Thurner. Four other walkers arrived, but exchanged no greetings. The weather cleared, though, for our undulating walk into St Märgen.

Originally a way for cross-country skiers to train in the summer, now a way of selling walking poles to gullible punters, Nordic Walking is big in this region: there are notice boards along the way promoting its health benefits, with illustrations of strange poses involving the use of walking poles.

Best bit: Leaving the Wirtshaus Thurner with the mist dispersing and the sun coming out.

Worst bit: Walking across featureless fields in the mist.

Hotel: Hotel Hirschen, Feldbergstrasse 5, 79274 St. Märgen
T: +49 7669 940680
W: www.hirschen-st-maergen.de/

Day 5: St. Märgen – Waldkirch

Saturday 29 April 2006

Map: 505 Freiburg

The Day in Brief: Much colder this morning — a light fall of snow as we left the hotel — low cloud, but no mist. After a moderate climb for the first couple of kilometres, we made steady progress towards the summit of the Kandel (1242m). After visiting the summit (Kandelgipfel) with its stone viewing platform and orientation table, we headed for the hotel by the summit car park — only to find it barricaded behind builders’ fencing. With our lunch plans in tatters, and with little hope, we approached the other building a hundred metres away — the Kandelhof. It too looked very closed. On the lower level we saw a sign saying “Stube”. There was a hand-written notice behind the glass door — “GEÖFFNET” — but the door was locked. Just as we turned away a young man appeared inside and unlocked the door. “Are you open?”, we asked. “It says so, doesn’t it?” he replied, and headed back. We followed him into a warm dining room with several other customers, where we spent the next hour and a half drinking a beer or two and hardly doing justice to the oversized portion of pea soup with sausage we both ordered.

Once again the sun had broken through by the afternoon, and we walked the last kilometres down into Waldkirch in pleasant sunshine.

Best bit: Realising the Kandelhof was not only open, but warm, welcoming, and serving a full menu.

Worst bit: Arriving at the hotel at 3.15, only to find a notice on the door saying the doors wouldn’t be open until 5.00

Hotel: Hotel Scheffelhof, Scheffelstrasse 1, 79183 Waldkirch
T: +49 768 147040
W: www.scheffelhof.de

Return

Sunday 30 April 2006

Train Waldkirch – Basel Bad
Train and bus to the airport
Easyjet flight Basel (BSL) – London Heathrow (LHR)

Kandelgipfel Viewpoint

Hotel Löwen, Zell

Rotsruh Hütte

Jonathan at Rotes Kreuz

Schwarzwaldhaus at Bernau

Feldsee

Snow in Forest

Loitering in Hinterzarten (webcam)

View from Kandelgipfel

Overall Impressions

Although the weather during our trip wasn’t great we hardly had any rain, though we did have mist and drizzle. The walking is generally easy to moderate, on clear and waymarked paths and tracks. The only big ascents and descents (800+ metres) are from the main valleys. Our start and finish points were at 450m and 275m altitude respectively: once we passed 800m on the first morning we spent the rest of our time between 800m and 1250m until descending to Waldkirch on the last afternoon. The highest point in the Schwarzwald is the Feldberggipfel (1493m): our highest was the Kandelgipfel (1242m).

As we had suspected, there is not much variation from day to day when you are walking in the Schwarzwald. The villages are pretty, but have little to distinguish one from another. Judging by the half day we had when we were walking in the open and were not in mist the views may well be excellent, but you will inevitably spend a fair amount of time walking in the forest with restricted horizons. As a holiday destination the region has plenty to offer the walker (and the cross-country skier, and the mountain biker), but the less active would probably find it rather dull after a couple of days.

Hotel accommodation was fairly easy to find on line. Places were open in late April, but far from full. We always had a friendly reception, in shops and eating places as well as hotels — people seemed genuinely pleased to have our custom. Don’t expect English to be widely spoken, though. (Jonathan speaks German and I have a limited vocabulary.)

The Feldberger Hof hotel

I can’t leave the subject of hotels without mentioning the Feldberger Hof (see Day 2 above). This was the only place my searches found which was in the right place at the foot of the Feldberggipfel, and open. This part of Feldberg is Feldberg-Ort: the other districts of Feldberg — Bärental, Neuglasshütten & Altglasshütten, and Falkau — were too far off our route. There was a Berghaus not too far away but, exceptionally, it was closed the night we wanted to stay.

The Feldberger Hof describes itself as a family resort, and normally only takes bookings for a minimum of 5 days. By special pleading Jonathan got them to agree in advance to give us a room for one night — it was expensive! Inside, the décor ranges from ornate in the entrance lobby and public areas to drab in the games basement. And there were children everywhere! Apart from being the only guests staying just one night we must have been the only guests without children in tow (ages from 0 to teen), and the only guests in the restaurant not on half-board terms. As we went down to eat at about 7.30, about 30 children with play leaders were playing a complicated game involving singing and dancing in the entrance lobby right outside the open doors of the restaurant. Inside was just as noisy — looking for a quiet table would have been futile. In a variation on the Butlin’s Redcoat theme (or “Hi-de-Hi”?), the play leaders all wore yellow “Happy Team” sweatshirts or t-shirts (available from the hotel shop in sizes from 0 upwards).

We got up promptly the next morning and managed to beat the crowds for breakfast — we were finished and out before the restaurant got busy.

Knowing what we know now, we could have found somewhere to stay a kilometre up the road at one of the places at the top of the pass (Passhöhe). There’s a Youth Hostel and a couple of other places which looked as if they offerred accommodation, even if it might only be dormitory-style matratzenlager. Either would have been better. Don’t get me wrong — the Feldberger Hof is probably fine if you want what it offers, and the staff were pleasant and courteous, but for adults passing through for one night on a walking holiday it’s better avoided.

Maps & Guidebooks

The best maps for the Schwarzwald I could find in the UK were the Freizeitkarte 1:50,000 series published by the Landesvermessungsamt Baden-Württemburg. These carry the endorsement of the Naturparks and the Schwarzwaldverein. The maps have relief shading, footpaths are clearly marked, and they carry a wealth of touristic information which tends to obliterate the detail in built-up areas. Contours are at 10m intervals. The south Schwarzwald is covered by 4 sheets: we used numbers 505, 506, and 508 (also labelled as 1, 2, and 3 in the Naturpark Südschwarzwald series). I bought them from Stanfords in London.

These 1:50k maps have blue covers. On our trip we found similar maps with green covers at a larger scale.

Despite claims that it is one of the most popular walking regions in Europe there seem to be very few guidebooks to the Schwarzwald, nor are there many trip reports on the Web. The best book we found (which Jonathan bought in Germany) was “Naturpark Schwarzwald (Süd & Mitte)” by Friedrich & Irmingard Schmithüsen, published by Goldstadt in the Reiseführer series (ISBN 3-89550-301-0). This gives some ideas for tours on foot, by bike and by car, some background to the history and culture, and an alphabetical guide to the towns and villages of the region (in German, of course).