Germany (Lonely Planet, 6th Edition) - Andrea Schulte-Peevers [381]
The tourist office has info on the hour-long Weinpfad, a wine trail beginning in the Altstadt that threads through terraced vineyards to the Jakobskapelle, a 13th-century chapel commanding views that reach as far as Strasbourg on clear days. The free, lantern-lit Nachtwächterrundgang (night watchman’s tour) starts at the Rathaus on Wednesday and Saturday at 10pm from May to July and at 9pm from August to October.
SLEEPING & EATING
The Marktplatz and Hauptstrasse are peppered with cafes, pizzerias and Weinstuben (wine taverns).
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CHRISTMAS COUNTDOWN
Every December, Gengenbach rekindles (and supersizes) childhood memories of opening tiny windows when the Rathaus morphs into the world’s biggest advent calendar. You can sense the anticipation on the Marktplatz at 6pm daily, when one of the 24 windows is opened to reveal a festive scene. The tableaux are painted by artists or children’s-book illustrators such as Tomi Ungerer. From 13 to 23 December, a Christmas market brings extra yuletide sparkle, mulled wine and carols to the Marktplatz. You can admire the calendar until Epiphany (6th January).
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DJH hostel ( 0781-317 49; www.jugendherberge-schloss-ortenberg.de; Burgweg 21; dm €20; ) The Hogwarts gang would feel at home in 12th-century Schloss Ortenberg, rebuilt in whimsical neo-Gothic style complete with lookout tower and wood-panelled dining hall. A staircase sweeps up to dorms with Kinzig Valley views. Take bus 7134 to Ortenberger Hof, 500m from the hostel.
Pfeffer & Salz ( 934 80; www.pfefferundsalz-gengenbach.de, in German; Mattenhofweg 3; s €46-50, d €70-74; ) This forest farmhouse is a peaceful hideaway 10 minutes’ stroll north of the Altstadt. The modern rooms are quite a bargain, jazzed up with warm colours and flat-screen TVs.
Winzerstüble ( 3636; Hauptstrasse 18; Flammkuchen €6.50-9) Jostle for a courtyard table at this convivial wine tavern next to the tourist office. The crisp Flammkuchen goes well with local Müller-Thurgau and riesling wines.
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SOUTHERN BLACK FOREST
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The Southern Black Forest is like a landscape painting come to life. Tucked between the folds of vividly green valleys are wood-shingled farmhouses silhouetted by hazy hills that ripple off into a watercolour distance. Add cow-grazed meadows, forests bristling with fir and pine trees and gemstone lakes to the canvas and you’re looking at quite the sylvan masterpiece.
The conservation-oriented, 370,000-hectare Naturpark Südschwarzwald (Southern Black Forest Nature Park; www.naturpark-suedschwarzwald.de) spans most of the region, home to vivacious university city Freiburg and medieval Villingen, Breisach’s undulating vineyards and the Black Forest’s highest peak Feldberg (1493m).
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Getting Around
Various public-transport groupings offer extensive, reasonably priced bus and rail links throughout the Southern Black Forest. Click here for details. Plan your journey with the help of www.efa-bw.de.
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FREIBURG
0761 / pop 213,000
Freiburg is a story-book tableau of gabled town houses, narrow lanes and cobbled squares, given its happy-ever-after by some 22,000 students who add an injection of cool, a love of alfresco dining and attitude-free nightlife to the medieval mix. Crouching at the foot of wooded hills, Freiburg’s scenery is pure Black Forest, but its spirit is deliciously southern.
Blessed with 2000 hours of annual sunshine, this is Germany’s warmest city. Indeed while neighbouring hilltop villages are still shovelling snow, the trees in Freiburg are clouds of white blossom, and locals are already quaffing in canalside beer gardens or firing up the barbecue. This eco-trailblazer has shrewdly tapped into that natural energy to generate nearly as much solar