I am planning to go to Germany for the first time. I already purchased the german rail pass. Could any body help me about my trip? My question are:
1.I would like to go to Black forest from Basel Switzerland. What line of rail I should take? And what station I should take off.
2.From Black Forest I will go to Heidelberg same question what train I should take and what station I should take off?
3.Any suggestion place to visit in Heidelberg?
I have 5 days for these two places. Your suggestions will be very much appreciated. Thank you in advance.

I recently rode some Black Forest rail lines and found them rather scenic.

I went from Freiburg, just up from Basel up to Titisee (sp?) then took train to Donaueschingen, on the Danube then via Triberg to Karlsrhue - this line was more a mainline and at places ran thru an awesome enough gorge.

One of the Lander Passes for the region would perhaps be your best bet. As usual i'll leave it to the expert, LarryinColorado to explain this if you are interested just ask.

From Karlsrhue it's a short train ride to Heidelberg.

Author: Larryincolorado
Date: 03/19/2007, 04:42 pm
This might be too much information too late, but I have compiled some of what I know about getting schedules from the Bahn website, Länder tickets, local transit districts, and using ticket automats on a website called Reise_Deutschland (www.geocities.com/reise_deutschland). Maybe it will help some

maybe this will help - PalQ

Hi apic,

there are no real "lines of rail" but you need to know the start and the destination. If you go the website of German rail, you can find the connections during the day. There are different types of train, differing in speed, comfort and therefore price. But all of them will be shown, including the connections by the regional transport companies (tickets aren't sold by German rail).
The station you normally want to use is just the name of the town and Hbf or Hauptbahnhof (main station) as in Heidelberg Hbf (the place you get out when you take a train to Heidelberg).

Heidelberg: old town, castle, Philosophenweg (walk with a beautiful view). Close by: Schwetzingen and Kloster Lorsch (an old cloister)

Have fun!

I forgot the website: www.bahn.de

Thank you for all your reply. I really appreciate.

Seems to me the OP indicated he/she already had a German Rail pass, so Land Ticket discussions are mute. However, for the record, Badenwürttemberg Tickets would cover virtually the entire area of travel for 5 days for €90 for a single person, €135 total for 2 to 5 people. As long as you stay in the Black Forest it is all regional trains anyway.

PalenQ. I like your route. Titisee is pretty, albeit very touristy most of the year. Donaueschingen is interesting in that it is the headwaters of the Danube, one of the worlds great rivers. The line from Triberg to Hausach is indeed gorgeous. It is known as the Schwarzwaldbahn. Where did you go from Hausach? You can go west to Offenburg and pick up the main line from Basel to Mannheim and Frankfurt, but that route is pretty ho-hum. Alternatively, you can go north to Fruedenstadt, then down the Murg river to Rastatt and Karlsruhe. The Murg river route is also very scenic.

From Karlsruhe go north and get off at Mannheim. From there take the S-bahn to Heidelberg. S-bahns are part of German Rail and are covered by your pass, but other transportation like U-bahns, streetcars, and most buses are not. A Baden-Württemberg Ticket would cover all of those conveyances.

If this is all the trains the OP is doing they may want to investigate refunding the German railpass (-15% cancel fee) and doing the Lander tickets instead. I didn't do the math but could save a bundle i suspect.

larry - no i wanted to go the Fruedenstadt route but was in winter and had to get back to Karlsrhue area.

Perhaps this link to a rail map of Baden-Wurttemberg will help with your planning -

http://www.rail-and-relax.de/home.htm

Here's the direct link to the rail line itinerary page, in English -

http://reiseauskunft.bahn.de/bin/query.exe/en

Enjoy your travels to Germany. I haven't been there yet, but am planning a trip in October. Peace, Robyn >-

For a maybe harder to read but definetely much more detailed and accurate map of the rail lines of Baden-Württemberg, go to www.3-loewen-takt.de/d/1742 and click on "Streckennetz Baden-Württemberg" at the bottom of the page.

BTW, that page also has complete information about the Baden-Württemberg Ticket.

Thank you, Larryincolorado, for the link to the great map. I've been using the other one for my planning, but this one is much more comprehensive. Robyn >-

Larry, or anyone - can you please decipher for me the symbols on the map around the stations for Hausach, Hornberg, Triberg, St. Georgean, etc.. in the Black Forest? Robyn >-

I assume you are referring to the sort of "star burst" pattern around the yellow circle. That means that long distance trains (those of the Fernverkehr - ICs, ECs, or ICEs) travel on that line and stop at stations with that marking. A station with a yellow circle or square mean that some kind of train stops there at least hourly, but it is not necessarily an express train. A few ICs stop at Triberg, but for the most part, only regional trains stop there.

Yes! The star-burst pattern. I have a German/English dictionary, but could not make sense of the word translation (something about tying knots). Thank you. Robyn >-

Yea, knoten means knot, but the meaning of "knot station" is not inherently clear. I have a rather thick Langenscheidt German/English dictionary, but it does not define The word "Knotenbahnhof". However, Knotenpunkt, or knot point, is a juntion. It is apparent from the map that those stations are the junction of several lines. Every station with the rounded square, with or without the starburst, is a Knotenbahnhof. It is the starburst pattern around either junctions or "other stops" that indicate a Fernverkehranschluss (connection to long distance trains).

And, I also owe you thanks, because on a page linked to the map you were using is a map of B-W with all the Verkehrsverbünde (transit districts), with website links. I had never seen that; I knew of the major ones, such as Karlsruhe, Stuttgart, DING, and NALDO, but not all of the minor ones. It is useful to know, because for travel inside a VV, the Bahn does not show fares. You have to go to the individual VV for that.

I just got my Langenscheidt Compact Dictionary in the mail last week, and it's already dog-eared! I've been trying to translate all those websites that are in German only, like the B-W rail map site I was using. Thanks for the explanation. Robyn >-