Schwarzwald and Stuttgart: A Road-trip to remember

Towards Stuttgart

Trip: Prague -> Stuttgart -> Bad Schonborn -> Baden Baden -> Mummelsee -> Prague
There are so many places I visited in the past two years, so many flights, bus and train journeys across the length of Europe but the void on my travel CV was a ‘roadtrip’. No bus or train journey can match the thrill of racing through a highway like the German Autobahn with the speedometer showing 150 Kms/Hour and one by one the numbers on the milestones diminishing in quick time and before you realize the countdown to another city shows up on the milestone. Of course I couldn’t drive in Europe since I did not have a valid license.
So this dream had to be fulfilled by my friend Kelwin. Kelwin was always determined to drive across Europe and he had taken a three-month driving course the previous winter. And even though he fractured his hand during the course, with all determination he continued once he recovered and received his license well on time. We always had the desire to go to Black Forest, Germany and if a road trip had to be taken, we had little trouble in selecting this destination.
The plan however was not to only visit Schwarzwald, Black Forest area throughout the weekend but to just touch the place on the Sunday. Our first destination would be Stuttgart (483 km) where we would visit the iconic Mercedes museum and then proceed to a place called Bad Schonborn, a place where Kelwin had stayed before while he worked with SAP. The primary reason to select this place was that Kelwin had contacts and hence finding accommodation was that much easier as we stayed in the same hotel where Kelwin stayed seven years ago. The following morning we planned to proceed to Baden Baden and then to Mummelsee lake in Black Forest region.

Day 1
The plan was ready and so were the participants – self and Asmi, Aditya and Amita, Kelwin, Susan and little Kurian. We booked a 9-seater Mercedes van so we had ample space to have a super comfortable ride through the German Autobahn. We met at Kelwin’s house in the wee hours of the morning on Saturday and at around six-thirty, Kelwin would set his GPS destination as Stuttgart and we were away. It was the best possible feeling. Czech Roads were also great to drive on and in no time we crossed Plzen. I realized what a car can do in these parts of the world. Prague to Plzen by train takes more than 2 ½ hours and here we were crossing Plzen after just an hour of our departure. We were soon hungry and took our breakfast break at a highway service station. It was like a typical picnic where we had packed food from home and lined it up on the table provided for such picnics. The menu was the most elaborate possible – yummy idlis from Kelwin’s home prepared by Susan, aloo parathas from Amita’s kitchen and egg sandwiches from Asmi’s. In addition we had some pastries carried by Asmi which she brought from UK especially for this road trip. It was close to 8 AM and the sun was bright without making us feel hot so it was probably the best possible weather we could have expected. We had some hot coffee from the store at the service station and once again resumed our journey towards Stuttgart. We soon crossed the border over to Germany into the Autobahn and were soon greeted with milestones of Munich and Nurmberg. The 483 km distance to Stuttgart seems closer and closer as we drove through the Autobahn at 150+ Kms/hour. We had to take a couple of toilet breaks before we reached Stuttgart city at around noon. Around 4 ½ hours of actual driving time took us there from Prague. Though I had a fair idea of the speed and the road conditions, I could hardly imagine that we would cover a whopping 483 km in just a little over 4 hours. The GPS in the car took us close to the Mercedes museum where we found a parking space just 100m from the museum.

Mercedes Benz museum – Stuttgart

We saw the city buzzing with people mostly football fans. The reason being the Stuttgart FC stadium was right opposite the Mercedes museum and there was a Bundesliga game between the home team and Bayern Leverkusen about to kick-off at 2 PM. So the fans were on their way to see Michael Ballack and co. in action. I thought of taking a peek but my fellow travelers would have none of that football (especially Aditya) especially when Mercedes cars were waiting for us. The museum from the outside looked exactly as a Mercedes museum was expected to look like. A silver look with the rotating Merc logo on top and with a gorgeous car on display outside so that we can pose next to it and get that feeling of ownership even if it’s for a few seconds. We bought tickets and along with it came a hand-set which would act as a guide as we check out the beautiful cars that have been produced by Mercedes over the years. Any one passionate about cars would go crazy inside the museum. We started from the top floor where the first few engines were displayed and slowly travelled downwards to view the various models on display right from the vintage cars to the silver arrows of F1. You could catch a glimpse of all that under one roof. I do like cars but not passionate enough to appreciate it like some others would do especially with limited technical knowledge but still the place gave a special feeling. The F1 section was something I could relate to as I was a one-time Mclaren Mercedes fan. Double world champion Mika Hakkinen’s car was the most prominent among the one’s displayed and you could have a seat in the cockpit and get yourself clicked. There was also an F1 simulator which Aditya and Amita went for but seeing the queue I opted to give it a miss (a bit of tiredness was slowly creeping in after seeing too many cars). We were hungry by this time and we grabbed a few bites at the museum café and were soon ready to resume our journey after buying a few souvenirs from the museum store. By the time we came out we could hear the loud cheers from the stadium as the match entered its dying minutes. I wondered what the score line could be. Aditya was desperate to avoid the football crowd and get on to the car as soon as possible so we immediately set the destination as Bad Schonborn (110 km) on the GPS and set off.

Silver Arrows – 1998 car

We had a few hiccups on the way out of Stuttgart as the football crowd had indeed invaded the city as we could not beat the final whistle. So Kelwin had to maneuver through the crowd and hit the Autobahn towards our destination. We stopped at one place as little Kurian needed some fresh air and we took this opportunity to finish off the remaining idlis in our stock. We drove past the town of Karlsruhe and reached the quiet town of Bad Schonborn at around 7:30 PM still in day-light and checked into Hotel Waldparkstube. As mentioned earlier the place had fond memories for Kelwin as he had stayed here while working for SAP 8 years back. We exchanged pleasantries with the owner (she was known to Kelwin) and we retired into our rooms to freshen up and get a well-deserved rest, but only for a while. We were tired but hungry as well. So we could not compromise on dinner. We walked down the lane in search for a restaurant and the first one that we saw open we gladly went and took our seats there. It was a sleepy sort of town and there were not any people outside on the streets. Kelwin mentioned that the place was a very popular place for corporates as it is close to Waldorf (where the SAP headquarters are located), Manheim and Heidelberg. Many people who would be working in these towns would come and reside in the hotels and pensions in Bad Schonborn. Hockenheim, one of the venues for the German F1 race, is also a nearby town. We had little energy left after a heavy dinner so we retired into our respective rooms.
Day 2
The next morning we had breakfast in the hotel. Buffet breakfast was served and unlike in France where you would get only croissants and cakes, here you got proper eggs and bread. It turned out to be a typical English breakfast with scrambled eggs, toast and juice and we were all set for another long day driving through the German countryside towards the Black Forest.

Baden Baden

Our first destination as we left Bad Schonborn was Baden Baden. It looked as if the word ‘Bad’ would not leave us. However there was nothing ‘bad’ in either of the places as we reached the wonderful town of Baden Baden after an hour’s drive (‘Bad’ in German translates to ‘Bath’ a way to describe these two ‘Spa’ cities). Baden Baden is a town on the western foothills of the Black Forest. We checked in at the information center where they told us where to drive down in the city center and where to park our car. We duly followed the instructions and parked our car in one of the underground car parks at the city center.

The place had a beautiful park and a shop selling antique stuff which also had an information desk. So with little hesitation we decided to make full use of it and get further information on the place and our next milestones. To our surprise we saw the same lady at the desk whom we met earlier in the other information center at the entrance of the town. She smiled and told us that her duties changed and now she would be in this center for the remainder of the day. We got some more information about the town, walked about in the beautiful garden and then suddenly after a short spell of heavy rain which left us drenched, we walked towards the city center or the town square. I found the city very similar to Karlovy Vary in Czech Republic and Kelwin confirmed that like Karlovy Vary, this was also a town full of baths and spas and also had some Russian connection.

Being a Sunday, most of the shops were shut. We decided to have lunch at McDonalds. McDonalds in Austria and Germany had a Mc Veggie burger on the menu and it was extremely popular with us especially Aditya and Amita (the two vegetarians in the group). So much so that even non-veggies like us also ordered the same veggie burger. We wasted little time after that and set off for the Black Forest region of Schwarzwald. Our destination was Mummelsee Lake which is the highest lake in the Black Forest area. As we started off and made an attempt to reach the Autobahn, we made a wrong turn and soon the GPS ‘lady’ was also confused. We went round and round a couple of times in search for the Autobahn B500 and also climbed up a hilly road and came down after which we resorted to the old desi way of finding your way by asking a local person. Kelwin found out the way from a local person and soon we were on the Autobahn. The milestone showed the direction of Basel and on the way we would need to take an exit and drive towards Mummelsee. We were still feeling lost and were absolutely unsure whether we were on the right track. I thought we might reach Basel soon and I’ll have my 3rd visit of Switzerland in as many months. We reached a town of Achern which was off the way and thus we had to once again update the GPS with the destination. After taking a couple of exits, couple of U-turns we finally spotted a board saying ‘Mummelsee 26 Km’ and what’s more it was in the same direction as Baden Baden so if we drove further on we would go back to Baden Baden. The drive up the hill was beautiful. The natural beauty of the mountains gave a Swiss-type look and was no way less eye-catching than the Swiss landscape. We stopped at one place on the way to take some photographs from where we could see the large number of cars at Lake Mummelsee. We reached Mummelsee after driving further for around 15-20 minutes. It was an extremely lively spot and looked like a popular destination for tourists in the Black Forest region. It had a hotel, souvenir shops and restaurants and of course a lake, rather a pond.

Mummelsee

The lake had boating facilities which we thought would not be really worth it. We decided to walk around the lake instead. We spent some time getting our feet wet in the water and then walked around the lake. It was a rough terrain and with little Kurian’s stroller it was difficult. Both Kurian and his stroller thus had to be carried. After the lake-side walk it was time to visit the souvenir shop. The most famous souvenir of the region is the cuckoo clock. This would be way beyond our budget so we settled for a fridge magnet of the same design, that of a cuckoo clock. After a round of ice-cream we were finally done with the place and we decided to head straight on course to Prague. It was already quite late and we realized that it wouldn’t be before late night that we would be able to reach Prague. On our way back, we stopped at yet another place which provided a breathtaking view of the valley and then when we reached a town we frantically looked around for black forest pastries. After all it would be great to eat some of the famous black forest pastry in its place of origin or rather the place after which it was named. This was not to be as the only thing available in most shops was ice-cream and not pastry. It was almost dark now and we made our way towards the Autobahn en route to Prague. We stopped for dinner at around 9 PM soon after crossing the city of Manheim. Luckily full-fledged dinner was available. We realized now that Kelwin would have to drive through the night for us to reach Prague so some sleep was needed. Post dinner Kelwin caught up on some sleep for an hour and half while we chatted away. Little Kurian and Susan were also fast asleep in the car. Kelwin was enjoying a deep sleep for more than hour when we realized that we should wake him up and we should get going. We did so and after we he freshened up, we resumed our journey. It wouldn’t be for long as after a couple of hours we decided to call it off and sleep instead. Both of us in the front seat of the car dozed off in no time with our feet on the wind-screen. Aditya had dozed off much earlier and when he suddenly woke up all he saw was 2 pairs of legs thrown up on the wind-screen with the car stationary. He happily went off to sleep after that without any sense of guilt. Kelwin woke up at around 4 AM and announced that he was in perfect condition to drive. However, I was still in deep sleep and no ways in a position to be on the front seat. So for the last leg of the journey Asmi moved over to the front seat while the rest of us continued to be in deep sleep at the back. We did not take any further breaks and we were in Prague at around 6:30 AM and it marked the end of a fascinating experience. Road-trips are always special and even though we were hard-pressed for time with just the weekend possible, we made the most out of it and it was one of the most memorable experiences for me, thanks to Kelwin and his European driving license.