Once again, we were having to get up early to make our connections, this time a train ride to Kehl, Germany to pick up our rental car. I had lied, we still had one more 10 minute train ride before we were through with trains for the trip. We set the alarm for 6:30 AM, and after one snooze, we finally got up. We slept better, we never had the window open so the noise was not an issue. However, the air conditioner was a pure disappointment. Stephanie had asked the front desk for the remote, and they gave it to us so we could operate the wall mounted air conditioner. Neither of us think it worked at all, there was no difference in the amount of air on any of the three fan speeds, or in the temperature, even though it was “on”. It was a totally useless piece of equipment. Thankfully, it was cool enough outside, so that the room was tolerable, and we could get some decent sleep. We thought that maybe it was a centralised water cooled system, and it was not operational because if the time of year, but they did not tell us that, and only the fan seemed to be working, there was no cooler air coming from the unit when it was supposedly on.
We packed up everything in the suitcases one more time, knowing that for the next several days, we would not be traveling by train, and would not need to keep the suitcases as small as possible to more easily handle on the trains. Since we were picking up our rental car today, we will be able to expand the suitcase if need be, since space is not an issue in the car.
We checked out right on time and headed to the train station, which was only about a five minute walk away. Once we were at the station, we headed for one of the automated ticket machines to purchase out ticket to Kehl. We already knew the train numbers and fare, it was just a matter of purchasing the two Euro 3.80 tickets. We first tried a SNCF ticket machine, which is the French National Train company. We even had an English translation selection, and all seemed to be going well until we tried to pay for the tickets. It was then that we noticed the machines only took credit cards, no coins, no bills, just like yesterday in Basel. It was a flashback, other than having the ability to see it in English, so we were one small step ahead. Since this entire effort was for naught, we headed over to another ticket machine which was for the “Ter” trains. This is a subset of the SNCF railway, we think. We thought this would work for sure since we already knew from looking up the train schedule last night, that all of the trains between Strasbourg and Kehl were operated on the Ter network. We even saw that the Ter ticket machines took both coins and bills, in addition to credit cards. Then we tried to select the destination, which was under the alphabet letter “K” selection on the machine for Kehl. When we selected “K” for the destination cities, Kehl was nowhere to be found in the station listing.
We were confused to say the least. One type of ticket machine had the correct destination but did not take coins or our credit card (sans “smart chip”), and the other took the correct forms of payment (coins and bills) we needed, but did not have the destination selection for Kehl. Damn the French ticket machines, they hate Americans.
We then had to try and find the ticket counter, all the while, the clock was ticking to make our desired connection of 7:50 AM. We knew we could take a later train at 8:22, but the principle of it all was getting on our nerves, we had not gotten up early so we could fight the ticket machines.
We had to ask where the ticket office was since we did not see it anywhere near where we were. It was almost at the other end of the station, so we headed over there, and then got in line. There went the 7:50 AM connection as we patiently (well not) waited for our turn. Sure enough, the ticket person told us we had to purchase the ticket in the yellow colored SNCF machines, but that they would not take US credit cards since they don’t have smart chips. She also informed us we could not buy a ticket form the Ter machines either, even though it is a Ter train we are riding.. Who knew, we had to go to the ticket counter all along…damn the French ticket machines.
Well, we now had enough time to get some coffee and breakfast, thank you French Railway ticket machines
We rode the entire 9 minute train to Kehl without incident, at least without incident once we had tickets. The actual train ride took about one third the time it took to actually purchase the ticket. Of course, we did not have to show our tickets to anyone, we could have just ridden for free if we wanted to take the chance. Not worth the 8.00 Euro ticket cost for the potential of a much larger fine.
We got off in Kehl, it already seemed like it took forever to get there. We had directions to the Europcar Car rental location, which was about a 10-12 minute walk from the station. We had used Google maps, and Google View to check out the train station and how to get to the rental car location from there, and it was exactly as shown. We walked to the rental car location without any problem, and within 10 minutes of arriving, had our car, a VW Golf Hatchback, with a diesel engine, and a 6 speed manual transmission.
Once we were situated with our luggage, and had made the transfer of photo equipment to our backpacks, and gotten out our GPS, we were set to go. We had loaded up a Google Map route of some of the more scenic cities to go through on our way to Simonswald, our destination city for tonight. We used the cities along the Google Map route as the GPS entries, so we just drove from one city to the next, following the GPS directions.
We stopped at a couple of the cities we had mapped out, some of them were scenic, some were just small German cities, nice to look at, but after a while, they sort of all look the same.
Wolfach, Germany – Our Stop for Lunchtime
We did stop at the equivalent of a German “Home Depot’, more to seek a bathroom than anything else, but after visiting the facilities, we walked around inside the store. It was very interesting to look at all of the different items that they have in Europe as compared to the US. A lot of the items are just made to fit in smaller spaces since a lot of the homes are smaller.
The Falls at Triberg, Germany
We stopped in Wolfach, Germany around lunchtime, just to look around, but we also decided to have lunch there. It was a nice city. We then headed over to Triberg, Germany, to once again visit the waterfall. It was sunny as we headed to the parking lot, but about the time we got to the actual falls, it started to get cloudy once again, and even started to rain.
Chuck & Stephanie at the Triberg Falls
We were able to get some photos, but also had to wait under a Gazebo for the heavier rain to stop. Triberg was the city we were in two years ago when my Dad passed away. It was also the home of our cuckoo clock from the last trip there, so we had to visit the store where we bought the clock.
After leaving Triberg, we headed over to Titisee-Neustadt, Germany. It is a real touristy area, but we wanted to check it out since we were so close. It was just as billed, a tourist mecca, seeming to be mostly older German people on vacation. There was a large lake nearby, but the main area was mostly touristy shops. We spent about a hour there and then headed to our hotel in Simonswald.
The GPS routed us through an area where the road was VERY narrow, in most areas, it was just wide enough for one car. If it had not been raining, late in the afternoon, and both of us being tired, we would have actually appreciated the scenic ride. It was at least 10 miles of narrow winding road, but most of it ran along a river, which was running full due to the rains falling all day. We had to pull over one time to let someone by, who was going much faster than we wanted to go, at least there was some other traffic on the road.
Clouds Envelope the Black Forest
We finally made it to Simonswald, and checked into our hotel. It was still raining and we could not enjoy the beauty of the area as much as we wanted. The hotel was really nice, our room came with access to a balcony that went across the entire front of the hotel, looking out over the valley and forest across the way. The clouds were rolling through the trees, and it was very scenic.
Stephanie on the Balcony at the Landgasthaus Gruner Baum
They also run a restaurant here, and we decided to eat at the hotel restaurant tonight since there was not anything close by. The restaurant was packed, apparently a lot of locals as well as hotel patrons eat here.
We had to get the sin if the owner’s to help us with the menu, he was the only one there that spoke any English, and he was very helpful in telling us about the items n the menu. In the end, we just ordered the special they had for tonight. The food was really good, and it was one of the best meals we had on the trip so far, good home cooked German food.
We will be heading out early again tomorrow for our drive to Schwangau, Germany. We have about a 380 km drive, with planned stops along the way in some of the scenic towns.