The rumour is Dostoyevsky learned how to gamble at the tables in Baden-Baden. Gambling became a lucrative second industry for the town, as the French liked to nip over the border for a spot of legal game-playing. Like Bath, it was originally built around tourists coming to ‘take the waters’ to cure everything from the hysterics to a bit of melancholy. This beautiful little spa town reminds me of Bath, in England, and for good reason. Though I have to say, every time we set foot in the Black Forest it feels like the beginning of a fairy tale! Where to stop on the Black Forest High RoadĬute Baden-Baden Baden-Baden: the top of the Black Forest High Road It’s a common misconception that the Brothers Grimm collected their stories around this area, but they were based further north around Kassel. The Black Forest itself takes its name from the Roman legionaries tasked with exploring it, and their experiences in the unfamiliar towering trees, as well as the habit of the local tribes of leaping out and attacking out of nowhere. If you stop for a little walk on the many trails, you will see the very old trail signposts, many still dating from this period. The Black Forest itself has always been a popular hiking destination – with a local milliner opening up one of the first ever German tourist offices and publishing hiking maps in the late 19th century. This route was formalized in the 1930s as holiday car trips began to be a popular way to spend holidays. Here is a Black Forest High Road map: History

However, the Black Forest lives up to its name in that weather, and I was sure we were going to run into an old witch from the fairy tales at any moment, so maybe it wasn’t a bad thing at all. We had the incredible bad luck to do most of this drive in rain and fog, so we missed out on most of the gorgeous views we’ve seen on previous drives through the region. We chose to make this a full Black Forest weekend break, but you could definitely do it in a day if you are not as keen on stopping all the time. The Black Forest High Road runs from the spa town Baden-Baden in the north to Freudenstadt in the south, taking in all sorts of little sights and viewpoints along the way.

The Schwarzwaldhochstraße, or Black Forest High Road, is a beautiful driving route through Germany’s Black Forest region that takes you over the ridges of the low mountains in southwestern Baden-Württemberg.

Map of germany with black forest