Hard to believe, but we've lived in Germany over 6 years and have never ventured into the black forest even though we live only an hour away from its northern border. I finally rectified that situation by booking a long weekend at a hotel in Baiersbronn, which is in the northern part of the black forest and is in a non-touristy area. From there we did 3 hikes, all in the Baiersbronn area.
We stayed at the Hotel Lamm in Baiersbronn which was a nice little hotel. The food was good in their restaurant, we got nice massages, the front desk people were really friendly and helpful, and the room was clean and updated. I wouldn't say there was anything that made the hotel stand out but there also wasn't anything bad about it. So, there you have that. I'd stay there again for sure.
We ate two great meals in Baiersbronn. One was at the Hotel Lamm, where I had the local specialty of käsespätzle (you can't lose with that dish it's basically spätzle with cheese and crunchy onions) and Martin had a venison ragout over spätzle which was also excellent. The second night we went to Bell' Italia where we had really amazing food; I highly recommend their tagliatelle with salmon. Note that portions *everywhere* we ate were enormous. If there's an option for a smaller or half portion of something on a menu, take it! We didn't have room for dessert at any restaurant. (read: no black forest cake!)
Anyway, some pics from our hikes. The first hike we started in Schönmünzach at the tourist info and walked up to Löwen's Panoramastuble for lunch. The food was good but not amazing (maybe we didn't order the right things - we were limited by our lack of cash) but it does have a great view out over the surrounding countryside.
Second hike. We did the Satteleisteig, which is ~7 miles long. There's a nice hut in this hike with great food and a nice rustic ambiance called the Wanderhütte Sattelei. A few pics are included of our lunch there.
Some pics from inside the restaurant of our lunch:
We got to complete our hike after lunch during a thunderstorm. We had hoped to finish the hike before it hit, but, well. We had packed our raincoats so at least we were prepared and didn't get too wet.
Third hike. Started near the tourist info in Huzenbach. Just wandered around for 5 miles before we had to head home. Absolutely gorgeous day. And we saw a lot of sheep.
