Day 15: Gengenbach – Fairytale Black Forest Base & Driving in Germany

The Historic Town of Gengenbach

A Hire Car Company in Offenburg That Didn't Exist

It’s around a 60-minute train journey from Colmar to Offenburg. The view from the windows was mainly fields of corn, and I have yet to see any corn listed on a menu, so where does it all go?

Once at Offenburg, we needed to find the car company. I tried to google it, but it couldn't be found anywhere. It said “across from the train station.” I asked at the information desk and the gentleman who was very helpful (spoke English) and sent us on a 15-minute walk south of the station. So we trudged along with our suitcases until we got to the street where the rental place is in. Looking up and down, there wasn’t a car rental place to be seen. I was looking for “Buchbinder” Car Rentals. I said to Leanne, “Google it again please.” She came back with, ”Permanently closed.” WTF, this place doesn't even exist in Offenburg!

I said, “Try car rentals near the train station.” She said, “There’s only one and it’s Europcar.” I said, “If this isn’t the place, we’re catching a train.” So heads down and dragging these cases behind us again we walk back in the opposite direction for another 20 minutes. 

We got to Europcar and I asked if they had a booking, and they said that we did. I couldn’t have been bothered arguing as to why Europcar was our rental provider and not the non-existent Buchbinder. I didn’t really care; I just wanted a car that was smaller than the last monstrosity.

I will again name and shame the third party provider later and it wasn't Europcar they were brilliant

After the deal was done and the paperwork was signed, we were shown to a nice Volkswagen Taigo SUV—a 5-speed manual. Yep, left-hand drive and a manual gear shift; I was about to live dangerously.

It was like learning to drive all over again. I kept putting it into 3rd and kangaroo-hopping. For the life of me, I know how to drive a bloody manual as I’ve been doing it all my life, but changing gears with your right hand rather than your left in Australia, was harder than I thought. Anyway, we kangaroo-hopped out of the car park all the way to the first intersection. After a gear change, we were on our way, elbow out the window, sunnies on, we were cruising

Germany, I think, is a hard place to drive in. There are no signs in English, not like France where you get both languages, and with Google Maps, all the streets sound the same. With a majority of streets limited to only 30 km, I was the only kangaroo-hopping vehicle to be seen.

While waiting for our Airbnb to be ready, we had a lovely lunch in a small local café called Stadtbaeckerei Dreher. Leanne had Quiche Lorraine and I had pork steak with mushrooms in a white wine sauce. Absolutely delicious. The size of the desserts in here is also amazing, and I’m sure we’ll be back.

Quiche Lorraine

A Simple Pork Steak with mushrooms

Exploring the Streets of Gengenbach

We settled on Gengenbach for its location and ease of access to trains; if you stay within the Black Forest, all train travel is free. It was also closer to the smaller villages we planned to drive to. We looked at Baden-Baden, but it was a little too far north, though easy enough to catch a train to.

Gengenbach is not a large town, but big enough to have decent shops and enough good restaurants to choose from.

We also have a good-sized Airbnb, which is great. A little older than what we imagined but there is a nice view of the forest from a small but functional balcony. It’s also about a ten-minute walk into town if you like hills, but an easy kangaroo hop if you need to drive.

The drive from Offenburg to Gengenbach was pretty easy. The scenery along the freeways wasn't much; however, everywhere we looked, we saw fields of corn, yet meals that we've had never seem to have any on the plate. A quick search on Google showed that a lot of the corn is for livestock feed—for pigs, dairy cattle, and poultry—with the bulk of it used for bioenergy production. Interesting useless fact for some, I suppose.

Hire Car Volkswagen Taigo not available in Australia