Black Forest Panorama Route B500 South from Freudenstadt

Scenic road chapters

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Freudenstadt

   Freudenstadt was built to a plan. In 1599, Duke Frederick I of Württemberg laid out the town as a refuge for Protestants fleeing persecution in Austria, and the heart of it is a vast market square, one of the largest in Germany, an almost perfect square about two hundred metres on each side, with covered arcades along its edges. There was meant to be a castle in the middle, but it was never built, and the open space became the town's living room instead. The town, with about twenty-four thousand people, was almost destroyed at the end of the Second World War and rebuilt in a similar style.

   Read the complete Freudenstadt write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Freudenstadt is where the day begins. Next is Triberg.

2. 2. Triberg

   Triberg is built in a steep, narrow fold of the Black Forest, a town that seems to have been poured down a gorge and set hard. Houses climb both sides of the Gutach valley, rooftops overlap, and the main street runs steeply uphill past shops full of cuckoo clocks, carved wooden bears and cherry schnapps. It is touristy, no question, but the tourists come because the place is the real thing, the heartland of the Black Forest clock trade, where families have been making timepieces in workshops since the eighteenth century.

   Read the complete Near Triberg write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Triberg comes up about 57 km into the recorded legs. Next is Titisee.

3. 3. Titisee

   Titisee is the lake that every German knows, and the odd thing is that it is a very small lake. It was carved by a glacier that flowed down from the Feldberg in the last ice age, and it lies in a hollow about two kilometres long, dammed by a moraine, with forested slopes rising on all sides. The water is dark and cool, the shoreline is tidy, and a legend credits the Roman emperor Titus with the name, though most scholars suspect a less glamorous origin. A hundred years ago it was a quiet mountain spot. Today it is a summer playground with a promenade full of shops selling cuckoo clocks, cherry liqueur and Black Forest ham.

   Read the complete Titisee write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   about 102 km into the recorded legs you reach Titisee. Next is Feldberg.

4. 4. Feldberg

   The Feldberg is the highest mountain in the Black Forest and in Germany outside the Alps, at 1,493 metres, and it behaves like a real mountain. It is a broad, bald dome of grass and heath rising above the surrounding forest, with a radio mast and an observation tower on the summit and, on its eastern flank, the dark cirque of the Feldsee, a small lake in a glacial bowl. During the last ice age, the Feldberg carried its own ice cap, and the valleys around it still show the carved, U-shaped marks. The climate is rough, with wind, fog and snow lasting well into spring.

   Read the complete Feldberg write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Feldberg, late in the day at 1231 m. Nothing on this route is higher. Next is Waldshut, mostly downhill.

5. 5. Waldshut

   Waldshut is a small town on the High Rhine, with Switzerland on the opposite bank, and its character is that of a border place with a long, slightly cantankerous history. The old town, a neat street running between two gates, the Upper Gate and the Lower Gate, is painted in cheerful colours and has the feel of a medieval fortress trimmed for peacetime. Waldshut was part of Habsburg Austria for centuries, and in 1524 it became one of the first towns to join the Peasants' War, led by the preacher Balthasar Hubmaier, who was later burned in Vienna. The twin town of Tiengen, a few kilometres away, has an old castle and its own market.

   Read the complete Waldshut write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Finish at Waldshut. That is the ride.