Quote:
Originally posted by Kris@Jan 27 2004, 06:43 PM
Do you know of any great rural areas in Germany and Switzerland...where we could meet the folks, drink the beer and socialize without going broke?
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i was just in germany this fall - i discovered then... i LOVE small towns!
i can
highly recommend a small town just outside of frieburg in southern germany - it's called KIRCHZARTEN and it's located in the heart of the black forest. the cool part is, it's not too heavily touristed - native tourists mostly (as opposed to the rest of the schwarzwald). we stayed in a wonderful family run gasthaus called GASTHAUS LOWEN (no internet site) 70 euros for a double with bath in room, including breakfast. not exactly cheap...but so worth it. there are TONS of hiking opportunities around and the setting is just beautiful, you can also easily day-trip to lake tittisee.
this is a great place to go and get away from it all. i would suggest riding the train into freiburg and then taking the s-bahn to kirchzarten (15-20 minute ride), you'll see the gasthaus as you pull into station - or you can always ask around...after all... it's a small town!
you really won't regret a visit here.
another really nice small town we found was SOLINGEN-OHLIGS, really, we stumbled upon it, but it was really sweet and there was a great bavarian restaurant in town. we chilled there drinking beer and chatting with the locals all night (well, trying to chat!) there's only one hotel in town though, so keep that in mind. we stayed with this really sweet old lady (50 euro /double with breakfast), but she doesn't always offer rooms. check with the tuireise center behind the train station, just ask for any pension type accomodations. by the way, this gem is just outside of cologne.