Pforzheim Forum: Comming to pforzheim now.

also, I am staying there while my wife will be working so I dont really have to say in pforzheim. I would not mind traveling an hour or two for some cool places to spend my day during the week.

The most important sights inside the VPE, the local public transport network of Pforzheim and area.

- Maulbronn Monastery

kloster-maulbronn.de/en/…267925.html

- Bad Wildbad / Northern Black Forest

http://www.badwildbad.eu/

VPE network map.

vpe.de/pdf/…liniennetzregional.pdf

24 hours ticket "Regio 24" for the VPE is EUR 7,00. Mini group version for 2-5 persons "Regio 24 Plus" is EUR 12,00. You don't need any ticket however for your 10 month year old.

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Than there are the "Regio X" ticket versions (EUR 13,50/21,50) which cover beside the VPE, also the KVV, VGC, VGF networks. Basically Karlsruhe and the whole Northern Black Forest.

- Karlsruhe

http://www.karlsruhe.de/stadt/tourismus.en

- Baden-Baden

http://www.baden-baden.de

- Black Forest Tourism

http://www.blackforest-tourism.com/

map showing the location of VPE/KVV/VGC/VGF in Baden-Württemberg.

http://www.3-loewen-takt.de/d/3385/

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To all other places in Baden-Württemberg you can use a Baden-Württemberg Ticket. Covers again all local public transport. EUR 20,00 for 1 person / EUR 28,00 for 2-5 persons. However no 24 hours ticket, but valid

Mo-Fr: from 9am till 3am next day

Sa,Su: from midnight till 3am next day

map showing the railroads covered by a Baden-Württemberg Ticket.

bahn.de/regional/view/mdb/pv/deutschlanderle…

E.g. an option to visit the Wilhelma in Stuttgart, a nice combination of a zoo and botanical garden.

http://www.wilhelma.de/nc/en/home.html

Stuttgart Tourism

http://www.stuttgart-tourist.de/

Baden-Württemberg Tourism

http://www.tourismus-bw.co.uk

DB timetable

http://reiseauskunft.bahn.de/bin/query.exe/en

From: Pforzheim

To: Wilhelma, Stuttgart

and select as means of transport "only local transport" if you want to use any of the above recommended tickets.

wow, thanks for all the great info

For sailing, Pforzheim is poorly located. Your best option is Lake Constance ( www.bodensee-tourismus.com ), Germany's largest lake which also borders Switzerland, which should be about 2 hours away driving ( www.viamichelin.com ), and for train information see www.bahn.de which can be changed to English near the top of the page.

You might be interested in visiting the jewelry museum in Pforzheim, and for something different, there is a camel farm nearby in the Black Forest ( www.kamel.de ) where you may be able to ride camels. But for most people the best place to visit would be the well-preserved medieval Maulbronn Monastery (in www.schloesser-magazin.de/en as are other excellent castes, palaces, monasteries and gardens operated by the state of Baden-Wuerttemberg), UNESCO world heritage.

Pforzheim itself is not an especially pretty place. It was bombed in WW2 (apparently by Hitler who then blamed it on the americans) and is rebuilt in a bland style. However, you are at the northern part of Black Forest, which is great. I have stayed at a nice place in Bad Teinach, about 45 min, south of Pforzheim and there are many small places in the area, good for hiking, bathing (spas), castle ruins, etc.

Calw is a nice older (medieval) town between them, also known as birthplace of Hermann Hesse.

You could do Baden-Baden and the kids with love Caracalla Therme.

Heidelberg is a bit over an hour from Pforzheim, worth a visit for its famous Neckar river and castle. They definitely have crew/rowing there, maybe there are small sailboats to rent. (Very small)

You might consider a trip just across the Rhine to Alsace area of France, and perhaps, a bit further, Strasbourg, a really lovely city, well worth it. Kids will love the "petite France" area with canals, restaurants, cathedral, etc..

We are down here this week and tommorow is going to be hot. I figured while my wife was at work I would take a senic dr for a few with my baby girl. I am wondering if some one could give me an address of a place so I could type it into my gps. Just looking to do a one to three hr drive(one way) but I have no maps and no way of printing it out. No blackberry or anything. The easiest thing for me ( not being familiar with the area and driving a manual transmission for the first time in over a decade) is to just have an address of a place an hour or so away that would make a nice senic drive. Would like to go tommorow but may go thurs. as well. The guy my wife is working with is going to give us a good route to Switz for Fri or sat so maybe something in a different direction. Thanks for any replies.

Try Feldberg - the highest peak in the Black Forest. You cannot drive up to the very summit but rather high up. Up there you are likely to meet bearable temperatures.

thanks for the quick reply. I need a hard address though. I dont think I can type in a place to this gps. I need an actual address. Not knowing the area I could go through thousands of places before finding something that may be within range. Also anyone have some basic food German/English translations. Just the basics like Fish, Steak, Pork, etc... I have done alot of searching the last few weeks but it is hard to nail down. I only have acess to my wifes computer for a few hours after she gets back from work.

Hwy 463 going south from Pforzheim will take you to Bad Liebenzell where there is a castle and also a water park. A little further on is the ruins of Hirsau Monastery (in www.schloesser-magazin.de/en ) then the lovely town of Calw. Then head for Tuebingen ( www.tuebingen.de ), our favorite town to repeatedly visit in Germany, just quintessential Germany with its hilly cobblestone streets, half-timbered houses, castle, one of Europe's oldest universities, they give boat rides on the Neckar River in poled boats, and just north of it is the delightful medieval Bebenhausen Monastery ( in www.schloesser-magazin.de/en ). A little further NE in this direction is the Ritter SPORT factory in Waldenbuch which has an excellent museum of art in the form of squares (their candy bar shape), a small museum of chocolate manufacture, and a large sales room of their products at discounted prices.

If instead, you head SW from Pforzheim on Hwy 294,a little past Neuenburg at Eisenfurt you can take the back road east to the visitable underground old mine "Frisch Glueck" a short distance up the mountainside. You can then either continue on east to the previously mentioned Bad Liebenzell, or go back down the hillside and continue on to Bad Wildbad which has a train up the mountain, or back further south on Hwy 294 there is a deer enclosure. Then Hwy 296 will take you to Hirsau mentioned above.

Just a few nice things to do nearby which will get you into the Black Forest. There is also a camel farm ( www.kamel.de ) somewhere in this vicinity.