Time to head a bit further S & E along the route towards Ehningen. Ms SatNav routed us through France, through the Vosges du Nord, Alsace and over the Rhein into Germany. A couple of stops up the very busy A5, dodging the roadworks, climb up into the Schwarzwald, then down the Murgtal to Forbach-Gausbach, and Wohnmobilstellplatz Am Rappenfelsen Im Murgtal Forbach. It’s only a small Stellplatz; we fortunately managed to get the last of 7 places.
The Stellplatz is positioned, intriguingly, on what must once have been the old main road through the village, clinging precariously to the cliff faces as it wound round. The railway, single-track here, also winds in & out of tunnels. Immediately below where we are parked, the S-Bahn line emerges from a tunnel, only to disappear into another tunnel 65 metres along the line. Amazingly, the trains run really quietly, so hardly cause any disturbance, and they stop running after about 9pm.
Around the next bend on the old road are some fairly vertical cliff faces, popular with climbers. There were plenty of them when we arrived, though they’d all dispersed by 6pm ish. to get home at the end of the weekend.
Forbach is home to the largest wooden-span roofed bridge in Germany – definitely worth a look. Amazingly, it’s also a road bridge. There’s been a roofed bridge here for a very long time, but this one was substantially rebuilt in 1955. A pretty impressive piece of architecture.
As there was a nice looking Gasthaus right by the bridge, it would have have been rude to ignore the opportunity for a cofffee/beer respectively. The hotel seems to be run by oriental ladies, very polite, very attentive, and very masked. We were the only people there. Such a shame these places have lost so much trade during this pandemic.
On the walk back to Gausbach, I could sware I heard the whistle of a steam locomotive. Sure enough, as we reached the station, there was a steam train just pulling out: pity we just missed getting a better view of it.