A nice rain storm rolled through late into last evening and kept up into the morning, so it was a rainy day of travel today. It was also quite chilly! We had some breakfast at Hotel Löwen and then got on our way to the station, which was a quick 4 minute walk from the hotel. Today’s destination was Hornberg!
For those unaware, my maiden name is Hornberger, and one of my aunts does genealogy research and found that nearly 90% of all Hornbergers can trace their lineage back to this tiny village in the Black Forest. So, naturally, I wanted to add it to the list of places to see while we were in Europe! The trip to get to Hornberg was relatively straight forward, but we had some fun transitions in transportation throughout the day. We started out on the S-bahn out of Appenzell to St. Gallen. We actually caught an earlier S-bahn than originally planned, so we had more time to kill when we got to St. Gallen, which led to Brandon getting us Dunkin’ at the train station! It tasted pretty much identical to the States. From St. Gallen, we took a regional train to Konstanz, Germany, which is just over the border. That was our longest train ride, lasting about 90 minutes. We also had to get our tickets and IDs checked, and Brandon accidentally tried to have his 9€ ticket from June scanned, so the ticket person had to reminder him it was now July. I had also not thought about it, so I made sure I had my July ticket pulled up! From Konstanz, we took another regional train to St. Georgen (Schwarzwald) (this is important, because there is another town by the same name in Switzerland. This is the Black Forest town.), and then finally caught a bus (was supposed to be a train, but construction :P) to Hornberg. The Hornberg station is on one of a number of hills in the town. The town is not big, but it does sit down in a valley. Since we’ve done it with our other hotels so far, and Google Maps told us it was only 10 minutes, we opted to walk to our hotel, which is called the Hotel Schloss Hornberg. Dear friends, pro tip, don’t do what we did. We found a trail going up the hill (mountain) to the hotel/castle and, because I like a challenge, we took that. It took probably about 20 minutes to lug ourselves and our things up the very rocky, winding, and uneven path. I am certain we looked ridiculous! Upon arrival to the hotel, check in went smoothly. Our hostess asked us to fill out some paperwork for our reservation, including the info for our car. When we informed her we had come in by train and WALKED, she asked which way we came and then shook her head when we said “the hard way” (she knew exactly what we meant). We were informed then, and probably should have assumed at the time (but, of course, hindsight is 20/20), that we could have called the hotel and they would have picked us up. We were also told they can take us to the station the day we leave so we don’t have to walk again, so that’s definitely getting arranged! Our room at the hotel is on the third floor, and we have a lovely view of Hornberg! We also found out the hotel offers laundry services for only 10€ a load! We collected our clothes and have them in the laundry bags to turn in tomorrow morning. We also got cleaned up from our unintentional hike and then went back down into town, via the road, and grabbed some lunch. I had my first döner! It was SO GOOD! We also got some ice cream :) After a little while, we decided to head back to the hotel, but not before enjoying a sit near a fountain at the base of the road leading to the hotel. Back at the hotel, it was early, but we both decided to get comfy and settle. We have dug into the mini bar a bit, mostly a snack and some cold water from the mini fridge, but there is wine available ;) Tomorrow, we plan to explore the castle ruins *literally* next door to the hotel, and then we’ll probably end up in town again for lunch and a little stroll before our reservation in the hotel restaurant tomorrow evening. Until then, enjoy the pictures!
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Archives
July 2022
Categories |