Black Forest High Road

The Black Forest High Road — the B500 — is one of Germany's great ridge drives. Rising from Baden-Baden's elegant spa resort through dense fir forest to a plateau at around 1,000 metres, this 60-kilometre route was built in the 1920s as a scenic panorama road and immediately became famous for the views it offers across the Rhine plain to the Vosges Mountains of France. On a clear day the straight-line distance visible from the ridge is extraordinary — the kind of vantage point that requires no explanation of why someone would build a road here.

Baden-Baden itself is a worthy starting point. This spa town of extraordinary elegance — favoured by Russian aristocracy and European royalty throughout the 19th century — has thermal baths (the Friedrichsbad is a magnificent Roman-Irish temple of steam and marble), a casino that Dostoevsky reportedly used as inspiration for 'The Gambler', and a pedestrian old town that rewards an hour of wandering. Fill up with petrol and water here before the climb.

The ascent from Baden-Baden to the ridge is the critical section. The road climbs steeply from around 200 metres to the Bühlerhöhe plateau in a relatively short distance — your engine will heat up and first or second gear is needed on the steepest sections. Coolant temperatures that might be normal in flat driving can spike here. The critical advice: do not stop your engine when it is overheating — keep it running (idling is better than off) and allow airflow. Once on the ridge, the road flattens to a genuine cruise through cathedral-like fir forest, and the engine can cool naturally.

The Mummelsee at 1,036 metres is the route's centrepiece: a small, dark-green glacial lake surrounded by forest. Legend holds that a water spirit (the Mummel) lives in its depths, and the location has an atmospheric quality that the nearby hotel-restaurant somewhat undercuts but does not eliminate. Nearby, a short walking path leads to a viewpoint over the Hornisgrinde — the highest point in the northern Black Forest at 1,163 metres — where communication towers and a clear day give views extending to the Alps.

The road continues south through Ruhestein and Allerheiligen, where the ruins of a medieval monastery sit at the head of a dramatic gorge with a series of waterfalls. This is one of the most visited natural sights in the Black Forest and a good leg-stretch stop. The final descent into Freudenstadt — a grid-planned market town built by Duke Frederick I of Württemberg in 1599 — is steep and winding. Park on the vast Marktplatz (reportedly the largest market square in Germany) and have a coffee before heading onward.

For slower vehicles, the key is preparation and patience. The climb from Baden-Baden can be done without drama if you do not rush. Carry extra coolant, allow cooling stops at the Bühlerhöhe summit and Mummelsee, and the rest of the route rewards you with one of Germany's most atmospheric forest drives. In winter, the B500 can be snow-covered and treacherous; summer mornings offer mist in the valleys below and sunshine on the ridge — a combination worth setting the alarm for.