We arrived in Frankfurt on our delayed KLM Cityhopper flight from Amsterdam and, with a further baggage delay on arrival, we were cutting it close to make our train. Our KLM flight arrived at Terminal 2 and the Deutsche Bahn high-speed rail station is located adjacent to Terminal 1, so we headed for the terminal connector train.
The train between Terminals 1 and 2 provides some great views over the airfield and I even managed to snag a quick photo of a couple of planes that don’t have many years left on them, a Condor 767 and a Lufthansa 747-400 in the new livery.
In Terminal 1, we followed the signs for train stations and passed by one of the old, iconic flip style departure boards. The terminal was undergoing some renovations so we didn’t get to see it in all its glory.
There are multiple train stations at the Frankfurt Airport and our train was departing from the Fernbahnhof, which is used by long distance Inter-City Express (ICE) trains. This is also where Lufthansa/Deutsche Bahn air to trail trains operate from. Our train was departing from track 5 and we arrived at the platform just as our train was scheduled to depart. Thankfully our inbound train was experiencing delays otherwise we would likely have missed it.
We headed down the escalators to the platform to wait for our delayed train. Deutsche Bahn has a direct train from Frankfurt to Freiburg im Breisgau, near Badenweiler but it only operates every other hour. Due to our delay, we had to make a connection in Mannheim.
After a roughly 20 minute delay, our Deutsche Bahn ICE train to Mannheim pulled into the station.
We located our assigned car and boarded the train. We had been warned when booking that the train was likely to be full so we reserved seats ahead of time. This turned out to be a good call as the train was packed to the gills, we had to nicely kick a few folks out of our reserved seats and there were people on the train sitting in the aisle and connectors between cars.
Our tickets were in 2nd Class and all of the seats were in a 2-2 layout, some seats were turned facing one another creating a pod of 4 with a table separating them. The seats were similar to a typical airline Economy class seat.
Once we were underway I pulled out my tablet and connected to the free DB Wi-Fi. The tray table was large enough to hold my computer but nothing else.
After a quick train change in Mannheim we headed south towards Freiburg im Breisgau. Mrs. ATX Jetsetter napped while I did some work and looked out the window at the countryside going by.
Once our train arrived in Freiburg we had to switch to a local service operated by BWegt, the local transport company for Baden-Württemberg. Trains to Müllheim (Baden) were departing every 20 minutes and one was preparing to leave when we arrived.
It took about 20-25 minutes to get from Freiburg Hauptbahnhoff to Müllheim (Baden). The station is currently undergoing quite a bit of construction and the main station building has been demolished as part of the upgrade. Because of all of the construction, we had to walk roughly 100m to the temporary taxi area.
If you’re planning a trip to the resort town of Badenweiler, there are two ways to get from the station to town. There is a bus that runs between the two locations or you can take a private taxi cab. Since we had luggage, we opted for the taxi. The one way trip from the station to our hotel in Badenweiler was roughly €40.
Summary
Badenweiler is not the easiest place to get to, which does help with its charm since it isn’t overrun with tourists. The closest airport is EuroAirport Basel-Mulhouse-Freiburg though it would still take you 2 hours via transit to reach the town. Ultimately our total travel time from departure in Frankfurt to our hotel took just over 3 hours.
In This Trip Report
