Bad Säckingen is a rural town in the administrative district of Waldshut in the state of Baden-Württemberg in Germany. It is famous as the "Trumpeteer's City" because of the book Der Trompeter von Säckingen, a famous 19th-century novel by German author Joseph Victor von Scheffel.
The history of the city dates back to the early 6th Century, when Saint Fridolin founded Säckingen Abbey and a church. Around 1200 most of the city was destroyed in a huge fire. Afterwards, construction began in the middle of the town on a Gothic cathedral, called the Fridolinsmünster, which can still be visited today.
In the closing stages of the 1672-1678 Franco-Dutch War, the town was severely damaged by French soldiers commanded by the Comte de Choiseul, following their victory over an Imperial force at Rheinfelden on 7 July 1678.
Like many communities on the banks of the Rhine, Säckingen straddles the river with the present border between Germany and Switzerland running mid-stream.
No 3 son and a work chum decided, a few weeks ago, to pay this little town a visit. The prompting for these excursions was the Fasnacht (fasting night - it's anything but) festival.
This one is called "Narrenzunft" and on the night of 16th/17th February there was much jollity centred round carnival type parades where local charitable groups (called "guilds") adorn themselves in costumes and masks and wander round the town making a lot of noise.
You buy the leaf badge (above) and it protects you from very nasty evil spirits; but more particularly means you are not intimidated by terrifying fund raisers. Some of these strange traditions date back as far as 1920!
There is music ...
... of various kinds!
To cement this together, there is street food and much consumption of alcoholic beverages.
But as an occasional "supporter" of this blog, No 3 son was anxious to give a Public Transport "twist" to the information that he sent to his old man.
Thus it was that they went by train. And there is a choice of two routes.
From Basel's Bad (i.e. Badischer) Bahnhof, the Deutsche Bahn station, there are trains to Bad Säckingen itself.
Basically, there is a fast (InterCity) train and a stopper every hour supplemented at peaks by extra "locals".
The town's station is pleasant and well equipped.
And, of course, the buses stop outside.
That route runs, understandably, in Germany on the northern bank of the Rhine.
The alternative is to take the Swiss route on the southern bank.
In this case the community is called simply Stein ...
... but the station gets a subtitle of "Säckingen" - "Stein-S" on the departure board above. That's because there is a "Stein-am-Rhein", very much a different locality which you would find about 65 miles to the east.
The old station building is no longer in railway use, replaced by smaller premises just beyond.
Similar to DB, SBB offers a stopper every 30 minutes from the main station in Basel, plus a fast "IR" train every hour.
fbb rather likes the name of the previous station - Mumpf!
The alternative is to take the Swiss route on the southern bank.
The old station building is no longer in railway use, replaced by smaller premises just beyond.
Next Bad Säckingen bus blog : Tuesday 12th March
Yup, I've cracked it! But I won't tell.
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