September 3, 2011-An Afternoon and Evening in Germany (Saturday)

The 5 of us set off for Freiburg, Germany early in the afternoon.  Christina had spent some time in the city a few years earlier and was eager to show us around.  With the EU rules in place, border crossing was almost un-noticeable.

It took a few texts and emails before we finally connected with Maria at the train station in Freiburg.  She said she was under a bridge ... but there were several.  When we found her, we headed up into the old part of the city.

The old part of Freiburg is known for the small channels of water that flow along the sides of the cobblestone streets.  Sometimes they were sheltered like this one is, but most were between the sidewalk and the street, making it important to watch where one steps!

Throughout the city, the streets and sidewalks have distinctive designs in the cobblestones ... beautiful, but it must have taken someone a long time to do!

 
 
The Freiburg Munster was beautiful with detailed stone and woodwork and lovely stained glass windows.

Jens found a nice beirgarten ... where I learned another lesson.  If you ask for iced coffee, you get coffee with ice cream. Very tasty but not exactly what I had in mind as a thirst quencher.  Brechtje introduced me to "Bitter Lemon" so all worked out.

 

Next we took the 3 minute ride on the Scholossberg Bahn, a funicular railway, up the hill overlooking the city.  We spent quite a bit of time hiking around and looking for ruins or old forts.  Very little of the old fortifications remains but we found lots of partial walls and other ruins.

           

Christina and I passed on the chance to climb the 187 steps to the top of a tower overlooking the city but Jens, James and the girls made the trek.  There were plenty of nice views from the hilltop. 

All the hiking gave us quite an appetite, so we went back down on the train and into town to a restaurant in the cathedral plaza.  James and I shared a German "sampler" platter for 2 and thoroughly enjoyed the huge variety of German specialties.  The platter included sauerkraut, grilled onions, spatzel, bratwurst, sauerbraten, pork roast and dumplings.  I had never had the onions before and they were awesome!  We were entertained by sidewalk musicians.  In Germany they are only allowed to play in one place for 30 minutes before they must move on to another location to play ... to make sure no one area gets stuck with terrible musicians for long.

 

  

 

 The sidewalk cafe style is something James and I are really enjoying. The chance to savor the meal and sit to watch the world go by without being rushed by time constraints is lovely.  We haven't found anything quit like this in the US yet ... but would like to!

It was dark by the time we left the restaurant, so we took the girls to the train station and put them on a train to Basel.  Then Christina drove us through the rain back to our hotel in Basel where we enjoyed catching up over drinks in the hotel bar.  I think we've convinced them to join us at the lake for the July 4th celebration in 2013.

Another busy and fun day.