Landkreis Breisgau-Hochschwarzwald

Freiburg is one of Madison's sister cities, and it sure feels familiar. It's a mid-size univeristy town with lots of bicycles, students, and charm. We arrived several hours before the check-in time at our apartment, so we locked our bags in a locker at the station. These are so convenient when day tripping or arriving early. For $5, we can drop the anchors and explore.

It was the hottest and sunniest day of the trip since we arrived in Stockholm, so we spent it walking around the old town. It was market day, so the first stop was the large gothic cathedral, the Munster. Surrounding it on 3 sides was a weekly market full of goodies, including brat stands selling about 8 different types of sausages, including the Langer Rote, or long Freiburg sausage. When you order one, they fold it in half and put it in a roll that's wider and shorter than our traditional hot dog bun. The Munster is in pretty good shape and wasn't covered in scaffolding, like most ancient sites in Europe. Everything falls apart and Europe does a great job of preserving it's heritage, and that means scaffolding!

In Freiburg, businesses hire an artist to make a stone mosaic in the sidewalk in front that describes the business. There's beer steins, knives, jewels, books, etc. etched out of small Rhine river stones inlaid in the larger cobblestones. Very cool. Like many German cities, this one keeps vehicles out of the city center for the most part. It's a walker's paradise. Freiburg is home to Germany's Green Movement, and we saw climate protestor's in front of the Rathaus where there are mosaics of the sister cities' emblems in the sidewalk. Near campus, we saw students carrying bowls and silverware as they headed towards a restaurant. Is that a thing?

There are lots of sidewalk cafes and restaurants and we enjoyed a brat here, a coffee there, and even stopped into a small museum that was included on our 3 day city card, which included all transportation, museums, and a cable car to a mountain just south of town. After buying some cheese and olives at the market before it closed, we grabbed our bags and took a tram to our apartment, located just outside of the city center in a lovely neighborhood. It's chock-full of mansions, trees, parks, families on bikes, a nearby school (gymnasium) that looks like a castle, and an old cemetery.

The balcony from our second story apartment looks down onto a small intersection that's absolutely perfect for seeing a slice of life in Freiburg. It's very family oriented and we see lots of parents with their kids on bikes, a hybrid bus goes by every fifteen minutes. There's a small fountain at the edge of 2 angled streets that draws people in to read or rest or chat with neighbors. The old cemetery a block away is like a city park. It holds tombs from the 1500's through the mid 1800's only and is an oasis of tranquility. People come here to read and rest and walk and even do tai chi. And that reminds me that this city is so QUIET. There are so few cars and many of those are electric. It's wonderful. I still reel from the thought of the noise pollution of large Asian cities, and traveling anywhere in India was the worst for that.

We visited the Augustiner museum the next day. It houses a lot of the original stain glass and statuary from the Munster. It was well done. Lunch was at the Markethalle, an old food hall with a diverse selection of ethnic foods. We split a large fish soup that was hearty and filling for only 8 bucks. The variety of ethnic foods made us want to go back. Then it was a tram and a bus ride to the Schauinslandbahn south of town. It's the oldest cable car in the world with an enclosed cabin. On the top, we hiked on some trails, enjoyed the views, and had coffee in the sun.

After the descent, we made our way to an Aldi Sud for some food shopping for the train tomorrow. Long train days require a picnic. There's food on board often, but it's bread heavy and I'm gluten sensitive. It's not hard to pack a picnic, and the lightweight cooler I bought before the trip is worth it's weight in gold. It fits in my day bag. If we have an apartment, I'll freeze a water bottle the night before and that cools the cheese, meat, and wine we bring for lunch the next day.

For dinner, we went back to the Markethalle. Tonight it's Brazilian fare. I got the coconut shrimp and rice and Deanne grabbed the Fejuado, a classic rice, sausage, and bean dish. For some reason, we're craving rice and beans. We''ve learned to follow what our bodies tell us.

On the cable car earlier, we shared the tram with a local paraglider. He commented "You must think our food is cheap." Hell yeah. Dinner for 2 with wine is regularly under $50 in classic settings. We mentioned that vegetables in stores are so cheap, about half of normal prices and 1/4 of organic prices in the states. He told us that they are subisdized by the government. Can you imagine the US government subsidizing healthy food and taxing unhealthy food? I can't.

Afterwards, we went to the recommended wine bar on the Munsterplatz and sampled some German wines in the shadows of the cathedral at night. Tomorrow we go the Rothenburg ob der Tauber, a medieval town known for its beauty.

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