The European Chronicles 2024.2 - Freiburg im Breisgau
A Freiburg Walkabout
Our hotel, the Novatel, is at the edge of the old town - a pedestrian only section of the city, perfect for a day of wandering. There's also an outdoor market staged along the central square every morning but Sunday; they are always fun.
A bit about Freiburg, from Wiki
Heading out...
There are bicycles everywhere; not spandex clad bicyclists riding carbon fiber feathers, but "use them every day for everything" bicycles, and their owners. Woven into the fabric of life. Lots and lots and lots of e-bikes too.
An example: one of the flower merchants has this delivery vehicle, they were loading it up while I watched.
Deutsche Post uses them too.
And...some just for decoration! Freiburg has a unique system of "runnels" called Bachle (small streams) fed with water from the Dreisam River. They run along the side and sometimes the middle of almost all streets and alleys. They are literally cool...the running water providing a cooling effect throughout the city in summer, as well as a nice background soundtrack of gurgling water.
Kids have small boats on a string they float and play with in the water.
Sometimes, it's even a fruit cooler...
And sometimes kids small and large just like to play in running water.
The Freiburg Minster, the main landmark, is a gothic cathedral built between 1200 and 1513; it marks the central plaza, and the market is all around it.
Very cute trams run thru as well.
She likes beer...a Dunkel. First spritz...the official start of the European Chronicles!! 😂
If only we had more room...
But, you know...
Why yes, yes I do.
But perhaps that's because I...
The Truffle Wagon.
Lindt chocolate, at a beer garden above the city. How do I love thee, let me count the ways...
The music hall roof...
Pisces rising
On the other side of our hotel is this bicycle/pedestrian only bridge.
Bicycles in the center, pedestrians on either side. Leads to the train station and a giant bicycle parking "station." With a rooftop cafe.
Pay, walk thru the turnstile, walk your bike thru the gate.
Party on the other side of the bridge.
The Pillion POV
Along with Mike's aforementioned spritz and my beer - one of the best I've had...Freiburg's Ganter Brewery's Magisch Dunkel ("magic dark" - indeed!) we enjoyed a bite of lunch in a cafe adjacent to the outdoor market.
What, say you, did we eat? Well, various amazing local cheeses and brown farmhouse bread, served with a small bowl of kummel, (aka, caraway seeds).
It's said they aid in the digestion of heavier foods (as most German food tends to be) - and lucky for me - those marvelous little seeds are the secret ingredient added by my mother to her infamous sauerkraut and noodle dish. (She still makes it for me whenever I visit!)
Going forward I may never eat cheese and bread without them. If you decide to try this find yourself a lovely blue cheese, some warm hearty brown bread...(and a dunkel)...dip a bite of cheese into your caraway seeds - and enjoy!
I fell in love too with the hiking paths that can carry one throughout the Black Forest from the Schlossberg in the middle of Freiburg - we wandered up the side of the hill for a quiet walk and happily discovered the Kastaniengarten - a beer garden attached to the Greiffeneggschlossle restaurant.
From our seat at an unassuming wooden picnic table, we could see old town, vineyards planted along the hillside, and far into the Black Forest. This path system is where the Freiburg-Bodensee cross country trail begins...I'd love to return and hike it someday :)
More to come...
