As the result of a lucky mistake in travel planning on my part, I spontaneously headed to Freiburg, Baden-Wuerttemburg this past weekend. It's informally known as the gateway to the southern Black Forest and has all the scenery and mountain trails any outdoor nut could want. (I originally wanted to plan a trip to Valencia, Spain- that's for the weekend to come.)
After a speedy ride on a ICE train from Koeln (these trains reach 165 mph!!), I stepped out of the Hauptbahnhof into what seemed like a whole different country- a town with cheerful, red brick- and colorfully-painted houses, the giant Muenster cathedral, whose style of church I've never experienced before, 1-liter beer steins, and a ring of conifer-shrouded hills surrounding the town on two sides. Freiburg is definitely high on the scale of visual charm for Deutschland, so much so that I had to force myself to stop taking pictures sometimes (coming soon as well). Down it's ancient cobblestone streets (the town was founded around 1200!!), one finds bright mosaics in front of shops indicating what's sold or made there- diamonds for jewelry, tools for woodwork, even symbols of Freiburg's sister cities, one of which is (oddly enough) Madison, Wisconsin. More interesting things I saw:
- A real 'badische' wind band playing in the town square, in front of the old Rathaus (now a visitor's center).
- A farmer's and craft market surrounding the Muenster, with every kind of hand-made wooden and ceramic craft imaginable, and a massive assortment of local food specialites.
- A local meeting house for adherents to Tibetan Buddhism, where I got to see ancient relics of long-past buddhas and how they're linked to worship and meditation. One guy even got his dog blessed by a monk.
- Brass plaques on the sidewalks, indicating businesses that Jews had once owned before the Nazis took power in Baden-Wuerttemburg.
- Too many views of the Black Forest to count- but one especially great one from the top of the Schlossberg, where an old French fortress used to sit.
- Germans in a club dancing to music from "Grease." The transition from pounding house music to "Tell me more" still makes me laugh.
- More bikers than I think I've ever seen in my entire life, except when watching the Tour de France on TV. Apparently Freiburgers are some of the most fit people in all of Germany. Or at least they have monster quads. Anyway, my feeble attempt at mountain biking through the Schwarzwald showed that I'd need some practice to take on these people's trails.
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