Wait a minute, we're hiking UP this mountain???

Freiburg, Germany
August 30-September 2

After our expensive two days in Switzerland, we could not have been more excited to head back to Germany. Freiburg im Breisgau never would have made the list if I had just looked at guidebooks. It doesn't get a lot of press in the States like Munich, Berlin, and Frankfurt do and that is really too bad. It is a fabulous city. My friend Lisa Elliott came to Freiburg for a year abroad when she was in college. When I told her months ago that we might be planning a little visit to Germany, she said Munich and Freiburg were her two favorite cities. She has great taste. We loved them both.

The train to Freiburg from Luzern was uneventful. We wrote the date in the Eurail pass, hopped on, and took a 50 minute train to Basel, Switzerland where we changed trains and took another 45 minute train from Basel to Freiburg. When the train pulled into the station at the Freiburg Hauptbahnhof, we could see our hotel out the window. Now, normally I try to avoid booking hotels near the train station as they are infamous for the shady characters who hang about, but when you have a 30 pound pack on your back, that seems less important. I dare anyone to get in my way after a long day of traveling!

We had booked this stay fairly early on and gotten a great deal at the Novotel, which is one of the Accor hotels (yay points) and a little higher up the food chain than the others we had stayed at. The hotel was really nice, with a huge bed, big bathroom and a nice view out the window. It had a small pool and sauna downstairs and we got free internet because I was an Accor member. It was amazing to me that this cost less than the Etap in Switzerland. The Etap in Luzern was also an Accor, but it was a one star hotel. It was clean and safe, which is always the priority, but it had no phone in the room, no amenities, a teeny bathroom and you could only get a hairdryer or iron by paying a 20 franc deposit. I found it hilarious that the woman at the front desk told me I wouldn't be getting any points there because it was "too cheap".

So right away, we were loving Freiburg. We went out for some lunch at a place called Fil, right down the street from the hotel. We were both craving greens so we ordered salads and were served a huge, fabulous salad. Warm grilled chicken, fresh greens, corn, cucumbers and a light vinaigrette. It was just what the Doctor ordered.

I can't even tell you how good this salad was!

After that we wandered out to find the Tourist Information center. T.I.s are a wonderful source of information, especially if you get the right person. The guy we spoke with was great. We told him we were going to be there for three days, that we wanted to do some hiking in the black forest, that we would be taking all public transportation. They had a three day card that covered Freiburg and the surrounding suburbs as well as the cable car to the top of Shauinsland, Freiburg's landmark mountain right in the black forest. (Yes, I know its another scary cable car, but wait, it gets better!) So Shaun is discussing the cable car with the guy and asking about hiking and the man says that many people take the cable car to the top and hike down. To which Shaun says, "Or we could hike up and take the cable car down right?" The guys smiles and says something like "Sure you could do that, hiking down is harder sometimes than hiking up". I wonder now if he didn't go our for beers with his coworkers and tell the story of the stupid American tourists who were going to hike up the mountain. I can see them all now, laughing over their giant beers.

Knowing we had the big hike coming up the next day, we decided to take a leisurely stroll around the city and explore. Freiburg is what you would imagine when you think of a very old german town. The city was officially founded in 1091 and although no buildings remain from that time, there are plenty of remainders of the Hapsburg rule from 1368-1803. The old town hall (Rathaus) for example, dates back to 1557 and the cornerstone to the main cathedral, Munster, was laid in 1354. Munster is a beautiful gothic church, complete with flying buttresses and gargoyles. The square around Munster serves as a huge Marketplace in the mornings, with vendors selling everything from woodworking to spices to Bratwurst (of course). In the afternoons it is quiet and peaceful in the square. That is how we first came upon it. Right behind it was the House of Baden Wines, where we sat out at a table in the sun and sampled a few small glasses of local wine. The whites and roses were delicious and the price was right! A small glass cost only about 2 Euro. We love you Germany!!!

Having a glass of a local white wine at the House of Baden Wines behind Munster

The beautiful gothic cathedral

Augustinerplatz, just another lovely square in Freiburg

We wandered around some more that afternoon, checking out this lovely city. The character was just so unique. Besides the amazing old buildings in their beautiful pastel shades, there are wonderful cobblestone streets and idyllic courtyards everywhere. My two favorite quirks of this city though, are the Bachle and the sidewalk mosaics. I don't think the pictures will do them justice, but the Bachle are little waterways that are found in almost every street of the Old Town. They say if you fall into one of the Bachle you will marry a Freiburger.

The sidewalk mosaics were also wonderful. Throughout the cobblestone streets you would come upon them. At first I thought there was no rhyme or reason to them, but I later found out they had specific meaning. A pair of eyeglasses symbolized an eye doctor, scissors and a comb would be a barber, a pretzel would be a baker and so on. I particularly loved the detailed on we found outside a church.

The fabulous Church Mosaic on the sidewalk

After a good dinner and a great night's sleep, we awoke the next day determined to do some hiking. Our first stop was a grocery store to get some food for a picnic. We purchased a nectarine, two plums, 2 bottles of water, a 1/2 bottle of wine, some black forest ham, a piece of soft muenster cheese and two kinds of rolls and the total came to less than 12 euro. (Happy!) Next we set out for Shauinsland. It is a big destination from Freiburg so it was very clearly marked. Take the number 2 tram to the number 21 bus which brings you right to the Shauinsland cable car station. We of course, had decided to hike up the mountain so we didn't need no stinking cable car!

As we started the hike up through the black forest, everything seemed pretty clearly marked and although the hike was steep, the views were gorgeous so I was doing OK. That was the first hour. By the time we finished the second hour of climbing we were both soaked with sweat and starving. We sat down for our picnic at about 2 and a half hours in and decided wine was not going to go so well with famine and grime. (Regardless, the ham and muenster sandwiches tasted SOOO good at that point.) By that time the trails were not very well marked, nor was our map and we both seemed to think we had passed two signs saying the summit was 2.4 kilometers away. The problem was those signs were 45 minutes apart. By hour three we were both exhausted but I was just getting punchy. I could see us on the news weeks letter telling how we never would have survived if it weren't for the black forest ham, soft cheese and local wine that kept us alive! I guess you wouldn't say we were roughing it! Finally just after hour three passed, we began to see people coming down the trails from the summit. (I believe they are referred to locally as "the smart people"). The signage got better and we began to see the place where the cable car arrived. I was happy to know I wouldn't have to someday eat my husbands arm with a fine red wine.

This just doesn't capture how long and difficult this hike was!

The picnic that stopped me from running around like a crazy person screaming "We're gonna die!! We're gonna die!!











Once we caught our breath, we sat down at the cafe overlooking the mountain and order two giant waters and two beers. It felt so good to get off our feet and let the sweat dry. I was so happy to have stopped climbing that I didn't even mind taking the cable car back down the mountain!

The cable car ride DOWN the mountain. This should give you an idea of how far we hiked up. Seriously, I don't know who I am anymore!


When we got back to the hotel that evening we both crawled into bed for a nap. I was so tired I fell asleep in my whole outfit, including my fleece and my baseball hat with the sunglasses perched on top. We slept the sleep of the dead for about an hour before getting up to go find dinner. We found a great local brewery calls Martinsbrau that also made their own sausages. We started with a huge salad that we split and then I ordered a pigs knuckle and Shaun ordered a lamb plate that consisted of a sausage, a chop and a small steak. The pigs knuckle may sound gross but it was basically a big ball of slow roasted pork that fell off the bone. I was one happy girl.

The next day we decided to take it easy, so of course we ended up hiking again!! This time it was a little easier though. At the East end of Freiburg, the town also borders the black forest at a place called the Schlossberg. There was a tram there that takes you about halfway to the top of the Schlossberg. After about a 30 minute hike you come to a viewing tower that has a 360 degree panoramic view of Freiburg, the Rhine Valley and the Black Forest. I managed to keep my fear of heights in check to get almost to the top, but after a few moments up there I was all done. As I made my way down the narrow tower stairs I had the pleasure of fight past about 100 teenage school kids who were there on some kind of outing. Shaun said it was a good thing I went down because the top was shaking with all of them up there.

The hike down from the viewing tower was spectacular. There were various scenic overlooks on the way down and one of them was over acres of grape vines that are actually local vineyards. Some of the wine we had been drinking could have been grown right there.

We were starving at that point so we headed to the Market outside Munster cathedral. We ordered two Brats with onions, washed it down with fresh apple cider and followed that up with a plum tart. If we weren't doing all this hiking and walking I would be gigantic right now.

This pretty much sums up how much they love pork in Germany! I laughed out loud when we walked past this restaurant.

That afternoon, Shaun went to get a massage and I went to hang out in a sunny park to try to finish my Luzern post. It's a tribute to Freiburg that it took so long to get the post done. There was so much to do and see that I couldn't bear to take the time away to finish writing. I was glad to get it done though and have it behind me so we could enjoy our last night in Freiburg.

Shaun and I outside Munster cathedral on our last night in Freiburg


The last evening was just like every other one we spent in Freiburg- beautiful weather, great food, friendly people. Freiburg seems to be much more diverse than any other place we visited and so the variety of food is also diverse. For our last night we started at a beer garden for a pre-dinner pretzel and beer and then we went to a great Turkish restaurant where we ate way too much food. We started with a stuffed meat and cheese pastry called a Borek, and then a lamb & tomato stew for me and donor kebab (shaved lamb) for Shaun. I think we were in a "food panic" because we knew it was our last night of cheap German eats. We were heading back to Switzerland in the morning!! (Insert scary music here!!)

Our Turkish dinner at Harem was Lamb-tastic!

Farewell to Germany! I will miss everything about you, especially these beers that are the size of my head!! We'll be back for more in December!!