Freiburg

Freiburg I’m Breisgau, is generally known as simply Freiburg but is also known as the “jewel of the Black Forest,” as it is a picturesque, university town sitting right on the edge of the Black Forest.

Freiburg is a decently large town in SW Germany very near to the French and Swiss borders.

When I was deciding if I should bus or train here, I noticed that all of the trains passed through Basel.

And, as you may have read already, I went on a day trip from Freiburg to Colmar, France, one of my days there.

So, now you see what I mean.

My main exploring day was Sunday, but I did have a couple of hours on Saturday morning between when my bus arrived to the city and before I was to take the train to Colmar.

As I wandered around coming back from dropping my bag off in the hostel, I stumbled upon the cathedral and a little market that they were having in the plaza.

It was full of wood carvings (I’ll assume Black Forest wood), toys, candles, foods, and gorgeous fall flowers.

The next day, I did what I had been wanting to do since arriving in Germany. I went to a German mass!

And right in the cathedral!

I can’t really compare German mass to American or Spanish mass yet, because mass in a cathedral is always a bit more extravagant than a typical parish, but I’ll let you know once I find a church to more regularly visit.

At least I knew what was going on because the order of the mass is the same!

After mass, I walked around the church a bit before heading out to the plaza and further walking about the city. As it was Sunday, most places were closed except for restaurants (although some of those were closed, too!)

I particularly enjoyed my time people-watching in the plaza and just wandering the streets and side streets of the town.

Something that I always love to do when I am exploring a new city is to get high to view the city. It both gives me a better perspective of where everything is located compared to my street-level view in addition to the fact that it’s just pretty to see! This is usually either a tower (many times the cathedral tower) or a mountain/hill that isn’t too far from the city.

For Freiburg, I chose the latter.

From the cathedral, I hiked up into the VERY outer edge of the Black Forest up a hill and was rewarded with wonderful views of part of the forest and of Freiburg.

There’s a canal running through the city and some of the bigger shopping streets have these ultra small canals (Bachle) running through the streets. They have a purpose in the summer of being play areas for kids and maybe where your dog can catch a drink, but in the fall – to me, at least – they just look like empty gutters waiting to trip an unsuspecting pedestrian.

All in all, I liked Freiburg, but I didn’t love it. But after visiting Colmar just the day before, it would have had a difficult time measuring up, regardless.

At least I got to have some delicious Käsespätzle which I’m completely yearning for at the moment!