Black Forest Tour

April 23 Monday

Freiburg and the Black Forest

Up at 6 am, by bus to the train station at 7:00.

First, made reservation for traveling to Brussels tomorrow.

At 8:14 we were off to Freiburg via Mannheim .







Got into Freiburg and took a walk over the bridge that crosses the railway network, and immediately came into a lovely park in front of a church with twin green steeples.
















We crossed the bridge again and walked into downtown Freiburg. Found a neat Italian café. I asked the waitress if she spoke English, and she said, "Yes, I speak English."

Meaning to praise her for speaking English so well, I said, "Good for you."

To which she replied with a smile, "It is good for you."

Very true, and very cute.

We met Nicole Bartoschek, our tour driver and guide, in front of the Freiburg Haufbanhof at 12:45. Walked to her VW van where we were presented with two options. The first was to tour a road through part of the Black Forest via a place with a cable car that would overlook Freiburg. The second option was a road that completes the top part of a circle back to Freiburg, and one she highly recommends because it is her favourite part of the Forest.

We discussed the amount of time available for us, and it turned out we could do both - the complete circuit.



First stop, the cable car place. Although the cable car can accommodate a maximum of 11 people (can't imagine how), we were the only occupants. A frightening ride up, for me at least, but well worth it. We were enjoying another clear summer-like day.

At the top we got out of the cable car into a nice building with a wrap around veranda and café. What an awesome view!




















Just below us paragliders were jumping off the mountainside, past two huge wind turbines, and out of sight.










Nicole joined us up there, having driven the van up the switch-back road to the top. After gaping at the scenery a while longer we headed down the mountain with Nicole’s ‘bus’ and stopped at a very fancy tourist place with a beautiful restaurant. Outside horses were grazing in a mountain meadow. Now, if I were a horse, this is where I would like to live.









We drove on through gorgeous farmland in the forested mountains and stopped at the lakeside tourist village of Titisee. Here we wandered around through the shops for half an hour - long enough to buy some trinkets and a nice cuckoo clock. We arranged for the shop to ship the clock to Whitehorse. It wasn't until we were further along on the tour that it occurred to us that we should have taken a photo of it. How dumb! We've photographed absolutely everything else.








Nicole was right about the road she recommended as being the most impressive. The tallest of trees on both sides of the road opening up to show verdant hills and farms. At one roadside stop Nicole was commenting on the roundness of the hilly landcape and, in her cute french accent described it like the curves of a beautiful woman. Yep, that's what I thought, too.









We stopped at another small village with a beautiful church. The outside had scaffolding and green tarps indicating a restoration project, so it took away from the beauty of the exterior, but the inside was something to behold. It is regarded as one of the most beautiful baroque churches in Germany. Makes you want to convert to Catholicism just to spend some time in one of those.











The next stop was a typical Gasthaus in the region. But our reception by the owners was anything but typical. The lady is a friend of Nicole, and Nicole asked her to set out some Black Forest specialties like ham and other smoked meats, cheeses and breads, and of course - beer.







Our hostess at the Gasthaus had an uncle who went to the Yukon in 1918 and worked as a land surveyor. He eventually left the Yukon for Ontario and finally settled in Kelowna, BC. His wife, 35 years younger than he, is now in her 70's and will visit here, for the first time, next month. She has always wanted to see where her husband was born and raised.

From here we returned to Freiburg, finishing a marvelous tour.

Once we got back to the Heidelberg train station at 9:00 pm, it seemed the #32 bus was no longer running to University Square, but only to the Bismarckplatz. Once we got there, we walked the remaining 2 km to University Square. There we sat down at an outside café for refreshments and to relax. About 10 minutes later the #31 bus arrived. The bus system is very confusing in more ways than this.

For example, we were told at the Tourist Info booth on our arrival that the fare from the train station to University Square is 1 Euro. It seems we're the only bozos who actually pay the fare. Everyone else steps on through any door of the bus or tram, sits down and gets off, without buying a ticket from the driver, showing a pass, or validating a ticket at the onboard ticket reader. When we buy a ticket, it always seems confusing to the driver - and we don't think it's necessarily the language barrier.

Nevertheless, when we got back to the hotel at 10 pm, it was the end of a wonderful day.