Freiburg

Asia and I went Southwest yesterday to check out a place called Freiburg. It is a city nestled in amongst the black forest close to the French border, and not too far from the Swiss either. Freiburg has the typical German historic village/city feel with wide open paved roads mainly designed for pedestrians. As usual, there was some amazing architecture and the weather was a very nice 25 degrees. Speaking of the weather, it is has been decidedly shabby for the last three or so weeks (by shabby I mean shabby for summer, so somewhat like a Wellington summer I suppose, haha). It is often been rainy, gray and overcast with the temperature struggling into the early 20s. Apparently this is more typical of the German summer and quite a change from the 30+ degrees the first few weeks I was here. Anyway, so Asia and I stumbled around Freiburg most of the afternoon checking out the various sights, downed a quick cappuccino and then headed into the mountains for what turned out to be the highlight of the trip.

We drove up to the top of this hill just outside of Freiburg. It tops out at about 1250m but still high enough to get some pretty amazing views and judging by the ski lifts also plenty of snow in the winter. Apparently on a clear day you can see the Swiss alps in all their glory but alas we were not so lucky. Nonetheless, it was still pretty cool and I even managed to spy a couple of wind turbines. After a little wander around the summit and to this viewing platform we cruised on down to this amusement park, we you must give over you left arm and a couple of toes to get on each ride. Me being a stingy bastard, we only went for a few trips on this thing called the space runner which was quite cool. Unfortunately, they shut down the luge just as we were arriving, as it looked like it would have been even better than the Queenstown one. Just as we were leaving the heavens opened in what was pretty much the most torrential downpour I have ever witnessed in my life. I mean the roads were covered in water at least two inches deep, despite their being plenty of drainage. Of course, rain like that can’t last for very long and within 30 mins the storm had passed leaving the area a few degrees cooler in its wake.

Did I ever mention how good the German beer is? Well, you have to try it to believe it and I’m not kidding. It is damn cheap too. You can pick up a crate of 20 500ml bottles from the local bottly for about 12€, amazing stuff!