Freiburg

Up early, we grabbed a quick bakery breakfast on the way to the rail station and caught the commuter train to Freiburg. Nothing there opens before 10 a.m. on a Saturday, so we had the place to ourselves to complete the Rick Steves book's walking tour.

The tour began near the city hall and pointed out a unique feature of Freiburg, the Bächle. These are little stream-lets inset into the pavement of the streets. Water is diverted from a stream to keep running water moving through them at all times. Originally, the purpose was to control fires (damming one floods the street and stops fire from spreading). Now, they're mostly for fun. But the city hires people to keep them scrubbed and clean.

The walking tour also pointed out some houses with unique gargoyles and statues, as well as mosaics in the sidewalks displaying coats of arms or symbols of various guilds.

Like most Medieval towns, the center of the old city is dominated by the cathedral, known here as "the munster." While Freiburg was heavily bombed in World War II, the munster miraculously survived almost intact. The stained glass had been removed and stored safely, so most of the orignal from the 13th and 14th centuries is still on display.

The market square surrounding the cathedral was packed today. It was a special market festival -- an Octoberfest sort of thing. It was a huge farmer's market with all kinds of produce, as well as stands that we would probably call food trucks. People were buying their fruits and vegetables when we arrived early, but when we came back a bit later, one could hardly move through the crowds.

We continued our walking tour through streets mixed with newer, post-war buildings and reconstructed buildings with dates in the 1300s. It's a beautiful, very walkable city with almost no cars. But one does have to watch out for the trams.

At the Swabian Gate, one of the last remnants of the old city walls, our tour ended. We returned here later in the day to climb the Schlossberg hill. A long-gone castle once watched over the city from here, but now it's just a lookout point.

We bought a combination pass to five of the city's museums. The City History museum was a disappointment because there was hardly anything in it. But the Augustiner Museum more than made up for it.

This was a museum of religious artifacts from around the region, but much of it was stained glass and statuary from the munster cathedral that had been removed for preservation due to damage or weather, and had then been replaced at the cathedral with more sturdy replicas. Gargoyles that one hardly sees when they are 200 feet up on the spire are huge and fascinating up close!

On Saturdays, the museum has organists come in to play their pipe organ, and the sound fills the entire museum. So we got a magnificent organ recital in addition to all of the art.

The "Museum of Nature and Man" turned out to be a children's museum, so we didn't spend much time there. Around the corner, the "Museum of New Art" was mostly early 20th century art and film, and was interesting. A special feature was on female artists who were finally allowed to study and work in the 20th century. Prior to that, as one artist said, "a woman had to be naked to get into a museum."

Museum-ed out, we returned to the market at the cathedral. Lunch was a brat from a food truck, and we enjoyed a glass of wine outside while sitting and people watching.

Catching another crowded commuter train back to Bad Kozingen, we went to a little Greek restaurant near our hotel and found it packed on Saturday night. But we did manage to get a table, a good Greek meal with lots of food, and even a shot of ouzo served with the check.