There was a cool market in the Old Town section by the Freiburg Minster cathedral with numerous booths set up selling their wares--wooden toys, kitchen utensils, fruit, vegetables, and plants. We bought plenty of rolls for lunch plus some extra meat and cheese.
These are velcro cleaners. Now that I think about it, I should have bought one!
When we got back up the five flights of stairs to the apartment, Amy and Misha pitched in to make sandwiches. It's wonderful to have older girls help.
Freiburg was nestled in a little valley skirted by the Black Forest. How cool that we got to explore a small part of it. We took a train and then a bus to get to the gondola at Schauinslanbahn. It was 20 minutes up to the top of the mountain. The view was incredible with the brilliant green landscape, dottings of villages across the mountainsides, and blue sky.
It was also a lot cooler than it had been in Paris and we were enjoying the fresh air. We unpacked our picnic lunch, enjoying the lovely area until hordes of young tweens hopped off the gondola shortly after we had arrived. They proceeded to be loud and annoying. We were grateful when they took off on a hike and the picnic area was quiet again.
We found the tweens again as we walked around at the top of the mountain and checked out the observation tower.
The girls and Grandma needed a little rest time, so Chris and I wandered a little further down the hill to spy this lovely view.
There were a few words in German that surely make many Americans laugh:
Fahrt. Every where we went in Germany we saw the word "fahrt" or some version of it--Ausfahrt, Gute Fahrt. "Fahrt is German for ride, trip, or path. Often, it's part of a bigger word, such as Ausfahrt, which you'll see if you drive on the Autobahn…it refers to an exit ramp." Gute Fahrt means safe travels or good journey. And apparently Letzte Fahrt means last trip.
Hell is the German word for bright or light.
Schmuck means jewelry
Rathouse is a town hall where politicians hang out.
You might just guess that our activity for the evening involved checking out the town, the architecture, and the shops.
By dinner time, Misha had had enough togetherness and opted to stay at the apartment while we went in search of a place to eat. Instead of turning toward the Old Town section of Freiburg, we went the other direction and found Schutzen not too far away. The food was great. Amy had fish, Chris and his mom had some shredded bologna looking stuff, I had pasta with veggies and cheese croquettes, and Kristen had pasta with a red sauce. We took our leftovers home to Misha.
Amy and I chose to walk back to the apartment while Chris and Kristen and Grandma walked into town to float the boats that Kristen had made out of newspaper. There were Bachles or drains through town and she had fun letting the boats sail.
