After a full breakfast at our hotel in Freiburg, the four of us put our luggage in the car and went to the Tourist Information center, got a map of Freiburg and did the walking tour of the city centre, looking at the old buildings, the water canals along the streets and walking through the open air market. We bought some cheese for our train trip tomorrow to Munich, and some red wine from a man selling from his vineyard in the Rhine to take to Nadege and Seth. Freiburg came highly acclaimed to us from Nadege's family, and we loved every inch of its beauty and charm. We're told that Freiburg has most days of sunshine in all of Germany, and today was one of those. The city is on the western edge of the Black Forest and is a university town, with the university and its students intertwined with the old city. The old Catholic cathedral took three years to build and was finished in 1200. The streets have miniature canals along them, with clear running water to provide cooling and tranquility to pedestrians. Bikes and pedestrians are everywhere. Oh, and the weather was a perfect 10—a “Chamber of Commerce day” as I like to say. As I also like to say about places I like, "we'll have to come back here to Freiburg!"
After some scrumptious Guido-recommended bratwurst from a trailer at the open market, we got our car from the parking lot and left Freiburg, heading north to the Black Forest. We've been looking forward to seeing the Black Forest since we were in Baden Baden in 1993, when we simply ran out of time. Because of its name, I had always imagined that the area would be very dense, and very dark. Instead, it was open and sunny, with rolling emerald green hills and valleys, interspersed with forests and villages with red tile roofs on seemingly every structure.
We saw a thousand postcards as we drove through part of the forest, stopping here and there for photos. Guido and Annabelle were making their first trip to the Black Forest too, and enjoyed its awesome vistas as much as Bev and I did. Again, the weather was perfect and trees all had their leaves, so it's hard to imagine a more beautiful spring day to see the Black Forest! About mid-afternoon we stopped at a little town where there was a brewery that was founded by monks centuries ago. It was time for a break, so we stopped at a small cafe and had drinks outside on the patio. Bev and I had to try the local beer and our drivers, Annabelle and Guido, had non-alcoholic beverages. Annabelle is 19 and Guido is 20, and both are old enough to drink alcohol in Germany, where the legal drinking age is 18. Yet they are both very responsible in their alcohol consumption and abstain altogether if they are going to be driving.
Annabelle wanted to find a place to walk in the forest, so we got in the car and continued on our way north. In the Schwartzwald Region, behind the Hotel Langenwaldsee, we found a national park with walking trails, so we parked our car and went hiking in the beautiful forest, occasionally coming upon “huts” designed for cross country skiers, bicyclists and hikers to rest. One of them had mountain water coming out of an ornate spigot, so we drank from it. It was, of course, as pure-tasting as you'd imagine, so it was presumably safe to drink. Our hike probably lasted about an hour or so, then it was back in the car to continue our travel north to Karlsruhe. We eventually caught the autobahn, and Guido was definitely in his element as he traveled at speeds of up to 180 kilometers per hour, which is roughly 100 mph. Our plan was that Bev and I would get a room near the train station in Karlsruhe, then the four of us would have dinner, and then Guido and Annabelle were going on another two hours north to stay at Guido's godfather's home (Guido has four godfathers, by the way!). Guido has a soccer game tomorrow, so they wanted to be closer to home in the morning. So when we got to Karlsruhe, our first order of business was to find lodging. The first hotel we looked at was full, so we went to the train station to make reservations for tomorrow's train trip to Munich, and at the station we talked to the customer service woman. She offered to call a hotel for us. The first call she made, the hotel was also full. We asked why there seemed to be so many people in Karlsruhe on a Tuesday night, and she said there was a convention going on. We were getting a little nervous about finding a room, but her next call found a room for the two of us for 90 Euro, not including breakfast, and we took it. Annabelle, Bev and I walked about 500 meters or so, straight up the street from the train station, while Guido got the car and brought our backpacks and bags. We checked into the hotel, and it was very nice, complete with a four-poster bed and WI-fi for a modest charge. We got a recommendation from the man at the desk for a place to eat, requesting traditional German cuisine, and drove about 10 minutes. After a wonderful dinner, and the trading of electronic pictures between Annabelle and us, they drove us back to our hotel to drop us off. It was about 9:30, and because Guido and Annabelle had almost a two-hour drive ahead of them, Bev and I were anxious to have them get on the road. Yet the moment had arrived that we were dreading—saying goodbye to Annabelle, not knowing how long it will be before we see her again. And it was even hard saying goodbye to our new friend, Guido, who we like very much and who impressed us so much with his maturity. He's 20, going on 35. So after a few tears, they were off, and we were off to bed, to rest up for another travel day tomorrow to Munich.
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