Freiburg- 1st- 4th June

This update starts with one of those bizarre weather turns that Europe seems to specialise in.  It was a very hot and sunny 31 degrees and we didn't really believe it when the weather forecast said it would drop to a high of 18 degrees the following day....but it was.  So it was back in our cold weather gear that we returned to Germany and arrived in Freiburg.

View of Freiburg from the local hill

Freiburg is a university town and has a really vibrant, diverse population.  You can definitely see it in the shopping (great!) and the cafe's, restaurants and bars.  We were spoiled for choice.  We've gotten reasonably good at figuring out German menu's- once you know the words for potato (kartoffel), meat (fleish) and sausage (wurst) you've got 80% covered- but sometimes its fun to go for the random pick.  Mine worked out very well- I got the Maultaschen, a local Baden speciality consisting of folded pasta dough with layers of mince meat (hackfleish), spinach, breadcrumbs and herbs which is then fried.  Basically tastes like giant Gyoza!

Riverside restaurant where we had random menu picks.  That thing in the middle of the river is a statue of a crocodile.  There was a duck that like to sit on it- pretty funny.

One of our favourite streets, called Konvictstrasse

The streets were cobbled, like most european towns, but very finely so, with patterns and motif's.  I really loved the water channels that run down the streets- these previously supplied water to the town.  The cathedral (Munster) was beautiful but I preferred the smaller St Martin's church where we got to hear two people playing the organ.  I've never heard anything like it- fast, furious and passionate.  Morgan thinks they might have been playing one of those songs which covers the whole range of the organs performance, in order to tune it?

Freiburg Munster

Our most random find in Freiburg was the Municipal Tower Museum, a "Museum for History in Tin Figure Dioramas"!  Thousands of little tin figures arranged into famous battle scenes.  It was pretty weird but we had fun finding the oddities in each one- two cats dancing, guy peeing against the wall....

Our campsite was close to town with really friendly staff.  We happened to turn up the day before a public holiday so we were lucky to get a spot.  It was our first experience in being in a crowded campground and crikey- it was packed!  It was almost lucky the weather wasn't great because I don't know how everyone would have fitted if we were all sitting outside with tables etc.
We're really getting into the european campgrounds now.  Almost without exception they have a beer garden or restaurant.  They have all (so far) served good food, cheap beer and have a really family feel.

It's time to get out of town for a while so we're heading off into the Black Forest!

Mileage at the end of Freiburg = 2510 miles

Post script from Morgan:

Big news - I have finished reading the 'Sharpe' series of books! This is a series by Bernard Cornwall of a fictional character (Richard Sharpe) set against the factual backdrop of the Peninsula War between France and England in the early 1800's. There are 25 books in the series and I finished the lot almost back to back (although there were a couple of different extra books in the middle). Using my knowledge of maths and Jane's diary, I have figured out I am reading a book every two or three days. So possibly 150 books by the time we finish the trip. Thank God (or Jane) for the Kindle!