It was a pretty dreary day when my old exchange student, Charlotte, and I set out from her small village near the Swiss border to take a day trip to Freiburg. Because I was only visiting for the weekend, though, we were determined to make the most of it – grey skies and all.
The parking situation didn’t bode well for us once we finally reached the city either – it took us almost an hour to find a parking spot, from which we had to move an hour later (thankfully this time we found a spot right around the corner in a very affordable parking garage), but once we were finally out of the car and walking around we knew that it had all been worth it.
Even though Charlotte recently moved to being only 45 minutes away from Freiburg, she had never actually visited the town before, so it was both of our first times. We wandered around, feeling a little lost, before easily enough stumbling upon the main square where a market was in full swing. We gorged ourselves on Bratwurst and admired that, even in the middle of November, beautiful fresh flowers were being sold.
Soon afterward, we met up with another friend of mine who is currently studying abroad in Freiburg for the full local’s tour of the old town. My favorite part was easily the short hike we took up a hill in the middle of town to get the perfect bird’s eye view. You really could see everything from there, even in the rainy weather.
Unfortunately, since the weather was so darn nasty, my picture taking skills were not in full swing that afternoon, so I’m mostly just left with the memories of the bustling cobblestone streets, adorable dächle (little drains that run along the street in the old town – legend has it that if you fall into one, you’re fated to marry a Freiburger), and delicious käsespätzle.
A day definitely was not enough to explore Freiburg – let alone the Schwarzwald that surrounds it – so I’m sure that I’ll be back one day soon. Hopefully, the weather will be better next time.