Samedi le 6 decembre- Fribourg / Freiburg

Fribourg – Freiburg whichever way you want to spell and pronounce it! The day was cold and miserable – pouring and the wind chilled you to the bone. Nev unfortunately was still unwell but we loaded him up with pills and off we went. Nevertheless we made it to the bus, Hermione found her friend and Seph sat with her friend as well. Just over 1 hour into the journey and we stopped for a toilet break. In the meantime we were introduced to the Directrices son who spent a year in Whakatane learning English. The man behind us was listening and then spoke to us for the rest of the journey. Arnold – is originally Dutch but shifted to France 12 years ago with his Dutch wife. He can speak 6 different languages – Dutch, German, French, English, Italian and Spanish! He is an organic farmer producing free range eggs and cereals. Very interesting man! As we got near the German border he asked if we had our passports – which we did! But as it happens we just drove straight on through. Not sure if this happens all the time or not. Very disappointing to think you pass through and cross the Rhine river and you are in another country without even a stamp in the passport!
When we arrived, just over 2 hours travelling, in Freiburg (the Black Forest precinct) there were many buses (10-15) all arrived for the Marche de Noel – The Xmas Markets. Town was busy and naturally everything had changed – no longer French but German signs, street names, language being spoken. I felt a bit out of my comfort zone for a moment or two. However, it did make me realise how much French I do know and can understand being spoken.
Immediately I went into the far reaches of my brain to try and remember something from my 3 years of German at High School – yes I even passed School certificate in it!
I could easily remember the numbers, greetings, please and thank you etc.. I however didn’t know –‘How much?’ which would have come in useful. I also had difficulty remembering the colours for some reason. I did remember though that the ‘rathaus’ is the town hall – not that this was particularly useful!
The first market we came across was the fresh produce and I always find it incredibly interesting to wander around and look at the fruits and veges etc on sale. There were many stalls where they were using the pine leaves etc to make wreaths for Xmas. Mistletoe was for sale and I actually had never seen it before in real life or at least I don’t think I had.
We found the cathedral – another piece of beautiful architecture but we didn’t spend long there. A service was in progress and we sat and listened to the German priest for a while. After this we strolled through little lanes that connect one street to another and looked around the old centre of town. We happened to go past a hat shop where I finally spotted exactly the hat I was looking for – I had been searching since we went to Paris. This hat is angora and very snugly – I really am not a hat person but it is mighty cold some days and this was great yesterday against the cold wind.

On we went to the markets, how beautifully they were decorated – on the outside of the little wooden huts they were covered in fresh pine(?) fronds all over and they just looked so festive. Lights and decorations gave a great ambience. Many of the stalls are food stalls – as in here in Besancon- selling ‘vin chaud’ hot wine and drink. Lots of Bratwurst stalls and of course other traditional sausages etc.
We went into the information centre – located in the ‘rathaus platze’! The girl there told us of a traditional German restaurant for lunch –so off we trekked. The place itself was very deceiving, as many places are, with not really any frontage except a small sign and a door. You never know what you will get when you open the door, but inside was a thriving and surprisingly large restaurant. We had to wait a few minutes for a table and then OMG! The menu – eekkk!!! All I could make out was ‘schnitzel’! In the end our waitress, older and stern, realised after the second visit that we couldn’t decide and she huffed and puffed and went away sending back a young waitress who spoke some English and could describe some dishes to us. We all went for the traditional schnitzel, the girls came with chips and salad ( really a lot like home) and ours came with ‘spatzle’, which is a short pasta in sauce. Nothing to look at and was pretty bland! It might have helped if it was really hot but luke warm didn’t do it for me. I am pleased however we did make the effort to go to a traditional restaurant; even to people watch was interesting. Watching the different plates of food coming out and trying to guess what it was kept me amused. The meals here also came out with little bread rolls and the salad is served separately.

After this we found more markets that were not quite as nice although they were all handcrafts but just not for me. Then we happened upon the oldest pub in Germany – it has been running as a pub since 1120!!

Unfortunately we couldn’t have an ale as they were busy setting it up for a big function that evening. It was very interesting to look at and all the light holders had been individually carved and had different figures on top. Pretty cool!

We continued back to the markets as I really wanted to find some gifts to send home and something for us as a memento…try as hard as I could nothing appealed! By 4:30 it was getting darker and by 5:00 everything was all lit up. The town was decorated in a beautiful fashion, there were people busking around every corner – many different music styles and instruments. One man had a variety of stuffed toys to help in his orchestra! The kids found this amusing, they did somehow seem all choreographed and it sounded fine!
We tried some ‘spiegel’ and then time to walk and catch the bus at 7:00pm. We met up with Arnold and his group near the bus at the ice rink that they had set up in the square – it did remind me of movies about northern hemisphere Xmas with them going skating and walking through all the lights and everyone all ‘rugged up’. We had the traditional German “Gluhwein” another variant of hot wine, before embarking. Arnold talked to us all the way home about lots of interesting things. Home 9:30!