Freiburg & Riquewihr

First up, I’m sitting here doing this blog while a full replay of the Hurricanes vs Brumbies game is being shown on TV.  Of course we can’t understand a thing the commentators are saying (except for the player and team names).  They get really passionate when the action kicks in. Entertaining! 🙂  Big crowd at the cake tin as well. Suddenly Wellington has rugby supporters.!  Where have they been hiding over the past 20 years??
Back to task…. Today we leave Germany for a week in the Alsace region of France.
With breakfast done we check out and wake Hermann.
Oh but first some late mail on the beers for JB from last night.


Off we go.  Hermann soon gets up to speed on the southern autobahns.  Lovn’ these open roads.  Everyone behaves.  Everyone keeps right unless passing. Everyone indicates on changing lanes.  All so orderly.  I guess it has to be at these speeds.

Except when Muzza comes along. Get outta my way.  Actually… one thing I can add is that I haven’t yet seen any road rage. None. Even when it’s deserved, people just chill and stay patient.

Wondering whether it’s worth visiting Titisee.  What would we see?

We park up in the underground car park at Freiburg’s old town area, and hit the streets.  The trams head through Martinstor.

Martinstor (aka Martin’s gate) on Kaiser-Joseph-Strasse, one of two surviving medieval gates in Freiburg, this one dates back to 1202.  It underwent a severe makeover in 1901 when the tower was heightened from 22 to 60 metres and a new roof construction was added (in the architectural style of the 15th century). The reason for this was that surrounding buildings were beginning to dwarf the original structure, so rather than demolish it they increased its size (and added a second arch to accommodate two way traffic). Sadly the building adjoining the tower has been occupied by the masters of crap fast food – McDonalds! So what did they do? They slapped a big ugly sign on the building! The city council of Freiburg could not keep the company from putting up the sign, but fortunately they were able to prevent the use of the usual golden arches in favour of more appropriate colouring.

Kath is standing here on the other side of Martinstor at the point where they used to burn witches!  There’s a related plaque on the wall (see below).

In 1536, a strong and persistent belief in witchcraft led to the city’s first witch-hunt. The need to find a scapegoat for calamities such as the Black Plague, which claimed 2,000 area residents in 1564 (25% of the city population), led to an escalation in witch-hunting (and burning) that reached its peak in 1599. Maybe they should’ve called this place ‘Fry’burg! Just sayin’. 🙂  Sorry, bad joke. Here at the Martinstor archway, this tablet marks the spot where the witch burnings were carried out. It commemorates three women, Marghareta Mößmer, Catharina Stadelmann and Anna Wolffart, who were executed in 1599. Crikey, with a name like ‘Wolffart’ she was looking for trouble!!  The plaque is titled “Witch-burning”, and names these women “beheaded and burned on 24 March 1599”. It says that the city of Freiburg honours the memory of all women who fell victim to the witch-hunts and talks of the suffering of innocent people and it being a reminder of tolerance and humanity.

Continuing up Kaiser-Joseph-Strasse.

We headed down Rathausgasse to Rathausplatz. There’s a hen’s party group doing what hen’s party groups do. Drink, giggle and dress funny.

Note the water channels along the side of the roads.  Freiburg has a system of gutters called Baechle that run throughout its centre. These Baechle were once used to provide water to fight fires and feed livestock and are constantly flowing with water diverted from the Dreisam River. Street vendors sell wooden boats for children to sail in the Baechle. You need to watch where you’re walking around here!

Rathaus art.

Just married. Now walk through the streets pulling this trolley!

The young son of one of the wedding party takes the opportunity to sail his boat in the Baechle. He’s loving it.

Also noticeable on the streets of Freiburg (and in fact all over Germany) are these little bronze plaques. These are monuments called Stolpersteines or “stumbling stones” that commemorate victims of the Holocaust. They are placed on the sidewalk in front of the victim’s residence during WWII.

Looking back to Martinstor. It’s Saturday and it’s busy.  It’s also a beautiful day to be out. There was some evidence of early rain but it’s gone now and temperatures are about 25C and rising.  Trivia: Freiburg (aka the “Jewel of the Black Forest”) is reputed to be both the warmest and the sunniest town in Germany (it holds the German ‘highest temperature’ record of 40.2C).

We head toward Munsterplatz, so named because of the massive the Freiburger Munster cathedral.  Kath considers buying a wooden boat (Bachleboot) to sail down the Baechle but they didn’t have her colour.

Into Munsterplatz and it’s as busy as. The market is humming.  I’d read that the farmers market is on until 1pm every day except Sunday. A flower vendor.

Fountain art. It’s always important to look up when wandering around.

Freiburger Munster art

The Freiburger Munster is a gothic style cathedral.  It’s construction started in 1200. It’s the only Gothic church tower in Germany that was completed in the Middle Ages (1330), and miraculously survived the WW2 bombing raids of November 1944, which destroyed all of the houses on the west and north side of Munsterplatz. The windows had been taken out of the spire at the time by church staff, so these suffered no damage. Post WW2 the locals were determined to restore Munsterplatz to its former glory, and this they’ve done this well!  We did a loop around the cathedral.

Market art.

Market vendor.

The impressive 14^th century building Historisches Kaufhaus.

Zooming in on ummm… ???

Ok… so what’s up with these dodgy guys and their dodgy outfits.



Freiburger Munster. It’s spire was surrounded by scaffolding (there’s always gonna be scaffolding somewhere!).

Cathedral art.

Market vendor.  JB – I asked him for a full written report on all of his vegetables and also asked for copies of growing plans, but he didn’t know who the hell you were, so wasn’t prepared to help. Sorry.

Fountain art.

Building art.

More cathedral art.  Note the gargoyle at lower right sticking his butt out.  He’s the only one game enough to do so. Nice work.  Click the photo to see him in  the larger version.

Walking along the Gerberau pedestrian walkway beside the Gewerbekanal (canal).  Eek there’s a croc down there!

Luckily he stayed still long enough for a close up.

Opposite is a brewery called Hausbrauerei Feierling.  It was time to get a drink so into their biergarten we went.  Our friendly waitress.

The Feierling biergarten.

The beers.

Very refreshing on a warm day.  Onwards down Gerberau.

We were now ready for a feed. I’d read about two places down Niemensstrasse so we went to check them out.  Passing one or two bikes on the way.

Niemensstrasse heads off to the right of this building.

Here they are.  We settled for the one on the right. Legere. We find a possy outside,

Beer for Kath.  No more beer for the driver!

Kath ordered this. Tasted nice as well. A kinda smoky bacon taste. It’s a Kasespatzle Spatz Lepfannchen mit Zwiebeln Schwarzwalder Schinken speck und Kase uberbacken. WTF! Basically it’s kinda like a macaroni cheese of sorts. Kath was raving about it

Nek minut… another Hen’s party comes by in a pedal powered booze machine. The music is playing, the girls are drinking and yahooing and pedaling away. Gold.

A girl arrives and asks if she can sit at our table.  This is Debbie. She’s from Basel in Switzerland and is in Freiburg completing her English exams (written and oral). She’s aiming to be a primary school teacher.  She was very friendly.  We had a real good chat and laugh. The sense of humour connected, which always makes conversation easy.

Before long it was time to move on. Main street art.

One last look at Kaiser-Joseph-Strasse.


Into the car. It was a tad slow as we left.  Car mirror art!

Very quickly we were at the Rhine River which is pretty much the border with France.  We stopped at the island half way across and parked up for a look around.  There was this gala / picnic thing going on so we took a look.

Pony rides and games of all descriptions etc. Hey… nice ass!

Colour!

A river boat parked up on the Rhine, with the German town of Breisach in the background.

We are now in the famous Alsace region of north-eastern France!
Trivia:  Alsace (and Lorraine to the north) have been of much interest to both France and Germany over the years. Germany crushed France in the Franco-German War of 1870-1871 (aka Franco-Prussian War). The Treaty of Frankfurt that followed saw Germany annex Alsace and half of Lorraine. This never sat well with France. The years from 1871 to 1914 were marked by an extremely unstable peace, since France’s determination to recover Alsace-Lorraine and Germany’s mounting imperialist ambitions kept the two nations constantly poised for conflict. Their mutual animosity proved to be the driving force behind the prolonged slaughter on the Western Front in World War I. France recovered these territories in 1919 however Germany took them back in 1940 during World War II, before France in prevailed in 1945. Phew, there’s been a lot of action here!!
We got into Riquewhir mid afternoon.  It’s a balmy 28C.  But there’s a snag.  The hotel wasn’t expecting us!!!  Turns out they hadn’t received (or maybe they did??) the updated dates from Booking.com. (We’d adjusted them by three days back in Nov last year!).  Deja vu from Lucerne in 2013.  They were very apologetic and set about finding alternative accommodation for the first night. Here is that accommodation. We’ll be here 1 night.

And this is the view from our room in this beautiful house that dates to 1600 and is built up against the original old city wall.

Ok it’s getting late so I’m going to dump a few pics from an afternoon stroll around Riquewhir (pronounced ‘Rick-fear’).

In the Le Dolder gate (aka Obertor).


Did some wine tasting here…



Almost got the spelling right! 🙂








Riquewihr wine is famous since the Middle Ages, with Riesling and Gewurztraminer the most popular, and Pinot Gris right behind them (with a bit of Pinot Noir thrown in as well). The wines produced here are markedly different from their counterparts in other parts of the world, in part due to the heavy German influence coupled with the mix of volcanic and limestone soils and the unique climate created by the Vosges Mountains. I guess we’ll just have to find out for ourselves. 🙂



Riquewihr is known for Reisling and other great wines produced in the village. Apparently the town today looks more or less as it did in the 16th century (except for the cars!). Historically, Riquewihr served as a Winzerdorf or “wine village” as a trading hub for Alsatian and German wine. The perfect home for Steph!   It was one of the few towns in the area not to be badly damaged during WW2, The town is surrounded by its medieval fortifications and is overlooked by a castle from the same period that is today a museum. The village is a member of an association called ‘Les Plus Beaux Villages de France’ (The most beautiful villages of France).



Ok I never thought I’d hop on one of those funny little street trains that you get around Europe, but we did, because it took you up along a trail above town for great view across the vines.  Via the headsets we also got a really good summary of the history of the town and the evolution of wine production.  Actually it was well worth it. €7ea.  Merci!!

A shot from outside Le Dolder gate as we drove by.

Toot toot. It’s Thomas.  Back row of back carriage for us thanks.

Through the vines to Riquewhir.

The beautiful town of Riquewhir.






Building balcony art.


One more drink at this joint before we retire to our room.  Besides, Riquewhir virtually closes down early evening!  It’s busy during the day with tourists, and quiet over night, just because!

Last photo.

And there another day passes. Tip: It’s always good to break a trip from A to B with a stop at X.  And today X = Freiburg.  Make the most of your day!  🙂
Bonne nuit!!