July 30 –
Today France wasn’t wet but it was closed! We opted for the hotel breakfast this time to get a change from croissants and coffee – the kids really wanted the coco pops! Afterwards, we wandered about in the partly cloudy morning to try to visit the few shops we were interested in that weren’t open when we visited earlier. Unfortunately, it was Monday morning and apparently, shops in general don’t open on Monday or if they do, they don’t open until after lunch! Needless to say Skelectrix cars and Asterix models weren’t important enough to keep us hanging around so we packed up and headed out. I am convinced that the only reason it didn’t rain is because we were leaving the country!
An hour later we found ourselves in Denzlingen, a small town on the edge of the Black Forest. This was a change of plans for us as we were originally supposed to go to Munich and the reservation was hastily made on line two days ago. They weren’t quite ready for us so we drove into Freiburg about 10 km away to spend the afternoon in the glorious sunshine. We opted for the easy cafeteria-in-the-department store lunch (I got more vegetables – yeah!) and then wandered about the town. I had visited Freiburg one day in early December with my friends Julie and Christine to go to the Christmas markets. The irony is that we had planned to go to Strasbourg but couldn’t because France was closed – okay, there was a train strike and we just couldn’t get there! Now here was my family escaping Strasbourg to get to Freiburg!
We wandered about the farmer’s market on the Munsterplatz before going into the munster itself. Guess what – we saw German nuns! We are becoming quite the cathedral experts this trip and enjoyed wandering around this one as well; for those counting, I lit candle number 7 today. Then it was back into the sunshine to walk around the picturesque town and see what the shops had to offer. Jewelry for me was on the agenda today – ask me to show you my new necklaces! – as well as beer at a cafe and gelato while sitting by a fountain in the sun. When we’d had all the lovely weather and quaint scenery we could take for one afternoon, we headed back to the hotel.
Our rooms were ready and our delightful hosts showed us up. We chatted about life in the US versus Germany for nearly an hour before succumbing to the tummy grumbles so it was time to head out for some dinner. We ventured into the next town Glottertal for dinner at the SchlossMuhle Gasthof – what a meal! you can say all you want about French cuisine but this dinner was probably the best we’ve had so far – especially given the fact that it was one of the cheapest! Gillian had her kinderschnitzel, Frank had some beef in an onion gravy, I had smoked pork with potato salad and Duncan had some gulash with homemade spaetzel! It may not sound fancy but it was fantastic! Afterwards, we were too full to do much of anything except come home and prepare for tomorrow’s hiking!
/san/
[Pedometer: 21, 954 or about 10.5 miles in two different countries!]
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