Greetings from Freiburg, Germany! We have been doing a whole lot of criss-crossing of countries the last few days, which has really put our humble language skills to the test. From Chamonix we went to German-speaking Bern for two nights, then drove through Germany, ending up in Colmar, France. We spent one night there, and now we are back across the German border in Freiburg. The day after tomorrow we'll return again to France. It's (almost) too bad there are no more border controls in Europe - we would be getting a lot of passport stamps!
Updated map with the latest destinations in red.
We have so much to catch up on and are getting more behind by the day, so I'll try to make this short and sweet!
5/14-16: More Chamonix
In Chamonix I really enjoyed relaxing and working at the hotel while David was off on his adventures! Besides his terrifying cable car ride up the mountain, he also took a funicular ride to the Mer de Glace ("Sea of Ice"), which is one of Chamonix's major attractions. It's a glacier that runs through the valley and is pretty impressive. The sun didn't come out for him, but he still got some great photos.
On our last full day in Chamonix we went on an hour-long hike up to another glacier, Les Bossons. The hike through the woods was beautiful, although quite steep. As we got closer to the top, the altitude made me feel even more out of shape than I am!
But we were rewarded with a great view of the glacier, which was quite impressive. David liked it better than the Mer de Glace because we could get closer to this one. I don't think I've ever seen a glacier before. Even in the cloudy weather it was brilliantly blue in places, and there were several crazy people climbing on it.
One afternoon while driving into town we had another new experience - a random breathalyser test! David loved it - he'd never done it before and thought it was terribly interesting. Plus he hadn't had any alcohol in several days, so no worries there! A policeman pointed for us (and several other cars) to pull over at a roundabout, then came up to the window and gave us a spiel in French, which seemed to explain its justification under French law. David parlez-vous-anglais?-ed him, and the policeman laughed and answered, "A leetle." He asked to see a driver's license, then David had to blow into the thingy for seven seconds. He registered 0.0, and we were off. I think this is a great idea - police shouldn't have to wait for drunk drivers to swerve or hit someone before catching them!
And finally, another major highlight of Chamonix was our re-introduction to the wonders of the French bakery. Our eyes were like saucers as we gazed upon the croissants, the breads, the quiches, the tarts, the chocolate cakes, the custards.... There are some nice things to be had in German and Italian bakeries, but nothing compares to France when it comes to making magic with flour, butter and sugar.
Our favorite bakery was called Aux Petits Gourmands, which we visited more than once!
Sat 5/17- Sun 5/18: Bern, Switzerland
The drive from Chamonix to Bern was mostly through the Alps and spectacular. We spent just two nights in Bern and it was too short for both of us. It rained most of the time we were there, but we still really enjoyed it. But our hotel is only affordable on weekends, so we had little choice but to leave on Monday morning. The hotel (Hotel Allegro Kursaal) was as fantastic as we remembered, especially the magnificent breakfast. It's an attraction in itself (for us, anyway) so it deserves several pictures:
Besides enjoying the hotel, our other main goal for Bern was to revisit our favorite rösti place, Restaurant Anker. This time we got to eat outside, which is a significant blessing because smoking is allowed (and popular) inside. The rösti was to die for, and die of, just as it was last time. I tried to implant all the flavors and textures in my memory, as I'm determined to re-create it as best I can back home! But unfortunately we didn't bring our cameras this time.
The second night we returned to the same place for an early dinner, but when we arrived at 5:30pm the kitchen had already closed. Apparently they close early on Sundays. We were so bummed, but it turned out for the best in the end, as we got to sample rösti somewhere else! We found a place called Le Mazot, which was full of local-looking old men (always a good sign).
In addition to many other delicious local specialties, they offer 14 varieties of rösti, making it very hard to choose. David went with my usual choice - ham, cheese and egg - and I tried something different: ham and mushroom in a tomato-based gravy. Both were absolutely delicious. And fortunately they offer a half-portion option, so I wasn't quite as sick afterwards! But the Anker is still our first love and favorite.
It was really nice having been to Bern before, as we didn't feel any pressure to take pictures of churches. We only revisited one of them, in fact - the big Gothic münster. The weather was cloudier than our Christmastime visit and it was closed by the time we got there, so it was mostly a bust photography-wise. But it was still nice to see it again. Mostly we just wandered around the city, checking out the shops and admiring the fountains that Bern is known for. It is a really pleasant city, the sort of place you could see living in.
David did more wandering than I did, and one evening he came upon a protest in a small area of town that apparently houses the city's illegal immigrants and ne'er-do-wells. He got to chat with some friendly policemen and watch the anti-riot trucks arrive (shown above). It's certainly not my idea of a pleasant evening, but he had a wonderful time and got to see a lesser-known side of the orderly capital city of Switzerland.
Mon 5/20: Black Forest, Germany
On Monday we drove almost directly north from Bern into Germany. The drive was spectacular and relaxed; such a wonderful change from Italy. The roads were smooth, the lanes were wider, the other drivers stayed in their lanes, and the scenery was beautiful.
We crossed the border into Germany at Basel, a city that sits right where the Swiss, French and German borders meet. On our previous trip to Switzerland, luggage issues at Heathrow required us to change our flight from Zurich to Basel. If I remember correctly, Basel's airport was in France and the train station was in Switzerland!
Less than a half-hour north of Basel we were in the Black Forest region of southwest Germany. We turned off the freeway to explore some of it and had such a wonderful time. For one thing, it was so great to be back in Germany. Seeing all the familiar stores and road signs felt like coming home.
And speaking of home, the winding roads through the Black Forest looked an awful lot like Oregon! It helped that it was raining steadily most of the time. There were logging sites and piles of firewood along the road, which smelled so good and familiar, and wispy clouds hovering between the hills.
There weren't many villages, but in the lower areas there were farms with inquisitive cows and goats.
We drove through a couple small towns, one of which was quite genteel and had some impressive thermal baths, like a smaller Baden Baden (further north in Germany) or Bath (England). It looked like a really relaxing place and maybe we'll return someday! Several signs also indicated the presence of ruins of a Roman bath, but we never did find it.
In another town (which also looked worthy of returning to) we stopped for a snack at a grocery store, which was such fun. We saw our favorite brands of frozen pizza we used to buy in Bonn, David got a salami sandwich on a crunchy roll (below) and I got a laugenstange, the delicious pretzel bread I made killer sandwiches with in Bonn.
Mon 5/20 - Tue 5/21: Colmar, France
Eventually we got back on a main highway and headed northwest into France. Our destination was Colmar, which is only about 20 minutes from the German border in the region of Alsace. We had originally planned to spend a few nights in Strasbourg, but nearly all the hotels seemed to be booked up for some reason, so I picked Colmar as our base for a day trip to Strasbourg.
Colmar is a pretty town of quaint streets lined with half-timbered houses, most of which are painted in bright colors instead of the usual white. Small canals run through the town, which once were used by tanners. One area is called "Little Venice" because of the canals and the little bridges that cross them. There is nothing about the town that is super spectacular and David especially wasn't impressed, but it is very pretty and pleasant.
Colmar also has a cathedral, which is impressive in size and has some interesting medieval sculptures and stained glass windows. It's made of red and yellow stone, which we never think looks that good. It didn't blow our socks off, but it was the first time we'd taken pictures of a cathedral in awhile!
We had a cheap but tasty meal at a fast-food place that makes fresh pasta with your choice of sauce, dished into a paper box like Chinese food. Seems like a great idea! This being France, made-to-order crepes were also on the menu.
After dinner we wandered into a huge grocery store called Monoprix. As always, we had a fantastic time checking out all the local products. We are going to enjoy grocery shopping in France!
The only downside to Colmar was our hotel, the Mercure Colmar Champ de Mars. It was ugly, run-down and dumpy, and our room smelled really funky. But it was clean and the bed was comfortable so we might have stuck it out had it not been for the high price they charged. We had reserved a room for three nights there but thankfully were able to cancel the last two. We found a nicer hotel for a cheaper price in the German city we'd been planning to make a day trip to anyway: Freiburg im Breisgau.
Tue 5/20-Thu 5/22: Freiburg, Germany
After a morning bakery visit for breakfast and a quick second stop at the cathedral for a few more photos, we made the easy 50-minute drive from Colmar to Freiburg. So we are now back in Germany, in the Novotel Freiburg am Konzerthaus, and we're very happy here.
Freiburg is another place we could see living in, even more so than Bern. It has a ton of great shops and cheap restaurants, shiny new trams, and a very nice Gothic cathedral. We'll be here for three nights; I'll post some pictures of the city tomorrow. (We've ditched our plans for a day trip to Strasbourg, with hopes we can stop by towards the end of our trip instead.) The sun hasn't come out once since we've been here, but maybe tomorrow....
Next: A Cottage in Burgundy!
When we leave Freiburg on Friday we'll drive three and a half hours into Burgundy, the region of France known for its wine and Romanesque churches. We'll be staying for nine nights in a rented cottage in the countryside! You can read about it and see pictures on their website. It is incredibly cheap and yet it has internet access (which hopefully works) and a kitchen and backyard with a little grill. The bed does look alarmingly small in the pictures, but we can deal with it for a short time. (As David cheerfully put it, "No problem, you can sleep on the floor!") From our base there, we'll drive through scenic wine country to visit abbeys and little parish churches. Hooray!