Thursday, October 18th - Volksmarch in the Freiburg.
Bob: We wanted to do the permanent Volksmarch in Freiburg, but I didn't want to drive so we walked over to the train station to take one of the regional electric trains down out of the Black Forest and into Freiburg. Normally, everything would have worked like (German) clockwork, but the locomotive drivers chose that morning to go out on strike, so the first train was cancelled. We walked a couple of kilometers along the shore of the Schluchsee to the end of the line at Seebrugg. It was more of a crossroads than a town, really, so when we saw that the train was sitting at the station while waiting for the next (on time) departure, we jumped at the chance to climb aboard, choose a nice seat on the upper deck, and comfortably wait for our departure. I enjoyed the train ride down to Freiburg very much. I wasn't driving so I could really watch the scenery pass by and the train was absolutely smooth and quiet so I could concentrate on it. The mountains and valleys of the central Black Forest region were surprisingly steep and very scenic. Between little towns the land seemed rather depopulated although that might have been misleading. Some of the houses were so remotely situated that you did wonder how they survived what must be rather severe winters. After wending our way through the mountains to the Titisee, our train descended into a rolling plain that led to Freiburg. Every flat space in the plain was being cultivated, and the towns were quite noticeably larger. Freiburg itself seemed to be a reasonably large city, and we wondered how we would find our way to the starting point for our walk which was at a shopping center on the edge of town somewhere. We couldn't find any official person to ask at the Freiburg Hauptbahnhof, but fortunately an elderly lady took pity on us and told us to take the street car line to Littweiler, and that was just the tip we needed. |
Monika: Another day, another Permanente Wanderweg. This time we wanted to walk in the biggest town in this region, Freiburg im Breisgau, to give it its official name. It sounded easy, take the train to Freiburg and the tram to our start point. The train left every hour at :40. We got there in plenty of time and other people congregated in the station, when a loudspeaker announcement told us that due to the strike by the train operators, the 9:40 train would not run, but the next one would. Among the people at the station was a group of junior high age boys with their leader. I heard one of the boys grumbling: "now we have to hike again; I am soooo tired of hiking". Ahh kids are kids, no matter in what language. We, however, since we like hiking and were cold just standing there, decided to walk along the Schluchsee to the next train stop up the line. It was about 2K to Seebrugg and walking did warm us and with the sun peeking out ever now and then it was a delightful walk. At Seebrugg there was nothing much to look at, so when the train rolled in about 15 minutes early, we climbed on board and claimed a nice window seat on the upper deck. We found out, that we had done the right thing, since the train filled up at every stop. The trip was fun, driving first along the Schluchsee, then the Titisee, and finally going down and out of the mountains to Freiburg. Schluchsee is at about 3000 feet and Freiburg at about 800 feet. Down there it was, of course, warmer. We tried to figure out what tram to take and looked for an information booth, but found only a map. I was muttering about wishing I could talk to someone, when a nice lady stopped and asked whether she could help. Well, we showed her the address for the start/finish and she directed us up the stairs to tram #1 going in the direction of Littweiler. As we were coming up the stairs, the tram was standing there, so we climbed aboard. The announcement for our stop, actually mentioned the shopping center where the start point was. |
Bob: I was hungry, so after picking up our start cards and instructions at the butcher shop in the REWE store in the shopping center, we had lunch before we set out on the walk. The walk instructions were the fanciest ones we had seen thus far: a map plus written instructions plus advertisements for local establishments were all printed on slick, glossy paper! The first part of the walk circled to the South around a very small lake, more like a large pond, called the Waldsee (Forest Lake). It was quite pretty, though, and Monika even caught sight of a great blue heron perched in the low branches of a tree. He stayed quite still as we walked by, so we were able to get some nice close ups of him before we continued on our walk. The walk route then turned North to cross the railroad tracks we had come into Freiburg on, and continued a few blocks into a Black Forest area. Once in the forest we had to climb "Heartbreak Hill" , which left us tired and breathless. Fortunately the trail then followed along a contour line as it wound back toward the center of town, so we could catch our breath and still have some very nice views of Freiburg spread out in the valley below us. For those far more energetic than we were, at "Canon Point" you can climb a gazillion steps straight up the side of the mountain to the top and climb even more steps to get to the top of a lookout tower. If you, Gentle Reader, ever do that, please take a panoramic picture and send me a copy! |
Monika: The start point was a butcher shop inside a grocery store. The Terminliste had given the wrong name for the store, but we just checked in the grocery store that was there, and there was the butcher shop. It was lunch time, and they seemed rather busy but still took the time to sell us the startcards and gave us the instructions. The instructions where a beautifully detailed map of the downtown area, a less detailed map of the start area and the typical German type instructions with 5 directions in one sentence. In addition, the club had marked the trail with nice square signs attached to trees, lampposts, or whatever. With all that, what can go wrong? Well, we managed to miss at least three turns within the first couple of miles. With help of the map and the GPS (not necessarily the instructions) we managed to get back on the right track each time, and after the third time, I decided to pay a lot closer attention to the markers, especially, when the instructions said: "just follow the signs". |
Bob: We stuck to the normal Volksmarch route and descended into downtown Freiburg, where we did a very rough figure 8 pattern to see all of the interesting parts of the city. Some of the churches and buildings did look old and quite charming, but much of the construction was quite new, I expect as a result of the Allied bombing in World War II which destroyed so many German cities. Still, it was nice to see that some of the old buildings had survived or possibly been restored. I particularly liked the enclosed dormers or enclosed balconies that jutted out over the street. Several of those where quite elaborately decorated and very pretty. We also saw some of the old and new University buildings along the route as well as the old and new Rathauses or City Halls, although I couldn't quite figure out which one was the old one and which one was the new one. We were really flagging by the end of the 12 kilometer walk, however, possibly because it was late in the afternoon or possibly because we had already walked a few kilometers that morning. In any case, we finally just focused on just getting back to the starting point, getting our books stamped, and taking the trolley back to the Hauptbahnhof to catch our train back to the Schluchsee. |
Monika: The second part of the walk was a climb partly uphill, the only hill within miles. It did afford us a nice view of the city. We then walked to the old town area. There the club was not allowed to put up signs, but the map was very detailed and excellently marked. I referred to the instructions only when I needed to know what to do at a checkpoint. But I was really getting tired and the charms of Freiburg just seemed to bypass me. I was glad, when the third checkpoint was past and it was a straight (well German straight) shot back to the start/finish. |
Bob: Back at the Schluchsee, of course, we still had to walk back through town to get to our pension, and we stopped off to buy some sesame pretzels and a sweet roll to round out our dinner. We didn't get back to our room until about 7 p.m., and boy were we glad to have dinner and put our feet up for the evening. We watched Joerg Pilawa moderate a different quiz show, and at the end of the show one of the players told the story of a very devote priest who was out walking on the moor one day and got stuck in quicksand. He had sunk to his knees when the local Fire Rescue Team came by and offered to pull him out. He refused, saying, "The Good God will save me." Later that day he had sunk to his waist and the Fire Rescue Team came by once again and offered to pull him out, but he again refused and said, "The Good God will save me." By that evening he had sunk up to his chin and the Fire Rescue Team came by one final time and pleaded with him that they should throw him a rope and pull him out of the quicksand. But although he could barely speak he said adamantly, "No, the Good God will rescue me." Later that night he sank all the way into the quicksand and, of course, drowned. When his soul went to Heaven he confronted God and complained, "All those years I was devoutly praying and serving you with all my strength, and you wouldn't even do anything to save me when I was stuck in the quicksand!" God replied, "Well, I sent the Fire Rescue Team three times, what more could I do?" And that is one more example of German humor. |
Monika: After getting our books stamped, I bought a sweater for 10 Euros that I had admired, when we were there earlier. So now we were ready to head back. At the station, we found out, we had to wait about 40 minutes for the next train. I spotted an Internet cafe across the street and we headed for it to check our email and let our loved ones know we were still alive and having a great time. The rest of the evening - trainride, evening meal, TV - was rather a blur, since the most important part for me was BED. |
| Prolog | Germany Map | Cruise Map | Epilog |
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