Freiburg (Germany)

As Freiburg is still very fresh in the mind after our visit there last weekend (actually a long weekend- Thursday to Monday) it seemed appropriate to write about it.

Preconceptions

Well, oddly enough I'd never visited any part of Germany before so I didn't have that many preconceptions apart from some vague images whirling around in my head of people drinking vast amounts of beer at long tables and scoffing Black Forest ...
...Getting There

Freiburg is about an hour and a half's flight (plus just under an hour's bus journey) from the airports near London, which really isn't far at all. We found that a good way of getting there is to fly to Basel, which is on the French-Swiss border, and then get a special airport bus into Freiburg. The bus journey takes about 55 minutes. Be warned- the bus fare is about €32 per person for a return, which is a lot considering ... more

As Freiburg is still very fresh in the mind after our visit there last weekend (actually a long weekend- Thursday to Monday) it seemed appropriate to write about it.

Preconceptions

Well, oddly enough I'd never visited any part of Germany before so I didn't have that many preconceptions apart from some vague images whirling around in my head of people drinking vast amounts of beer at long tables and scoffing Black Forest Gateau (particularly as Freiburg is in the far south of Germany and near the Black Forest). There was plenty of the former but not much of the latter- however a friend of ours with whom we were meeting up directed me to a restaurant that apparently served some of the best Black Forest Gateau- and it was beyond delicious.

Getting There

Freiburg is about an hour and a half's flight (plus just under an hour's bus journey) from the airports near London, which really isn't far at all. We found that a good way of getting there is to fly to Basel, which is on the French-Swiss border, and then get a special airport bus into Freiburg. The bus journey takes about 55 minutes. Be warned- the bus fare is about €32 per person for a return, which is a lot considering the relatively short distance. However we had no complaints beyond that- the bus was on time and comfortable.

The Hotel

The hotel we stayed at was the Inter-City Freiburg, which is about as near to the train station as you can get without actually being on the railway tracks. With the main tram station and plenty of bus links nearby, it goes without saying that this was all extremely convenient. The hotel itself is a three-star, functional and clean without too many frills- in other words, perfect for our budget and pleasant to stay in, and about as good as a three-star hotel will be.

Shopping

With various trinket shops and stores stuffed with ornaments and odd works of art dotted about the winding streets and cobbled alleyways, Freiburg is excellent for those seeking strange gifts for people.

There is also a good little convenience store located in the basement level of the shopping mall next to the hotel, from which we managed to purchase a bizarre range of beer-and-soft-drink shandies, chocolates and odd liqueurs.

Restaurants and Bars

There are far too many to count, and most serve a bewildering variety of beers. The food is more than satisfactory- I wouldn't say it's on a par with Spanish or Portuguese cuisine (for a start most meat dishes appear to be variations on pork steak with various accompaniments) but what they have is perfectly good- and much better than the standard of most British restaurants. The prices- at the restaurants we visited, anyway- were a little cheaper than I expected- about €8 for a good-sized main meal and about €3 for a pint of beer (actually they serve it in 500ml glasses, not pints, but let's face it, most pubs in England like to serve you 500ml of beer with 68ml of pointless froth added to make it a "full" pint).

Also the various bratwurst (German sausage) vendors in the market square seem to serve up some very nice sausages in buns. Again this isn't the sort of thing I would even consider eating in the UK, but a long line of locals impatiently waiting for their food means it can't be that bad.

The Cathedral

The cathedral is well worth a visit- the fact that it's free to enter is a bonus. The stained glass is superb and although it appears to be in a continuous state of renovation, this is sadly the case with almost every cathedral these days, and it in no way detracts from the beauty of the place inside (outside it looks impressive but rather forbidding- not to mention a forest of scaffolding at the top- but walk inside and it's a different experience).

The Forest

Take the "Green" tram line (shown as number 2 on the tram line maps) southbound, and if you stay on the tram to the end there are some pleasant forest walks to be had- the whole forest is so vast that if you're feeling adventurous you can go and, well, be adventurous, or if you just fancy a half-hour stroll, you can do that as well and then hop back onto the tram and make your way back into town.

Transport

Considering it's not really a very big city at all, Freiburg's transport system is astonishingly good- but then in a way I suspected it would be. Although it doesn't have an underground tube system, it doesn't really need one- there are plenty of buses, and the trams, which go pretty much everywhere in the city you'd want to go, are clean, punctual and frequent- everything that's missing in British public transport.

If you want to use Freiburg as a base for further exploration, well apart from the forest which I've already mentioned, you can go much further afield by train- Berlin or Zurich for example- and I even saw one train which was going to Amsterdam.

Anything bad about the place?

On the Sunday there were a worrying number of football hooligans about the place, clutching beers and being generally shouty, but luckily we didn't see anything particularly bad happen (which is not to say that it didn't, but we weren't near it if it did).

But apart from that, I have no complaints about the city. Although not particularly cheap, it's not as expensive as you might think- and it combines cleanliness and character. Definitely worth going to- maybe not for more than a week unless you plan to explore further afield, but certainly for a single week or a long weekend (you can probably find a week's worth of things to do here if you plan and prepare your visit). 

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