I had set the alarm but was awake in plenty of time to switch it off and by 6:45 I was in the bathroom getting ready for the day. We had to be ready for breakfast at 7:45 so that we would be ready for the morning excursion at 8:45. With breakfast over, we returned to the room and loaded our backpacks: camera, water, currency, battery packs, portable keyboard and stand… everything I could think of that may be needed.
At 8:45 we gathered and were ushered to the coach. With German efficiency, we left the car park on the dot of 9:00. And made our way to the city of Freiburg. Our guide was a Glaswegian, called Annabelle, who had lived here for 22 years having met her husband here some 26 years ago. We have experienced various tour guides over the years, but she by far the best. She was articulate, interesting, and knew about architecture, geology, wine, history, geography and anything else we could question her about. She was incredibly impressive.
We were deposited at a coach park near the centre of the city and split into two groups. We were the group lucky enough to have Annabelle as our guide, Jane and Trevor were in the other group. We made our way along the quaint streets towards the Cathedral. Along the route, we were treated to a continuous lesson on the history, the architecture and even the city ordinances. One interesting feature of the city is the Bächle; these are fed by the Dreisam River, and water runnels flow through countless narrow streets in Freiburg’s Old Town. In all, there are about 9 miles of these rills. As early as the 12th century, when the city was founded, the flat paved gutters supplied Freiburg with water for drinking, fighting fires and other uses. Now they are more decorative than essential.
Our first stop was in the square outside the Cathedral. This would usually be thronging with market stalls and locals, but as today is May Day, it is a holiday so we had the square to ourselves.
Annabelle proceeded to give us a lecture on the history and architecture of the Cathedral before taking us to the ornately carved entrance where she explained all the iconography of the carvings. It was fascinating. We could return to visit the inside of the cathedral in our own time, but there was more of the city that she wanted us to see.
Our next stop was the Snail District, or "Schneckenvorstadt," in Freiburg, Germany, which refers to the narrow streets between the Martinstor and Schwabentor gates, also known as "Klein Venedig" or Little Venice. The area was once home to trade craftsmen and is believed to be named for the many small spiral staircases in the workers' homes and shops. These staircases resemble snail shells, hence the name. It was quite charming and it would have been nice to have more time to explore.
We then looped back past Schwabentor Gate (one of the 5 original gates to the city) and back to the market square by the cathedral. We had a bit of free time before returning to the coach so we had a quick visit to the cathedral before we all met up again and headed for the bus back to the ship.
We stopped for lunch and chatted with Jane and Trevor. Clearly, their guide wasn’t as good as Annabelle, but they enjoyed Freiburg - which we found to be an absolutely charming city.
After lunch, back at the boat, we decided to go into Breisach (the town where the boat is moored). Its name is Celtic and means breakwater. The root Breis can also be found in the French word briser meaning to break. The hill on which Breisach came into existence was — at least when there was a flood — in the middle of the Rhine until the Rhine was straightened in the 19th century, thus breaking its surge.
Jane and Diane took the shuttle bus, while Trevor and I walked into the town and climbed to the top where Stephanmunster (St Stephen’s Cathedral)dominates the whole area. Unfortunately, the girls were dropped at the market square and it took a little while before we were all back as a group. (The climb to St Stephen’s Cathedral would have been too much for Di). Trevor and I had a look around the cathedral and then went down to catch up with Jane and Di and sat down in the baking sunshine to enjoy a Weissbier.
Having watched the world go by for a while we returned to the pick-up point to catch the shuttle back to the boat. The girls took the shuttle, while Trevor and I walked back.
During the evening, we met in the speciality restaurant for dinner. We had a Crab Tian starter followed by a medallion of Angus beef. It was, as expected, superb. Leaving the restaurant the Saganauts headed for the lounge, but knowing we had an early start in the morning, and another full day, we left them to it and went back to our cabin for an early night.
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