Freiburg, Monday October 13

We’re catching the blog right up to today. It’s another relatively short one, and tomorrow is moving day for us so we don’t know how much time we’re going to have available then, or what the Internet facilities might be at our next stop.

Today we decided to spend the day in Germany. We had heard nice things about the city of Freiburg, just across the Rhine, so we thought it would be fun to take things in from that side of the river. It would be an opportunity for compare and contrast with our Alsatian experience.

One compare that came out pretty much the same for both sides of the river is the long, wide views of the Rhine valley, bordered in the distance on both sides by hills—Les Vosges on the French side, and the Schwartzwald (Black Forest) in Germany. Contrast is that the road signs on the French side seemed more complete and easy to follow than the German ones. Architecture and food were pretty similar in both places.

Freiburg was indeed a nice place. We parked in the lowest level of a subterranean garage, checked our orientation on a large map sign, and headed in the direction of a church steeple, figuring that it would indicate an interesting part of town. It did. There was a big market going on, but first we homed in on a restaurant, the Goldener Engel (Golden Angel) for lunch. Link to their website. The food was distinctly German but on the other hand pretty much the same as we had been eating in Alsace for the past two weeks. Bruce had a venison stew with spaetzels, not that different from the meal he had in Strasbourg last week but with the addition of the very traditional red current sauce that customarily accompanies game in Germany. Sue Anne enjoyed her Weisswurst, potatoes, and onions. In keeping with the restaurant’s name, angel figures looked down from the ceiling beams throughout the place.

Then it was time to wander around the market. Here’s the view from the front of the restaurant, and then a more detailed view of the marvelous building in the background. It appears to have once been a market or store of some kind.

Then a quick walk through a souvenir shop, again for compare and contrast. The wall of cuckoo clocks was very distinctly German. And there were few if any storks.

We didn’t have anybody in mind for this child’s shirt, but we got a good chuckle out of its packaging.

Then Sue Anne got to work with her sketchpad.

A street market surrounded the cathedral. The church door is here in the background. I started the drawing with the red stone column in the center. It had faces carved into four sides. Then I drew bits and pieces of the flower stall at the right. There were a lot of beautiful autumn wreaths that I know are meant to be placed on graves. You can see them near the base of the column. I once unknowingly purchased one for its decorative value when we lived in England, and had a hard time answering the seller’s question, “Where is your grave?”

Then a hand with a large ice cream cone passed right in front of my face. So that image became part of my rather odd composition and mixture of objects. I’m sure we’ve all had this sort of thing happen with photographs.

For odd drawing #2, here is a dramatically dressed tour guide, gesticulating wildly in an effort to develop an interest in history in her audience of teenagers. She is not succeeding.

 

 And odd drawing #3 for the day. I drew three squashes that had been scratched into while they were growing. The opened area of the flesh heals into a legible scar. So we have vegetables with messages on them: a Heartfelt Welcome, a Thank You, and an All Is Well.

Above the squashes, I drew a sign, a bag and a container. I think there may be a spelling error in the sign, either mine or theirs. But I know what it means to say: make your own sauerkraut. Or possibly buy our homemade sauerkraut. I passed on those options, even though I do enjoy sauerkraut. I just don’t think the guys at customs would let it pass.

 Then we headed back to France, kind of feeling our way out of town since the road signs weren’t too very complete. There was one scary moment when a detour sign (Umleitung) almost sent us down a streetcar track, but we recovered before committing ourselves.

Our objective was to stop at a memorial to the Maginot Line that we had passed on our way out of France earlier in the day. We did succeed in locating it. Although the museum part (inside the fortified structure) wasn’t open today, there was a good bit to be seen on the grounds, and the signs told the story.

The Maginot Line was built after World War I to keep the Germans from getting back into France. Unfortunately for the French the Germans didn’t play fair. Instead of a full frontal assault, they simply conquered neutral Belgium first and then came down into France behind the Maginot Line fortifications.

 This is the back side of the casemate, the fortified structure.

 This would greet you at the main doorway. It would certainly help repel those pesky salesmen.

This greeting was intended for the Germans.

There were also outdoor exhibits of armor and artillery, mostly American in origin and provided to the French for their use. And here’s a section of a Bailey Bridge, that amazingly versatile piece of engineering, designed by the British and quickly adopted by the US as well. It could be configured to take just about any load across just about any gap. Determine the required length and load capacity, look it up in your handy pocket-sized Field Manual, and connect up the required sections. This section is configured as a ‘double-single’, two trusses on a side stacked one high. They can go up to ‘triple-triple’.

The information on the sign is quite amazing. It says that this was part of a bridge that crossed the Rhine and was in service for military traffic through 1961, then opened to civilian use for another 25 years before finally being retired.

Bruce dedicates this piece of the blog to two Army colleagues who were proud members of the Corps of Engineers, Major (later Colonel) Charles Eastburn and Lieutenant Rick Osterberg, the Best Man at our wedding.

And that’s our quick trip to Germany. Tomorrow we check out of our great quarters in Alsace and head to Dijon, where Sue Anne spent her junior year of college and Bruce often came to visit from his Army station in Frankfurt. Two nights in Dijon, and then it’s back to Paris for the flight home.