Strasbourg to Freiburg via Colmar (sort of)
Trip Start
May 18, 2009
1
13
47
Trip End
Jul 04, 2009
Where I stayed
Helen's Studentdorm at Freiburg University
Freiburg im Breisgau, Baden-Württemberg, Germany
Saturday, May 30, 2009
We visited the archaeological museum, which had quite an interesting special display of the evolution of burial practices in the region. The main section of the Archeological Museum was very detailed also - we only looked through a small section.
Going upstairs, we went into the main area for the Fine Arts museum, and were amazed at what we found. There were a range of old masters such as Titian, Tintoretto, El Greco, Rubens; plus a range of famous artists through to the 19th century. It was like visiting a famous gallery such as the Louvre but without the crowds - it was practically empty other than us and the staff.
We had wanted to visit just those 2 museums but had needed to buy a ticket for all 3, so we decided we might as well visit the last one - the Decorative Arts museum - as well. And were we pleased we did! This museum was a trip through the palace rooms, showing the original furniture and fittings, plus special rooms showing crockery, cutlery, books and so on from the time. It was nearly as ornate and grand as Versailles, and again was basically deserted.
We wandered back across town, buying another lovely fresh loaf from a Pauls plus a salmon sandwich from MonoPrix. We had a trouble-free trip out of Strasbourg (no roadworks!) onto the road to Colmar - a short detour we had decided to make in order to see what is supposed to be an attractive historic town. We were soon zipping along at 130km/h again, but in much heavier trafffic than we'd had on the previous road trip. We had a mixture of freeway-style roads and smaller roads but none on which we had to pay a toll this time.
We pulled off the main road to have lunch and found ourselves in a lovely little village. After following a winding road for a while, we found a nice green spot with a table for us to have our picnic lunch at. It was next to a narrow gravel road which was labelled as being for local traffic only; during lunch, the local traffic consisted of a man on a tractor and half a dozen people on bicycles, all of whom gave us a cheerful "bonjour" as they went past.
We arrived in Colmar and navigated our way to the Old Town without too much difficulty. There was a lot of traffic and we soon discovered that there was nowhere to park. After a while we gave up and decided we had seen enough from the car, so headed off to Freiburg - which was listed as the next major destination on all the signs, making it quite easy.
We weren't sure when we would reach the German border but it soon became obvious when we met the Rhine. We stopped to have a look at the river then realised that we were next to some huge locks which were busy with a range of vessels travelling upstream and down. There were a number of small motor boats and a passenger ferry going downstream, while in the adjacent lock there was a massive container-carrying ship going upstream. The ship rose up remarkably quickly as we watched, then after just a few minutes proceeded on its way upstream.
We proceeded on our way to Freiburg, stopping briefly to buy some white asparagus from a raodside stall. This is supposed to be a local speciality and is in season currently. The man was surprised when we said we only wanted 3 pieces, but they were massive! (We later saw much smaller ones, more like the diameter of ordinary green asparagus.)
Helen navigated us through Freiburg to her college (Studentdorm) and we unpacked into her room, which is quite spacious. We walked across to the local shops, where there are two supermarkets, Rewe and Aldi. We bought supplies from Rewe then went back and prepared roast lemon chicken and potatoes, which went down very well with a bottle of local wine.
One of Helen's house-mates had offered to lend us a mattress to put on Helen's floor, so we were pleased when he turned up later and we set ourselves up for the night - having a surprisingly good sleep.
