Germany Day 7 – Foodie Friday in France

I didn’t sleep too well last night but thankfully Kevin is feeling better. Around 8.30am we headed around the corner to have breakfast. It’s the hotel restaurant but accessed from a different side of the block. There was a lovely selection of food again, almost the same as what we’ve been offered everywhere. But today I was adventurous (for me) and tried a different tea :-).

I wonder if I’ll be sick of bread and cheese by the end of the trip? I highly doubt it. I also had a boiled egg and the little choc chip muffin was one of the best I’ve ever had.

We met Simone at 9am and headed off for a walking tour of Freiburg. The town was much quieter this morning. It was also quite a bit colder.

It’s a lovely town but not quite like Rothenburg or even Gengenbach, the Cathedral is incredible though.

Only the cathedral and one home survived WWII, though amazingly it was bombed by the Germans, not the Allies.

Just before we went inside to have a look I had a phone call from Christy, who was home from Sports camp. She’d had a wonderful time but was tired because her and her new friends stayed up talking all night. She was especially proud of having tried some new food at every meal and hitting the target at archery.

Some more photos of Freiburg…

Yep, we did buy some of this German chocolate. As you will see it turned out to be a day all about the food.

One of the things I really love about Germany is how many people ride bikes, even older people.

The markets were on this morning so we had a wander through them. I was sad I was still full from breakfast because I would love to have bought something here.

And look at all the flowers. So cheap too.

I had a bit of a problem with my camera this morning but it seems it was just the battery. Not sure if it’s faulty or just didn’t charge properly. But at least we didn’t have to buy a new camera!
We went back to the hotel and got the car, which the staff park in a small garage beside the hotel. Then it was off for a day trip to France. Still seems so wrong to say that as we can drive to NO countries from Australia and even to drive to a different State (beside Canberra) takes almost a day!

Guess how long it took us? It took just 30 minutes to drive to the Alsace region.

Our first stop of the day was Riquewihr.

We got to sample some cheeses. It amazed us that don’t have to be refrigerated.

And, of course, we had to buy some macaroons to have later.

It was a rather overcast day so I don’t think the photos really capture how lovely this town was. Like Rothenberg, it was hard to believe it was all real.

There were still lots of Easter decorations in all the shop windows, which was lovely to see.

We bought some kougelhopf for later and set off for the next town.

Kaysersberg is another gorgeous town on the Wine Road.

We had lunch in this amazing cafe.

We were seated a large table with two other people, which Simone explained is very common in France.

And I spotted this…

Yep, right in the cafe was our first Golden of the day. We couldn’t believe it. We also saw another one walk past while we were in there.

Lunch was a cheese & mushroom tart/thin pizza. I can’t recall the correct French name but it was wonderful.

Kevin had rosti – which wasn’t at all what I had expected – it was more like a really fancy potato bake. But it was really good too.

After lunch we headed to our last town of the day, which I believe was Turckheim. This was a VERY cute little town.

And check out this storks nest. How amazing is that?

Of course, we had to have some crepes while in France.

Kevin and I shared a plain one with sugar. And it was indeed delicious. This was the first type of takeaway food we’ve enjoyed here as mostly the French & Germans sit or stand still to enjoy their food or coffee.

We headed back to Germany and Simone, knowing how much I love flowers, insisted that we stop so I could cut my own tulips.

This was so fun. And nothing like we can do in Australia. You just pay for what you cut.

I just cut two to enjoy for the next 2 nights.

Then it was back to Freiburg where we dropped Simone off at the train station. She was kind enough to take about 20mins on the phone (and running up and down the street) to try and work out where we had to return the car on Sunday. We would never have worked it out without her and would no doubt have missed our train. We said our farewells, having thoroughly loved our time with Simone.

Then it was back to the hotel. This time we got told off by an old guy for driving through the pedestrian zone but he was okay once we explained we were going to our hotel.

We dropped off the car and went for a walk around town, stopping at great shop we’d seen that morning. Here I finally bought my cuckoo clock (and a smaller one for each of the girls). They are made nearby and will be shipped from the maker back to Australia.

Once again we struggled to find somewhere for a light dinner. We went into a department store and I happened to notice some shopping carts on the floor below – turned out to be a supermarket. Which was perfect. Kevin got some sushi and I got a salad, which we ate back in our room. After which we enjoyed the krugelhopfs, which were like a muffin but much lighter.

Do you want to see all the food we collected today? Luckily most of it will keep for some time. I’m going back to sugar free when I get home but am definitely indulging while I’m here :-).

Tomorrow : Theme park fun at Europa Park