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Published: January 29th 2017
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Unique Architecture and Design
seen on a building as we wandered through Paris This week we didn’t spend much of it in Paris as we decided to take a train trip to Freiburg, Germany to see our close friends that we first met up with years ago when we lived in Botswana. It has been a friendship that has survived the years and distance so we wanted to take the time to see them again as we within a few hours of them by train.
Before our trip to Germany we decided it was time to finally get over to one of the most famous icons of Paris, the Eiffel Tower. We definitely got to see it from quite the angle when we first motored past it upon arrival in Paris a month ago, but now it was time to see it from land. Fortunately the day was a beautiful one giving us great weather for our walk over to a different part of the City.
Everyone recognizes this icon of Paris, but many do not know that when it was first built it was to be a temporary structure for the opening of the World’s Fair in 1900 taking 2 years to construct. That is quite a long time for a
“temporary “structure. Fortunately its 1,063 foot tall structure was built out of steel with each of its base sides being 410 feet. It was designed to withstand the power of the wind and even with that it sways about 3.5” at the top! Every 7 years the structure is painted with 60 tons of paint to help prevent the structure from rusting. Even so, you can see signs of small amounts of rust on it when looking at this magnificent piece of architecture. We did not wait in the enormous lines to go to the top of the Eiffel Tower but did have to go through the most complete security clearance we have seen since arriving in France. You had to go through the same type of detectors that you walk through at any airport just to be able to stand in the open area at the base of the Eiffel Tower. It was well worth doing as you had such a different perspective of the Tower.
We have heard that it is worth going up into the Eiffel Tower for the view so will have to come back to do that another time as it was a sunny
weekend day – will try again during the week and see if the crowds are less. In fact the best way to do this we were told is to book a particular day and time to go up. Only thing we wonder is we have seen the tower (or at least the lower parts of it) when there was heavy fog and you couldn’t even see half way up the tower. It would be a shame to be booked to go up for the view on a day like that. We will see what we will do, but for now we had a wonderful day outing taking in a new area of the City and then enjoying our walk back along the Seine.
One of the benefits of being in Europe is the ability to use public transportation. Our original plan was to walk to a nearby subway station to take a short trip to the train station that we needed to catch our train to Freiburg. In order to do this we needed to get up quite early in the AM. Unfortunately Janice slipped up and when setting the alarm did not check if it was AM or
PM. A big mistake indeed. When we awoke we realized that we would never have time to get to the train station by subway due to the schedule that early in the morning but never the less we rushed to get dressed, grabbed our luggage and just started running toward the street. Lucky for us there was a taxi sitting idle and when asked found he was not waiting for anyone else. We hopped in the taxi and he drove us to the train station. We knew it would be close; fortunately the train was still there waiting to take on passengers so we hopped on and found our seats. Definitely a way to get the adrenaline going in the morning (but one I would not suggest!) Next time we travel anywhere am sure the alarm clock will be checked multiple times to avoid this mistake.
Well, we settled into the seats on the train and enjoyed our journey through France and Germany. Less than 4 hours later we arrived in Freiburg and were greeted by the friendly smile of Angelika! We met up with Brigitta (Angelika’s sister) for breakfast and then a walk around the town. Each time
we come we see some new areas of this beautiful city of Freiburg. Of course with Bob one of the first stops had to be for a sausage so we hit up the market located on the square by the Freiburg Munster (church). Even though we have been to Freiburg before we hadn’t taken the time to explore the inside of this beautiful church. The last time we were here they were doing work on the tower and that was recently completed giving us a clear view this time. The church was built in 1200 with its tower standing 116 meters (380 feet) tall holding 16 bells (the oldest from 1258). It is the only Gothic church tower in Germany that was completed in the Middle Ages and fortunately survived the bombing raids of 1944. The stained glass windows were donated by the various trade guilds which can be recognized by the symbols of their trade on each.
Freiburg is located in the Black Forest area of Germany and as such we enjoy taking walks in this area. This time we went up into the mountains for a lovely (but cold) day of hiking. Unfortunately Bob wasn’t feeling good
that day so he missed out on the beautiful vistas so tried to capture some of it in the photos.
Gitti (Angelika’s sister Brigitta) has been singing in a choir for many years and fortunately for us on Saturday they put on a concert of Brahms Requiem. We must thank our good friend Achim for treating us to the tickets for a wonderful evening of music. It seems that each time we visit Freiburg we have been lucky enough to have some type of concert to attend – this one was definitely special with Gitti being a member of the choir.
Before we knew it our time with our friends was over and we headed back to Paris. The one good thing was this time we know that we will see them again in the spring as we invited them to stay with us on Tsamaya for a few days. That now gives us a deadline for getting our “garage” cleaned out so we have room for company. When you live on a boat you fill all the space available so it will be a good opportunity to clean house and re-organize.
Only one more
week before we leave Paris and head back to the US for the winter. Will try to fit in a few more places to visit before we do that – will keep you posted.
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