Day 20 - Freiburg im Breisgau

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OK. So after a lazy start this morning I rang home to find out what was going on with the parcel. After a while we finally got through to someone who rang the driver who delivered the parcel. This happened whilst I was wlking in the Black Forest. Anyway it turned out that the Mrs Mann who signed for the parcel didn't work at the hostel and was standing in front of the desk. She was with 2 other ladies neither of whom spoke any German, Mrs Mann spoke a small amount. The hostel can find no records of a Mrs Mann staying in the hostel. The parcel most definately is not behind the counter so my only chance is to hope it turns up in one of the bins. They will be checked tomorrow once people have checked out.

Anyway to today and what I did. I tried at first to hire a bike from the hostel but they had none that I thought would be suitable for what I wanted to do. I then went to another bike rental company from whom I could rent a mountain bike for 30 euros a day. I needed a 100 euro deposit and a form of photo ID to do this. I decided it wasn't worth it. So instead I went for a walk in the woods above the hostel. All very beautiful what with the sun dappling through the canopy of the pine trees and biords singing away. I spent 4 and a half to 5 hours walking up for a long way in search of a viewpoint that never materialised. I saw one sign saying it was 3.2 km in one direction. After walking about 2km I then saw another sign that the viewpoint didn't appear on. Oh well, I continued walking up in the hopes of finding one. At about half 5 I decided it was time to head home as I wasn't entirely sure where abouts I was and how long it would take to get back to the hostel.

I took the first turning down hill I saw and decended quite steeply until I reached another path with another downhill opposite (which I took). At the bottom of that path there was a sign andit said that there was a view point 1.4 km away (unfortunately in the oppposite direction to where I actually wanted to go). I decided to go and see it. I walked about half a km when I came across a couple of benches overlooking Freiburg below me. I took some photos and then moved on only to come across a hotel. I couldn't see the path after that so I gave up on that viewpoint, turned around and headed back to the hostel. After walking downhill some more I reached the suburbs of Freiburg. I walked through them in what I hoped was the right direction until I found a road that was on my rather limited map of the city centre. The map only extended about 5km total from the centre I reckon. Anyway I finally made it back to the hostel footsore and very weary.

Tomorrow, I am thinking about hiring a road bike from the hostel for 5 euros and heading to a lake that is marked on a cycling map I bought from the tourist info centre.

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