Even More Germany - and finally, introducing......Denmark!

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Fussen - Freiburg

Saturday 6th September (Day 12)

Today we jumped up for some breakfast and met Declan and Kirby upstairs in the common area. Not long afterwards, we parted ways, as we were checking out and they were staying on for another few days. We cruised out of Fussen in the mini and headed for the two local castles we had come to see. It was a quick 5 minute forest drive to Schwangau, and the first of the two castles in the area, Castle Hohenschwangau. On it’s own it would be considered incredibly impressive - built in neo-gothic style, it is where King Ludwig II of Bavaria spent his childhood. You can see more about it here (including pictures). When King Ludwig II was older (and half-crazy by this time), he had Castle Neuschwanstein built on the mountain opposite. There is no access to the castle by car - you have to park in car parks at the bottom and walk for about half an hour to get up there, or you can go up most of the way by horse & buggy. Although I’m sure we should have taken advantage of the opportunity, we didn’t feel inclined to climb the hill to see the castle - shame, I know, but I certainly enjoyed photographing it from the outside. We spent an hour or so just driving into the beautiful surrounding countryside, taking photos of the castle from different angles, admiring the scenery and just generally enjoying being outside in the sunshine. It really was quite a sight, and really relaxing and fun in the mini.

After a while we unfortunately had to say goodbye to Fussen and the castles, and we headed South out of town, bound for Freiburg. On the way we stopped at Lake Forggensee for some photos, where we made friends with some donkeys, had some paddles in the lake, watch people sailing, and admired the huge barn-sized German country houses. The lake waters were crystal clear although also quite cold.

Today we were heading back north for two nights in Freiburg, via the Black Forest. I had always wanted to visit the Black Forest area, ever since seeing a calendar of the huge German barn-type houses sitting in the snow, some years ago. Neither of us knew much about the area at all, so we were looking forward to a bit of an adventure to some completely unknown territory. It probably didn’t help that we didn’t really have a map. Well, that’s not true - we did have one. It was an A4 map that had Germany, Austria, Liechtenstein and Switzerland, all on one page. Obviously, there was only about 2 main road routes running through each country on a map of such small scale, and it didn’t really tell us anything we needed to know. We took it on as a bit of a challenge. The scenery was just as beautiful as always. We made it to the freeway and headed in the right direction. The drive was not terribly long that day (maybe 4 hours or so), and we eventually came to a point where we weren’t quite sure which direction to go in - we considered taking the freeway exit that would send us through a city that we could locate on the map, but as the freeway also continued straight ahead, we figured we would keep on going for a bit longer. There was very little signage actually telling us what was straight ahead on the motorway, and before we knew it we were driving though the longest road tunnel I have been in in my whole life. We must have driven for at least 10 or 15 minutes. Traffic was quite heavy at the time, but everyone was still travelling quickly. Eventually we make it out of the tunnel and past some booths (eveyone just kept on driving right past the booths, so we did too), and the next thing we know, we realise we’ve just entered a different European country. Goodbye Germany, hello……………somewhere else. We didn’t even know where we were. The freeway suddenly ended and we were in some back country lane with no other traffic in sight. Both Vaughan and I burst out laughing at the same time. Vaughan started telling me that I should be working out where we are from the map. All I could do was keep on laughing as I held the map up - he hadn’t seen the tiny scale on it until that point. We kept on driving and went through a few small towns. When we had to stop on the road because it was blocked by sheep, we both started to wonder if we were going to make it to Freiburg before dark! We stopped at an old railway station and sat in the car park for a while, looking at all the cars and signs around us. Eventually we worked out that we were most likely in Switzerland. The train station was on a main road, so we drove for a few more minutes until we found some major signage that could help. Excellent - we were mildly back on track, even if we had to detour south to Zurich (no complaints from either of us about that), to stay on the freeway that would eventually take us north again, and up to Freiburg. Partway there we realised that we could still turn off and get to Freiburg via the Black Forest (rather than travelling right around it). We made it to the turn off (there were in fact several, so we still didn’t have a completely clear picture of where we were going), but our choice proved to be useful, and we started to see more and more dark trees congregating on the hills on both sides of the car, until they were all you could see for miles. It was raining by this time, but it didn’t make the trip any less enjoyable. We were just surprised at how much we had fluked our way out of being lost. Nice! The forest suddenly broke open, and we suddenly realised how elevated the forest is - we were on a giant plateau, with trees as far as the eye could see, and the freeway heading down an incredibly long and steep incline before us. The landscape was really quite incredible and overwhelmingly massive.

We passed a few small towns which I had read about when looking up Freiburg, so we knew we were still heading in the right direction. We were really hoping that it wouldn’t continue to rain too much while we visited the area, as we had planned to really only use Freiburg as a base for visiting the small Black Forest towns. We got a bit lost in Freiburg while trying to find our hotel, partly because it was much further out of town than we had anticipated. We eventually found it, and although it was in a fairly industrial area, it had some convenient things nearby like McDonalds and a supermarket. We just did the easy dinner thing (McDonalds) as well as buying some things at the supermarket for breakfast the next morning. Then we actually managed to have a relaxing and early evening, and we were able to catch up again on a few emails, and watch some TV. Phew - after getting so lost and going so off-track, we had only arrived about an hour after we had planned to. What an awesome day!


Sunday 7th September (Day 13)

Today we got up after a bit of a sleep in, and ate our supermarket breakfast. We headed into the centre of Freiburg for a look around, but many of the shops were shut. The central square was quite nice, but it didn’t really have the impact because the weather was dull, everything was closed and there wasn’t really anyone around. We were really glad we were only using Freiburg as a base to visit the Black Forest, as we would have been disappointed otherwise. I am sure that Freiburg can be a lovely town if you know where to go. As we strolled around, we found the University area more busy and interesting. We walked up a hill near the main square and had a panoramic view of the city, which was quite pleasant. We ventured back down to the car and I bought a few tourist items in a store that was obviously open every day. From there we headed out of town, as it was started to rain again lightly, and we wanted to see if any surrounding Black Forest towns had better weather. Ur first stop was a town called Tittisee, which is a very popular resort town in the ski season. There was a lake here, with the poshest places built right up on the edge in some parts, but it was still very peaceful and surrounded by many trees. The central restaurant area looked as if it would be beautiful and exciting in the Winter time, all lit up, with lots of people around. The lake itself was very nice, with paddle boats and yachts for hire. The rain had stopped by the time we arrived, so we had a really great walk down by the water - the breeze was a bit cold however, so we just stayed for a few photos and then ventured on to our next destination.

Heading back out into the real countryside, we couldn’t help but notice just how steep and mountainous the area was - the mountain roads were much steeper, and people seemed to live on much more hilly terrain that we do in New Zealand. In saying that, the very hilly terrain was still covered in grass here, whereas we were used to seeing rocks. We constantly passed giant ski jumps in the middle of nowhere (Olympic-sized ones), as well as luge tracks. Sometimes the luge tracks had been converted into tracks to be used all year around, but I imagine that everything would have looked spectacular in Winter, surrounded by snow-covered trees. After passing quite a few luges we headed out of the hills for a short time, and I regretted no having a go on our way past. We made it to Triberg, where we saw the two (supposedly) largest current cuckoo clocks in the world - they were even working, and were both quite monstrous. One even had a water wheel attached to it. From here we drove through Schiltach where we pulled over to take some photos of the houses on the hillsides - it was difficult to capture the scale of everything. The hills really were quite steep, and these small towns built on the side were dwarfed constantly by the massive trees that surrounded them. Finally, just when I thought that all hope of luging was gone, we spotted one on the side of a hill! It was actually on a metal track (a bit like a roller coaster) rather than a concrete road, but we jumped at the chance, pulling in and grabbing a ticket for one ride. It was getting quite cold outside and we just wanted to give it a go. We took a cart each and headed for the track, waiting for the rope drive to pull us up. It got steeper as it went up until I was just about peeing my pants. Vaughan was in front looking perfectly fine - we eventually reached the top - what a view! We headed down the track, with Vaughan, forgetting you had to brake. I wasn’t too much of a ‘girl’ and gave it a good go. It was awesome, whizzing around the bends faster and faster. We reached the bottom much too soon and it was over. I thought in the end that the tow up the steep track was actually the scariest part. It was awesome that we had been able to do it, and just randomly stopped off on the roadside.

Eventually we began to head back to Freiburg, still taking our time through the Black Forest countryside as the sun began to set - beautiful! We made it back into the city and couldn’t decide what to do about dinner. We had a quick walk around the centre and there were a lot more people around that there had been earlier in the day. We wanted some dinner so just kind of started wandering, heading for one of the central areas where we knew there was fast food. On the way we happened to look down an alleyway and see a local pub that had its own microbrewery. We stopped in there for a local dinner and a local beer, which wasn’t too cheap, but it was pretty good and we enjoyed ourselves. The interior of the pub was set up around the microbrewery itself, so there were all kinds of nooks and crannies containing a few booths here and there, as well as several larger areas. You could see the beer being brewed while you sat, and we just relaxed there for a while before and after our meal, before heading back to the hotel. What an excellent day in the German outdoors!


Freiburg - Frankfurt - Copenhagen

Monday 8th September (Day 14)

Today we jumped up and headed back into the town centre for one last quick look around - now that the shops were open, the people were out, the University was open and everything seemed to have a bit more life compared to the original impression we had gained of the area. We double parked and found ourselves a popular University bakery where we grabbed a quick breakfast, before heading off for the Schauinsland summit, via the gondola. I had been researching for several days about where to find the gondola, as I had originally thought that the main station was near the town centre. However, after more investigation I discovered it was a pleasant 15-minute drive away, on the outskirts of the city. After being detoured by roadworks (a common German theme, it seemed, although at least it meant their roads were kept in good condition) we eventually made it. There was no one waiting and we were able to go up the hillside right away. It was much higher than I had an ticipated, and the ride took at least 15 minutes - at the top, the view was impressive. I was so please we went (and it was actually cheaper than we had first thought). We spent some time up the top, admiring the surrounding forest and the view of Freiburg below (and talking to the gondola cat) before finally venturing back down towards the bottom again. It was definitely the most impressive gondola-type ride we have both ever been of and the scale of everything was just amazing.

From there we headed off immediately out of town, back towards the north in time to return our rental car to the airport in Frankfurt and depart for Copenhagen, Denmark, in the evening. The ride of course, was just as enjoyable as all the others. Time seemed to pass quickly and we were at the airport before we knew it, sadly saying goodbye to the mini cooper we had grown so fond of (and given hell around the German countryside and on the autobahns)! Check in went smoothly, and later in the evening we jetted off for Copenhagen.

At the airport in Copenhagen we had to catch a train but found the local language (signage) incredibly hard to understand. Things are also not pronounced how we would expect them to be in the English language. Luckily we found that many people spoke English and we were able to catch a train towards the city centre, before changing to another train and heading towards the suburbs. We were staying at a small B&B on the outskirts, and weren’t really sure what to expect. The train station looked dark and remote, although once we were on the street we could see that we were deep in the suburbs and surrounded by lots of houses. It was dark but after a few minutes walk we were able to find the B&B. The host lady talked endlessly and was very friendly - she was very proud of the fact that apparently Danish people are the happiest in the world. The B&B was very functional, with free internet and Sky as well as a small kitchen area, so we were able to catch up on some emails and relax with a hot drink. We had arrived safely, and although Denmark seemed like quite a foreign country compared to what we had expected, we were looking forward to our time there. Before turning in for the night we took a quick walk up the road to the local shops (there were just a few) and found a very cheap pizza parlour, so we grabbed some dinner to take back with us. Tasty!

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Comments

[Kelly]

Danish People Happiest in the world
Wow! I can hardly wait to see photos from Denmark! Especially if you got Nielsen pictures lol! Hmm Danes are the happiest people in the world ja! Too funny :) No the english isn't pronounced the same it was hard to follow my grandpa sometimes.