July 26 – One Step at a Time
Sunday’s in Europe are definitely a time for rest for stores and restaurants. Most everything is closed. Europeans seem to have a great work/life balance. Today, after checking out of our hotel in Mulhouse, we decided to head back to Freiburg in Germany. We were here when we were staying in Lahr but didn’t have time explore around so today was a great day to hope on a cable car and look around.
When Patrick lived in Lahr in the 80’s, if they wanted to have a treat (and it was a treat) of McDonald’s, they would have to drive to Freiburg as that was the closest one. This McDonalds was in an old-fashioned building and the outside has not changed. We got there around noon so a quick meal and then we went to explore.
First stop…Schlossbergturm (Castle Hill Tower). While even though it was only 1 km away, it was pretty much all up hill with about 200 steps straight up to the base of the tower. Leaving Tori and Sable on the ground, Patrick and I walked up another 153 steps to the top of the tower to look out over the city of Freiburg. The view was amazing and the wind was very cooling. Back down the 153 steps (as today was not a big hiking day, I wore flip flops!) and we made our way back down to city level. Letting the lazy ones take a funicular down to street level, Patrick and I did the final 100 or so steps walking.
Next stop, Freiburg Münster (a large cathedral) in the city centre. This was another place Patrick remembered from his time in Lahr. He remembered being able to climb the tower and looking down. Even as a non-catholic, you can not help but appreciate all the stain glass windows, architecture, etc. Walking through in silence and just being was impressive.
Heading back outside, we found the door to begin our trek up to the top of both the tower and to the belfry. Up first was 209 wide stone steps to the Türmerstube (Watchman’s Room) and here is where you had to pay to go farther up the tower. Next, 33 wooden steps up to the 19 bells in the belfry. We were there right before 3:00 so we stayed to wait for the bells to ring. It was amazing to hear the resonance of the bells after they were done chiming the hour. Back down to the Watchman’s Room, it was time to make our way to the main gallery…126 tight spiral steps that you made you hope you didn’t meet anyone coming down. From the Main Gallery there was one more set of stairs, 56 more steps to the bottom of the spiral. With a narrow walkway around the whole spiral, the views were amazing. Finally, it was time to make our way down. It was faster going down but you definitely had to make stops going this way too…they stairs became very hypnotic after a while 🙂 424 steps up and down and worth everyone for the view.
After hitting a couple souvenir shops in the square, we headed back to the car to make the trip to Selestat (our home for the next 4 nights). A quick pizza dinner, only place open other than fast food but was very tasty smoked salmon. We were back at the hotel to get ready for tomorrow…Europa Park!
Total steps today were 17,864 and as of tonight we are at 417,069 for the trip. According to Google, that would be around 318 km or approximately from Halifax to Mabou or Halifax to Summerside, PEI. Not bad for 4 weeks.
