Gutentag from Deutschland! This is my second trip to Germany and I've had such an amazing, fun, hilarious, delicious and active visit with Liane this week. Four years ago, I had the chance to spend two weeks in Germany with Jess when she was studying at the University of Tubingen. We had a crazy/fun time (including a very memorable Christmas day together!)and I remember being anxious to return to Germany again some day, preferably in the spring, summer or fall-just no snow, please. Lucky me, here I am again- four years older, oh so much wiser and yet... still sleeping on the floor of a German dorm room. Huh? =)
The weather has been picture perfect in Germany this week- today, it was an ideal 75 degrees with light breeze. What a stellar day for a bike ride, we decided! Liane and I headed to the main train station in town and rented bikes for 5 hours (only 2 euros per hour!) and after reviewing the map with many, many options in terms of bike routes, we decided to head towards a location called "St. Barbara" which had the icon of a wine glass next to it. Hah. We figured it was a winery, but it turned out to be a family restaurant nestled in the hills with beer/wine/food. First of all- let me clarify "nestled in the hills". Our bike route started out really great... a flat, paved road along the river that runs through Freiburg. Next thing we knew, we were headed straight up a hill that resembled California Street between Grant and Stockton in San Francisco; aka: miserably steep. We ended up walking our bikes up the monstrous incline and each curve we came around proved to have more uphill challenge ahead for us. Awesome. After about a mile, we finally started seeing signs for St. Barbara and pushed on through- moral of the story? Promise me a cold glass of wine at the end of something, and there's almost nothing I won't do. Once we arrived at adorable little German oasis, we opted for beer (far more refreshing than wine, no?), took pictures with the view to prove our accomplishment and headed back downhill to find more paths and... well, beer.
After St. Barbara, we decided to keep heading South along the Kirchzartener Straube, destination: the little town of Kirschzarten. The bike path looked like something out of a German Tourist Ad- most of it was lined with grassy fields full of daisies with an occasional wooden bridge over a quiet little stream. One field we found had two big mountains behind it; it looked just like the one Julie Andrews runs through in Sound of Music. What choice did we have, but to stop and take some self-timer photos? When we arrived in Kirschzarten, we picked a table in the shade at a bustling little cafe in the main square and chowed down on schnitzel, grilled potatoes, salad and Banananweizen. Banananweizen = hefeweizen with banana puree, a local specialty. A-mazing/highly recommend it.
After a full day of exploring the German countryside via bike, we took our sun-kissed faces, sore thighs and banana beer buzz and made the 14km journey back "home" to Freiburg. I had such a fantastic time biking with a good friend, getting lost and stopping at scenic points along the route. A new goal of mine is to head back here one day to do full bike tour through Germany-- who's in?
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