A slice of Black Forest

Sorry to leave Switzerland, we drove on to Freiburg, in the south west corner of Germany, close to the French border and is where Alissa has been living and working as an Au Pair, for the last 7 months. She looks after a small boy and a preteen girl, and it was really interesting for me to see how different her life was like as an Au Pair, and how lucky I’ve been with my family.

We took a tram into the city centre and strolled around for a while, before finally settling on a small restaurant near the Rathaus. For the first time since arriving in Germany, I managed to make my first big mistake when ordering dinner. I don’t know a lot of German, but I’m good with names of food, and so was perhaps a little too cocky for my own good. The waiter approached the table, and asked if we wanted drinks, no problem. I then asked for two menus. No problem. Then the waiter brought out a noodle soup, alarm bells didn’t ring as I thought it was complimentary and perhaps a Schwarzwald (Black Forest) thing.

Oh so smug, before the plates come out

Then a plate of beetroot slices came out, which is when I kindly asked the waiter if we could still have the menu’s because we hadn’t ordered our mains yet. The man looked at me, like I’d lost the plot “ das ist das Menü”. So I made the internationally recognised hand gesture of opening a book, that’s when he said ‘Ahh die Speisekarte?’, that’s when the penny dropped and I realised I had ordered the days 3 course menu option complete with Ox knuckles and sauerkraut, or something equally revolting. As quick as anything, I apologised profusely “Es tut mir Leid” and luckily for both of us it was still early enough to change our orders. But never did it occur to me asking for two menus, would be a problem – lesson learned.

Freiburg is a pretty cool city; sadly a lot of it was heavily damaged during World War II when in 1940 German planes mistakenly dropped close to 60 bombs, near the centre. Still there is a lot of old style charm about the place, including an unusual system of gutters (called Bächle) that run throughout its centre. These Bächle, once used to provide water to fight fires and feed livestock, and are constantly flowing with water diverted from a nearby river. The Bächle were never used for sewage, even in the Middle Ages, and it is said that if you accidentally step in a Bächle, you will marry a Freiburger.

Alissa had a train pass which lets her take another passenger for free on Sundays, so we decided to go deep into the Black Forest, to Titisee. After Alissa finally escaped from a man trying to sell her a cuckoo clock, we found a small café hidden away from the large tourist crowds, but still right on the lake front, where I got to indulge again in my beloved spätzle, and I couldn’t leave without trying a slice of a Black Forest cake. Blessed with perfect weather again, we hired a little electric boat and took it out for a spin on the lake, and a spot of people-watching. That night Stephanie, Alissa’s host, cooked a roast dinner, which is just what I needed. The next day sorry to say good bye to Alissa, and a little bit ‘road tripped’ out I drove back home to Wiesbaden.

This road trip was about several things, exploring some new parts of Europe, crossing some things off the ‘dream’ list, and meeting new people - and boy did I do that. Although driving 2,500 kms in a few days is pretty exhausting, I had such a fantastic time and it reminded me of just how spoilt rotten I am sometimes. The people that I have met and have been surrounded by this last year, have been immeasurably kind to me, and will make it so much harder for me to leave in a few weeks time. To make it even more difficult for me, when I returned to Wiesbaden it was as if someone had let off a green bomb while I was gone, and the entire city had woken up and exploded in full bloom. Everything was lush, vibrant and glowing in all its spring glory. Since I’ve been home, the sun has been out in full force, a whole two months earlier than usually, and the city is loving it.