Visiting
Freiburg by train through the Black Forest/Carlos Pueblo
There are
four scenic routes on the map of the German Rail Pass,
DB Bahn, 1.
Dresden to the border of Czech Republic on the
valley of
the River Elbe; 2. Stuttgart to Heidelberg on the Neckar
River
valley; 3. Mainz to Cologne on Rhine River valley; and 4.
Offenburg to
Singen and Singen to Freiburg through the Black
Forest of
southern Germany. I have been all four of them during
this trip in
Europe and more. I visited Singen and Freiburg briefly
at the final
train ride.
Before the
day break, I took an express train from Frankfurt to
Offenburg
passing through two famous city and one small. Mannheim
is large and
the concurrence of Rhine and Neckar, Rhine keeps on
north to
meet Main at Mainz. Baden-Baden is a small town of hot
spring for
beth which Obama has visited several times during his
tenure as US
President.
Starting at
Offenburg, the train goes southeastward to Singen, a
small industrial
town of 20,000. It is already in the heart of Black
Forest and
bordering with Switzerland, Zurich is not far away. There
is a pretty
Lake Constance. The original Rhine and Danube are started
from here,
Danube goes eastward while Rhine goes northward. I stopped
at the town
for a 10 Euro grocery shopping with the US credit card. A
lady was
curious and chatted with me.
I felt the
trees, mostly pines, were slender from the window view which
might be in
distance not as huge as I had viewed the Redwood in the
north
California and the Aspen in Colorado. I couldn’t wait till arriving
Freiburg, a
lovely city recommended by a German friend who I met in
Buenos
Aires, Argentina in 2015. Freiburg means free town in English is
a college
town as well. Albert Ludwig University is famous of the medical
center where
I regretted that I didn’t have a chance
to visit. I walked along
the popular
old town streets to the Historical Merchants’ Hall and a big
open market
which was almost at the end of daily business and still visitors
gathering.
It was very busy and lovely like all German cities.
I had passed
twice to a 1871 Victory Monument which was for that year’s
victory to
France and eventually united all Germany. I visited across Germany
and learnt a
lot of modern German history.
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