Today I would be meeting with some people from the area that my brother's partner had kindly put me in touch with. We were to head to Shauinsland, a 1284m elevation accessed by Germany's longest cable car.
I met with Sylvia and Ludwig at Freiburg main station, and caught a tram, and then a bus out of town to the Shauinslandbahn station. We chatted amiably. I had a grasp of German that I would describe as... basic. The same was true of their English! Although I think that their English was probably better than my German was. That being said - I was able to speak and be understood with what I did know, and when Sylvia dropped into German for a while, I understood a pleasing amount of what she said!
The cable car ascends steeply and rapidly, and you are rewarded with great views of Freiburg below.
The summit still has some residual winter snow, although in Freiburg it had been a positively balmy 15 degrees. The views, of course, were fantastic. You can see to the Vosges mountain range in France; the Rhine (although this was obscured by distant fog) the depths of the black forest, and the Swiss alps.
There are hiking trails at the top, and so we took a stroll, firstly to the highest point with a viewing platform / tower (unfortunately that was shut, although the views were still great) then afterwards we walked 1km or so to Engländerdenkmal - a monument to several English boyscouts who became lost & died during a blizzard on the peak in the 30s.
After that, we stopped at the restaurant at the cable car station for some coffee and cake - very tasty! Then returned to Freiburg. There was a brief panic where I thought I had lost my ticket for the cable car. Sylvia spoke to the operator though - and he let me through anyway. I did feel like an oaf. Of course I found my ticket as soon as the car started it's journey back down. Then another blunder on the bus - I didn't have any cash to buy a ticket - and busses did not take card! Sylvia had some cash so stepped up again and bought a ticket for me.
Oh dear.
Back in town I thanked Sylvia and Ludvig - giving them a small gift of some chocolates I had brought with me. Hopefully it assuaged some of my earlier ticketing missteps!
In the evening I had a positively colossal wrap & chips at O'kellys - which was a highly reviewed Irish themed sports pub. It was mega mega busy. I was aware Freiburg were playing in the bundesliga tomorrow - and had half a mind to watch it there, but couldn't imagine how they'd cope if that's how busy it was - not on a game day!
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