We followed the Rick Steve’s walking tour of Freiburg this morning. At one point we were standing looking at a statue of a gargoyle with a goiter hanging from her neck that decorated a building on a narrow side street. Nearby there was another couple also looking up and quietly reading the same description from the Rick Steves guide book. This isn’t the first time something like that has happened. It’s a real demonstration of the reach of the Rick Steves influence. If I stood there all day I wonder how many people would come by and do what we did!
The gargoyle has a goiter because iodine deficiency was so common here during the Middle Ages that goiters were also very common.
Freiburg is a university town and has some other university towns as sister cities. They have mosaic coats of arms representing these towns in front of the new town hall on Rathausplatz. Madison, Wisconsin is one of the sister cities.
Freiburg is apparently known for its Bächle. They are little streams of water channeled through all the streets in town. They are fun to sail boats in,
decorate,
or just jump over.
Originally they were for fire control. The city has people whose job it is to clean the Bächles The water looks sparkling and almost good enough to drink. The Bächles are fed by the canal that runs through the town.
Everything in the city center except for the cathedral was pretty much destroyed in one World War II bombing raid November 27 1944.
The cathedral’s latticework steeple may have contributed to it not being destroyed.
The stained glass in the cathedral is from the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries and was stored away for safe keeping during World War II. Each window has a symbol representing the group that donated it. This one was given by the boot makers.
We ended our walk with sausage sandwiches from the market in the square.
We ate dinner at our hotel. It was all delicious. Although we are in a wine region we had to have beer with our dinner since this is our last night in Germany.
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