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FoggyLogTue May 2nd 2006 21:21:11: The sightseeing of Germany continues...This time down in Freiburg which is in the corner near France and Switzerland either in the middle, or on the edge, of the Black Forest (depending on who you talk to). Also thanks to the bank holiday I had a whole 3 days to explorer :-) On Saturday I explorered the old town which was quite nice. Lots of shops and quaint little streets, along with the "main attraction" the Munster (aka the big church). The streets of Freiburg are unusual as they have little streams running down them. I'm not quite sure whether these where for drinking water or for sewerage, however they were definately for keeping the place cool. Therefore as you are wandering around you have to be careful not to get your feet wet. On a number of occasions I came close thanks to it being quite busy. The other thing to watch out for are the trams (which seem quite common in cities, as Munich had them as well). The whole place is pedestrianised so you can be wandering down the middle of the road only to have a tram sneak up behind you.
Right next to Freiburg there is a big hill known as schlossberg (castle hill). It's more or less a park for the citizens as it's covered in paths and everyone seems to go there for a jog (or some "Nordic Walking"). Right on top of the hill is a new tower which give some great view across the city towards France and also across the Black Forest.
On Sunday it went to explorer Schauinland which is basically a mountain near Freiburg. Despite it having a perfectly good cable car I decided to walk up which was quite fun. Took about 2 hours. I then wandered around the top, visiting the restaurant for lunch and the viewing tower (the Germans seem to like putting them on the top of their mountains). Then I got the cable car back down to the car. 
I have to say the Black Forest has some fantastic roads... When I got back to the car I promptly drove back up to the top which was really fun - lots of tight switch backs etc. Just the kind of road Top Gear would take a car for a test drive. I then went down the other side to a mini theme park and had a few rides on the Rodelbahn (tabogan thingy down the mountain). I've been wanting to go on one of them for ages, and it didn't disapoint :-) On Monday I went back up to Schauinland and visited the Bergwerks (Mine). I couldn't go on Sunday as it didn't open until the 1st of May. Therefore I was on the first tour of the year. I would recomend visiting as well. Despite the tour being entirely in German I did understand some of it and had fun in the mine. As it was unadapted for tourism it was just how it use to be: cramped, wet and dark. We were given gloves, a hard hat and a miners torch. I assume the (German) leaflet said "bring a water proof and decent shoes". I had the shoes, but only a fleece. Therefore I kept having to avoid the continual flow of drips from the ceiling! The tour involved climbing down numerous old rusty ladders and walking along lots of passageways. Apparently there were some passages nearly 1.5km long that were dug at a rate of 5cm per day. Also in those days they used glorified candles and the guide then went on to demonstrate what happened if a drip landed on the candle. I'm glad torches are easy to switch on as it was very dark! Anyway after that tour I went and hired myself a downhill scooter - something across between a mountain bike and a city scooter thingy which had front suspension and disk brakes... :-D I then proceeded to roll back down the mountain very quickly - I think it was 600m in 20 minutes. Highly recomended. After that I took the scenic route "home". On the way I visited Todtnau and found an even bigger Rodelbahn. I did look fun, however I decided not to have a go seeing as I'd already been on the other one (twice) and I had a 3 hour drive home and it was getting late. Shame they don't have things like this in England!
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