One of the last places we went in Freiburg before we caught our train back to Strasbourg was the town hall square, the
Rathausplatz. Here you see the new town hall in the foreground (white) and the old town hall in the background (red).
The old town hall now houses the tourist information office among other things.
Freiburg was under the protection of the Habsburgs for a couple hundred years, and some evidence of that heritage remains. Here you see the Imperial double eagle painted on the old town hall:
A small, second-floor gallery connects the two town halls, both formed by combining multiple older buildings.
And here's a reverse shot of the first, with most of the new town hall visible.
A highly-decorated window of the new town hall:
One of the really unusual aspects of Freiburg are its
Bächle, which are little streams of water flowing quite swiftly in small channels at the edge of the street throughout the
Altstadt. The story goes that they were first installed in medieval times to get water easily throughout the city. Children often walk and play in them, and Sophie was no exception.
The water was a bit cold at first, and she was a bit hesitant to walk because the rocks in the little stream bed were slippery. (
Das Bächle is a local diminutive of
der Bach, which means stream, brook, or creek; the standard German diminutive is
das Bächlein)
But she loves fountains and other water, so she quickly began enjoying herself.
A local proverb says that whoever steps in a
Bächle will return to Freiburg. Sophie seemed to take this proverb to heart, adding her hands for good measure.
We also got ice cream from a shop on the
Rathausplatz. Sophie loves it, so we've developed the trick that she can only have it in a German-speaking city. So far, so good--Sophie's had ice cream four times: once in Kehl, twice in Vienna, and once in Freiburg.
Here she's pretending to be a monster with her cone, strawberry of course:
It takes her a little while, but she eats the whole cone and won't share more than a little tiny lick.
After the cone, we had only about an hour to get to the train station. We wandered back slowly. Here's one more shot of a typical Freiburg street. Erasmus lived in the red building when he was in Freiburg (for a few years around 1530):
On the
Augustinerplatz we happened upon a local hiphop group,
Gonzales la Familia, filming part of a new video:
Finally, we went to the
Gewerbebach, a small canal running through the
Altstadt from the nearby Dreisam river. The
Bächle flow into the
Gewerbebach. And what else would you find in such an urban canal but a concrete crocodile, of course:
On the other side of the
Gewerbebach was a toy store. This sign was posted on both corners of the building:
It says, "This is not a dog potty, children play here." And as if to prove the sign true, we worked in just a little more play for Sophie before jumping on the train. Here Sophie has been "caught" by a butterfly net by Mindy. You can barely make out the pole in the photo:
The old town hall now houses the tourist information office among other things.
Freiburg was under the protection of the Habsburgs for a couple hundred years, and some evidence of that heritage remains. Here you see the Imperial double eagle painted on the old town hall:
A small, second-floor gallery connects the two town halls, both formed by combining multiple older buildings.
And here's a reverse shot of the first, with most of the new town hall visible.
A highly-decorated window of the new town hall:
One of the really unusual aspects of Freiburg are its Bächle, which are little streams of water flowing quite swiftly in small channels at the edge of the street throughout the Altstadt. The story goes that they were first installed in medieval times to get water easily throughout the city. Children often walk and play in them, and Sophie was no exception.
The water was a bit cold at first, and she was a bit hesitant to walk because the rocks in the little stream bed were slippery. (Das Bächle is a local diminutive of der Bach, which means stream, brook, or creek; the standard German diminutive is das Bächlein)
But she loves fountains and other water, so she quickly began enjoying herself.
A local proverb says that whoever steps in a Bächle will return to Freiburg. Sophie seemed to take this proverb to heart, adding her hands for good measure.
We also got ice cream from a shop on the Rathausplatz. Sophie loves it, so we've developed the trick that she can only have it in a German-speaking city. So far, so good--Sophie's had ice cream four times: once in Kehl, twice in Vienna, and once in Freiburg.
Here she's pretending to be a monster with her cone, strawberry of course:
It takes her a little while, but she eats the whole cone and won't share more than a little tiny lick.
After the cone, we had only about an hour to get to the train station. We wandered back slowly. Here's one more shot of a typical Freiburg street. Erasmus lived in the red building when he was in Freiburg (for a few years around 1530):
On the Augustinerplatz we happened upon a local hiphop group, Gonzales la Familia, filming part of a new video:
Finally, we went to the Gewerbebach, a small canal running through the Altstadt from the nearby Dreisam river. The Bächle flow into the Gewerbebach. And what else would you find in such an urban canal but a concrete crocodile, of course:
On the other side of the Gewerbebach was a toy store. This sign was posted on both corners of the building:
It says, "This is not a dog potty, children play here." And as if to prove the sign true, we worked in just a little more play for Sophie before jumping on the train. Here Sophie has been "caught" by a butterfly net by Mindy. You can barely make out the pole in the photo:
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