The Black Forest, it´s a piece of cake

After seven trains and most of our Wednesday we finally made it to the little German town of Freiburg, situated in the south of the Black Forest region. It´s an awesome little University town and our hostel is at the bottom of a vineyard valley with the pine tree forests just beyond that.

Germany continues to be one of our favourite countries to visit for the main reason that everyone is so friendly, and things are relatively cheap (beer especially - how about 70euro cents / NZ$1.40 for a pint sized German brew from the supermarket!)

Yesterday was an absolute scorcher of a day. We think it must have reached 30 degrees. We wandered down the river that runs through Freiburg until we reached the border of the town, realising we must´ve misunderstood the directions to a basin in the river, before finding a really cool water park with massive lounge out lawn areas. Cooling off in the pool was bliss.

Last night we tried the Freiburg nightlife but were a little disappointed, but we´re hoping tonight might be a little better. Infact we´ve read up on some posters about town for some ´Biere & Beats´ gig on tonight. It sounds like an outdoor music fest but we´ll need a local to fill us in on that today.

The only slight bummer over the past few days has been that three of us have been travelling with colds, which just doesn´t seem right in the middle of summer. Here´s some snaps from Brugges (Belgium), Luxembourg and so far in Freiburg.

Brugges





Luxembourg City













Freiburg











(This last one needs explaining - in Freiburg they have these small streams running from the river through the streets...so after a few beers the the boat race challenge was on. In the paper contest Mike won hands down, but I squared it at 1-1 in the Burger King cup contest thanks to a straw and a napkin for a sail. Eat your heart out Dean Barker)