oh boy, i done it now. gotta post for two busy days. i'm gonna post the photos seperately, i don`t like the way it lays out with the text, and don't know how to alter that. plus i took some 35mm photos and i'll get them back tomorrow morning.
yesterday, wednesday, started out like a few mornings here. cloudy, threat of rain..didn't look too good. and i had a horrible night..slept about 3 hours. i was up at sunrise, waiting for the day. actually had to wait to do anything since everything was still closed. at 7 i went out to the local bakery, then for some cigs and coffee. went to the local starbucks! there are 2 in town. was ok...just more expensive, if that's possible.
we saw that the weather was getting better, so we decied to go to basel. it's only 45min away!. gisi let me drive bötchen, the fiat. that's her name...onto the autobahn we went. it was after rush hour and there wasn't too much traffic, so we could let her rip. soon we were cruising at 150-160 kmph, about 95, 100 mph. it felt faster in the small car and could have gone a little faster, but we kept catching up to pockets of slower cars. it was quite fun though. i haven't driven a true small sports car since my sister liz' triumph spitfire, 38 years ago. and the road surfaces are excellent.
so before you could say gewürztraminer, we were in basel. except gisi forgot to tell me to bring my passport, so we approched the border anxiously. they just waved us through!
basel is on the rhine, so we made our way to the center of town, usually the oldest most pictaresque part of these cities, and to the local big church. cuz theres always a big platz (plaza) and a lot of things happening. we found a park near the river, and as it was 1pm, we decided to go down and eat our picnic lunch by the water. by this time the day was gorgeous. found a place to sit and eat, took some pix and relaxed a while. we then walked to the münsterplatz, where there is a really, really old protestant church, st. jakob...started in 900 something. it was quite beautiful, but with out the ornamentation of the catholic churches..relatively speaking. the architecture was beautiful though, and there were many different areas to explore in the building. the basement level was the oldest remaining original section. apparently in 1300 something there was an earthquake and most of the upper portion had to be rebuilt. as you have read in this blog before, we are always at a church. they seem to be the best remaining examples of the period they were built, and it doesn't hurt that they are spiritual places. it's a good way to start an excursion, giving thanks for the good fortune we have to be able to see these things. the churches are really the soul of europe for me, in many ways.
we then proceeded to the old center of the city. it was really commercial with all the luxury shops and such, in all these old buildings. more glitzy than freiburg, but still really beautiful and historic. we stopped in a local department store to buy some film. i ended up buying some swiss souvenirs for aidan, jill and baby joel.
we then came to another town sqaure, where there were vendors selling local foods, flowers, vegtables and stuff. headed back towards the river and walked through some great old neighborhoods, watched the cable guided small ferry boats cross from one side to the other, took a lot of pix. gisi said there are a lot of pharmaceutical companies in basel, so a lot of germans from freiburg and the surrounding area work there. also it is situated on the border of both germany and france, so it's kind of the tri-state area.
we walked back to the church and went out to the back where a small plaza overlooks the rhine and took in the views some more. then we headed back to the car and started back to freiburg. i got to drive back too..great...on the autobahn trying to get over 160, but too much traffic again. oh well...another time.
we got back home and chilled for a while, then i made potato pancakes with the leftover mashed from the night before. had them with a salad...delish. as if we didn't walk enough, we then went for a walk through freiburg again...theres always something new to see, always another ice cream shop to indulge! i was hoping with all the walking and the lack of sleep the night before, i would have a restful night. we got home and listend to some music, then to bed by 1. sleep don't fail me now.
ok it wasn't too bad a night..woke up about 6, went to the bakery then fell out for a few more hours. thank god. awoke to bright sunshine..it will be great weather today. mid 80's, no clouds. where shall we go? we talked about going up the mountains again, then maybe colmar in france...but strasbourg is only 80 km away. off to strasbourg. and i get the pleasure of driving bötchen again!
this time north on el autobahn, top down. we got out by 11am, again missing the morning rush. had some really good stretches of open road, but damn, still couldn't get up over 160 before there was a truck or car impeding my progress for a personal best record. on some stretches, audis and bmws were passing me like lightning, only to find them in front of me a few kliks down the road.
so that took about an hour, soon passing over the rhine again, this time into france. the french don't care who they let into the country. again, to the city center, which in this case is an island surrounded by the river ill. we parked by the main train station and went in to use their restrooms. i got to se the tgv, the high speed train we will be taking to paris on tuesday next. interesting station. an old building, but the front is enclosed in a modern soaring curved glass curtain wall. the plaza outside looked as if it had been recently renovated, the trees were still very small. we sat beside a carosel and had some lunch in the shade. it was getting pretty hot. after our alfresco lunch, we headed towards the cathedral of notre dame. strasbourg is really pretty. it was once the center of europe, having been host to the romans, germans, french, germans, french...so there is a nice mixture of architectural styles, easily read influences. crossing over a small bridge over the ill, we were in the center. we walked a few really beautiful blocks...wait for the pix. we approached a large church, but it wasn't the cathedral. a few more blocks, past some ancient government buildings we soon saw the single ornate spire above us. as we walked into the church square, we saw the magnificent cathedrel. a really ornate structre...i mean really ornate. there was some scaffolding up on one side, they seem to be continually restoring these churches thank god. we entered the cathedral, there were a lot of fellow turistas doing the same. a catholic church, we see the gold ornamentation again inside. really cavernous. we stopped in a pew to pray a few minutes, then explored the rest. the one very unique feature of this church is the two astrological clocks. the one large one, you'll see in the pix. now, what is an astrological clock? i have no freakin idea, since we missed the 12:30 pay to view film on the origins. btw, at some altars you have to put money in the offering box in order to light the altar. gotta love them catholics! you`'ll see the lit altar in the photos.
we also lit a candle (only a half euro for a small one, one euro for a large).
[i'll have three candle, 2 large, an altar and a clock please. oui, monsiuer, that'll be 6 euros s´il vous plait. no we don't take american express, but visa will do just fine. and for a limited time, if you buy one 10 euro blessing you get the second for half price. and that's not all!!! we are running a one day special on excorsisms...today is you're lucky day....just 100 euro and 3 pints of blood, two if you're blood is blue.]
they always have to spoil it! anyway...we saw there was a boat tour around the island. i love boat tours, a really good way to get the scale and sense of the place. (i highly recommend the circle line tour in nyc, for tourista and natives) it was just around the corner from the cathedral. so we walked over, bought two tix..7 euros each, cheap...the next boat was leaving in 10 mins, so we waited in the shade and watched a gaggle of italian tourists board the other, enclosed boat. we were going on one without any covering..got sunblock?
got seats on the end, and off we went..they provided headphones which you could tune in to different languages, thankfully. so i listened in english. the cruise was about an hour ten, we went through two locks, that was a first. great picture oppurtunities. many architectural gems, both old and modern. by this time, my digital cam battery was dead, good thing i brought the 35mm. i had a long zoom lens and a 28mm wide angle, i hope i got some good shots. in all it was a good ride, although it was getting very hot, you only criuse at like 2 knots. it was a releif to get into the shade and some cold water when it was over.
we started our way back to the parking garage, taking a different route back. i really like this city, it is so historic and beautiful, as you'll see. tomorrow. i hope.
on the way back, gisi didn't feel so good from the heat..so guess who drove? this time we took a rural road south all through the french farmland. no traffic at all, a nice liesurly ride through small villages and farmland. there was a village evry 5-10 minutes followed by farms on both sides of the road. we looked for a cafe for some espresso..but it was almost 7..if there was anything it was closed. we spotted a pastisserie shop that looked promising, but alas no coffee. what do they eat their pastry with, wine? finally found a boulangerie that had regular coffe, and gisi went in to get some while i smoked in the car and tried to look french. she came out with the smallest take away cups i'd ever seen, a bottle of water and a bag. ahh, but in the bag...a deliciuos tart of sundried tomato, goat cheese and herbs. yes i do love the french! viva la tart!! that kept us going, gisi took over driving (boo hoo) and i took pictures of the lovely landscape as the sun was decending for the day- such beautiful light. before long we were as far south as we had to go, so we headed east to cross the rhine. a few minutes into germany, gisi pulled over in front of a restaurant with tables outside. ahh, dinner.
bistro tuniberg..in german wine country. we took a table outside and perused the menu. as we were looking, a waiter came out with a tray full of really tall, cold beers...just shining in the evening sun. remember the days? oh well...i really didn't want one, but they looked good. (for the record, 43 days and no desire to drink. it's called prayer...and meetings!)
gisi saw that they had a seasonal section of the menu, and it featured pfifferling....chantarelle mushrooms! awesome. we both ordered a dish, different prep though...hers was done with smoked ham (speck), onions and home fries...mine was with roasted cherry tomato, in a tomato based sauce, herbs and spätzle. and we had a salad too. and to drink, a beautiful full bodied johannisbeerschorle (black currant juice with seltzer!) . after dinner, no dessert..i have some french chocholate stashed away at home. back in the barchetta, it was getting really cool out, but we were home in 15 minutes...9pm. good times.
two beautiful days. i can't believe i'm even here. it's only been 7 days! 5 weeks to go.
c'est la vie. viva la vida. tutti bene. todo 'sta bien. god bless the child.
tchüss!!!!
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