Last days in Freiburg for now

Hello Friends, 

Went to Ciao Bella and the background music was an “Oldies” station, and was it ever, songs I haven’t heard in years and years, guess that puts me as old… Coming back I saw a poster which said “Let’s RieselRock” it’s a dance being held mid-November at the Glass House, our cultural centre here. I had lunch there the other day and very limited menu but what I had was good, almost the youngest person in the place really. I think from seeing the clientele it’s a place to have a cheap but filling meal and talk with others from the neighbourhood, kind of like the Senior’s group in Madeira Park. There is a sizeable library in there also but no books in English, I asked, they are available downtown but I’ve not investigated. 

We ran into Gunter Zoller our neighbour coming out of the Edeka grocers and he’d been in ordering meat for a later pickup, he was afraid they’d run out by the end of the day. He said it was a zoo in the store and "to be very brave". What we didn’t realize at that moment was it is two days of holiday mid-week not just one. Reformation Day is about Martin Luther’s disputes with the Catholic Church, read about it here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther

This year is the 500th anniversary and so while the day is usually not a public holiday, only in five German states, this year it is one the whole of Germany, also Halloween, not so much celebrated but getting more so. November 1st is All Saint’s Day, public holiday. So if you took Monday off you would have had a very long weekend, even including the extra hour for the clocks changing back, it’s a week later here than in Canada.

Anyway, about Halloween, the retailers have bounced onto this more and more every year, the change is noticeable. I don’t think the children go trick or treating but they do dress up in costume. Must disappoint them, no school today so they won’t be celebrating with school mates. My first costume was a white bunny rabbit complete with flopping ears (mom’s attempt to make them stand up with wire didn’t quite work) with bobtail and a real carrot. My sister was a panda bear, really cute. Since we didn’t live in a neighbourhood, a few miles to the nearest houses mom drove us around to family friends for trick and treat, fun times. My dad would sit home, curtains drawn, no light to the street, he’d probably eaten all the little candy bars that were bought for the meagre amount of kids we did get, he had a sweet tooth, that time of year was the only one when we had candy bars in the house.

Headed out with Christoph on November 1st, summer like day, really! Even the wasps were out. We were headed here http://bevbrucelexi.blogspot.de/2015/10/black-forest-and-cooking-lessen-given.html  to Kirschzarten but they were full, had too few wait staff so didn’t have room for us. There was a small chapel at Hofgut Himmelreich, maybe held 20 people at most. 

This little fellow was outside, I don't know who he is....

They recommended Gasthof Adler in Buchenbach http://adler-buchenbach.de/ so with kitchens on the verge of being closed we headed there, Great food, great service, they allowed us to sit outside, inside was too stuffy and on such a gorgeous day it was lovely to be out. 

This town and the previous one are on the edge of the Black Forest and the house architecture shows it, low slung roofs, balconies covered in flowering window boxes. There was a church next to it but we couldn’t/wouldn’t go in due to a service being held for All Saint’s Day. Many old brick or stone buildings and one hotel with more windows than walls, it is a hotel, looked a bit like a doll house to me. Several small churches which Christoph said likely belonged to families. 

Cultural differences even within Canada, a friend from Ontario thought it nice to plant what we consider weed. An acquaintance I worked with bought a house with a lawn and told me she had no idea what to do with it, never having done so, apartments were all they’d known.

We’ve had some calamities in the house recently. I broke the glass portion of the Bodum coffee pot, thought it was tempered glass but guess not, they do sell replacement glass so bought one. Bruce left a simmering pot on the stove of beef broth until it turned black, I took it off and put it on the counter top, which put a circle of discolour on the top. All my scrubbing couldn’t get the pot clean, buy a new one, we’ll need to get a counter expert in to fix that and could mean replacement of the entire counter, ouch, or maybe they can resurface it. Thought that counter was indestructible too, apparently not. We bought ginger ale, Bruce likes it and although not opened, leaked into the storage cabinet we put it in, about half of it, real mess, cleaned up. So they say things come in three’s and we’ve had ours, thank you very much. 

Saturday and there is a football match going to happen, how do I know? Most everyone is wearing either red or blue scarves with team logos on them, and that’s all I know or care to about football in Freiburg or anywhere else for that matter. When the fans do come they come from other towns and the downtown is crowded, Christoph drove in to town to meet us and encountered traffic jams and trouble parking. We ate German food (Gasthaus Zum Lamm) under the horse chestnut trees, next to the statue of the crocodile in the bachle.

Waiting for the train to Frankfurt was cold! Time to leave!

Here are four, yes four pictures of a sunset we had in Freiburg, they are at the end so you can skip them if you wish but they are each different quite strikingly I think so that's why I am including them.

Next post is coming to you from Sevilla, warmer here for sure!