Weekly I go to downtown Freiburg, walking around over the cobblestones can be a bit bumpy but definitely provides more character to the walk.
Freiburg town is chockablock with tourists which is good for business but can get crowded, same as everywhere. I saw many, many walking guides with their groups, some in English, most in German, natch.
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| Charming statuettes outside a tea shop, sitting over the bachle, the boy looks smug, girl, happy with her tea. |
I would estimate that half the businesses in Rieselfeld are closed or on reduced hours for vacation this week. There are about 2 weeks left of children's break from school, so business is slow anyway. Even the weekly market in the local square was missing my veggie stand, the bread/meat one, the cheese, and the olive and baklava carts. There was one lone veggie fellow with his two cute little white dogs. I have never spent August in Freiburg, the partners usually had those dates and I was in Dijon or Paris, so while expected to some degree, I wasn't prepared for the sheer amount of closures.
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| Rather a poor picture of the croc in the Dreisam river, hadn't seen her for a while so "visited". |
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| This is a cute child sized Vespa, outside a children's toy store. |
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| The toy store, see the bear under the name? It blows bubbles at intervals onto the street. |
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| Strange with the tongues, research showed Freiburg inhabitants made a lot of money minting silver coins around this period. Google translate: "keystone from the gate of the coin from the year 1567". It is located on the street with high end independent shops, interesting to walk down. |
While downtown this week I visited two of my favourite shops. A store that is hard to describe, it's a hardware mainly but has kitchenware and electronics, here is the website https://www.luitpold-bauer.de/ This is the independent store I treasure because with no car it isn't easy to get to big-box-stores to get hardware items. It is eclectic in nature and I like that a lot. While I was there locals came in and asked for advice which was provided with knowledge and care.
The second would be Culinara Zoller https://www.culinara-freiburg.de/ Italian everything, but my limited connection with this store was the owners were my neighbours in Rieselfeld. Bruce and the wife (sorry, her name escapes me) used to race down the street in their wheelchairs, a moment of fun for them both, endangering anyone in their path. She passed, he handed the store to his son and it is still there. Service given is as good as ever, I bought a high quality balsamic vinegar, read more expensive than expected, but delicious for salads not cooking and a few other bits I cannot get in a regular grocery.
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| My view when they are in the closest field, love seeing them, love not having to look after them as I did in childhood. |
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| And... of course... another sunset. |
My neighbours invited me to a party last week, they served punch with fruit on top and pinchos, open faced sandwiches on a good quality baguette, yummy. There were 14 of us with many who spoke English, so that was nice for me. It was good to talk to those I rarely only see in the hallway or on the street.
All for now, Cheers, Bev and Lexi Cat
