On Boxing Day I needed to get back to Strasbourg for the night train to Paris which left at about midnight, but I wanted to go see a bit of the Black Forest (of chocolate-cherry cake fame)and Tübingen as well, so we bought a regional Baden-Württemberg day ticket which is good for all the regional trains and in-city trams, and actually allows up to 5 people to travel anywhere in the region on that same ticket, so it´s a really good deal. So, early in the morning we set off for the Stuttgart Hauptbahnhof to catch a train to Tübingen. The regional trains are slow but they go through the counrtryside and you can see a lot on the way. As we approached Tübingen, the rain turned to snow and so everything was covered in white, making a Canuck like me feel quite at home! Most things were closed as it was Boxing Day, but we were still able to wander around the towns.
Tübingen was especially striking because it had a largely medieval preserved centre, along with Hohentübingen castle high above the town (Hohen means high, and yes, it was). Today it is owned by the university there, but originally it belonged to the Württemberg dukes who ruled the area. In the 1800s, a researcher working in the castle kitchen discovered the first signs of DNA, so it´s scientificallly significant too! From the castle there was an amazing view out over the town. There was a sign beside one of the doors that said Chapel ->, so we walked down a long passageway right through the wall of the castle and found ourselves outside the walls, with no chapel in sight.
We ambled along through the narrow streets, being careful not to slip on the slick cobblestones. Eventually we came to a bakery which seemed to be about the only place open, and went in for lunch where I practiced my ordering skills in German, on the coffee (Zwei cappucino, bitte!) while Christian effortlessly told the shopkeeper that I wanted a pastry thing and he wanted a pretzel- it helps if you´ve grown up there, strangely enough!
After several hours there, we took the train on to Freudenstadt, which is a resort town and one of the gateways to the Black Forest (Schwartzwald). It had ice cream places galore and many Italian restaurants and had the unmistakeable air of a tourist town, like Cavendish, PEI. It also had the largest town square in Germany, with some interesting fountains, one of which you can find in the pictures. A lot of locals come there for some R&R and they cater for the health spa-type holiday.
Our next stop was Offenburg, not too far across the border from Strasbourg. There, we had less than an hour between our trains, but we went into town none-the-less and discovered a Christmas market that was still open after Christmas. There was a skating rink and live music, and a stall selling local food like Buabaspitzle which is noodles with bacon and sauerkraut, perfect after a long, wet day of travelling. The word for the dish is in the Swabian dialect and means something like 'little boy penises' because of the shape of the noodles. There were a lot of people out to hear the music, and it seemed like the place to be in Offenburg, but we had to catch our train so we headed back to the station, passing a giant serpent/sea monster sculpture sticking out of the pavement, with loops above and the illusion of loops underground too.
Finally at about 8pm we arrived in Strasbourg, where again there was nothing open. After another tour of the central island in the dark, (like the last time I was there), we sat down at the one restaurant which was open and got ridiculously expensive 'Christmas beer' which we drank slowly until it was time for Chris to catch his train back to Stuttgart. After that, I waited in the waiting room for my train, and was once again quite relieved to have the whole seat to myself, although in the end it wasn´t enough because I was already sick.
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Freudenstadt Hotels
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