Last week in Konstanz & trip to Freiburg!

Freiburg Münster

Freiburg Altstadt with Bächle

inside St. Stephan's, a church in KN

dipping my feet in--the next day my whole body went in!

This week was my last in Konstanz. Which meant a lot of forms to be filled out (ah, the joys of German bureaucracy), some shopping to be done, plans to be made, etc. I wasn't planning on packing til Sunday but some arrangements with the Hausmeister for room inspection threw a wrench in that plan. So instead, I got to pack early, which meant I had some time for a day trip! More on that in a moment.

I spent the week wandering around Konstanz and spending time with friends! I got to have several lunches with Tobi and his friend Lukas, and a few coffees with Svetlana while I helped with her bachelor's thesis, and I went to the lake with Laura! Swimming in the lake for the first time (well, really wading) was really fun. It got quite warm here this week, up to 90 degrees F and 32 C, so it was nice to take a jump in the water even though it was so cold it actually made my legs hurt for a few minutes until I got used to it. But it was fun to finally get to take a dip in the Bodensee and lie on the "beach" in a bathing suit! The word "beach" is used very loosely in Konstanz--it's either rocks or grass depending on where you are, no sand. But the view is fantastic. I did see way more men in Speedos than I ever need to see in my life, but at least I missed the nude beach haha.

Since the hausmeister's schedule forced me to change my original plans, I decided to take Maya's advice and go on one last day trip with my newly found extra time :-) After some asking around, I decided on Freiburg! It's a city just on the outskirts of the Black Forest, near the French border, about 2.5 hours from Konstanz by train. So I headed up there early this morning and spent the day there. It was intensely hot, which is getting more and more bothersome, I'm glad it's been a cool summer.

But on the upside, Freiburg is a really cool town! It has a beautiful church and Altstadt, as well a a famous university, and is also known for being one of the "greenest" cities in the world. It also features these little canals/rivulets in the streets called Bächle--the legend goes that if you fall into one you will marry a Freiburg native. After eating a quick pizza for lunch, I spent the day wandering through the streets seeing the various sights. There's the two town halls, the Altes Rathaus and the Neues Rathaus, and the famous Münster. It was a really gorgeous church, full of tiny interesting details--random statues and hidden stained glass windows, etc. I climbed the tower to get a beautiful view of the town and the Black Forest (Schwarzwald) all around. Then I kept wandering the streets, saw some famous buildings and towers, wandered into stores because it was so hot, etc. Eventually I had seen pretty much everything and was pretty overheated, so I headed home. It's really hot here and I'm not adjusted to summer weather, especially summer weather with no AC. kind of glad I'm heading home soon to get out of the heat--in less than 48 hours I'll be landing in Newark!