Walking Tour of Freiburg, Germany

Freiburg, Germany is a University town with 30,000 students, lots of bicycles, a beautiful Cathedral that was spared during WWII and the best bratwurst around. The town is well worth a day visit. 

We love a Rick Steves' guidebook when we travel. I like his style of travel. A kind of go with the flow attitude. Almost every town that is written up in his guidebook has a self guided walking tour. The very best way to see the sights and acclimate yourself to the area. 

Originally we were going to stay in Freiburg but based on Rick's suggestion we stayed in Staufen. A very good choice because Staufen was a lovely town. Freiburg was good for a day trip and a nice long walk but it was a little too crowded for us.

The main reason we went to Freiburg was to walk through the market and eat lunch. A woman we befriended at our hotel in Staufen told us about a place to get the very best sausage dogs. So of course that was one of our first stops. 

Meier's Wurststand

We ordered Lange Rote (Long Red) Bratwurst. Oh my gosh it was so good. The bratwurst was tasty and the roll was out of this world! And only 2,50 euro. What a deal.

Munsterplatz (Cathedral Plaza) and Market

The market was colorful and crowded with beautiful displays of fresh vegetables and flowers.

This is one of several interesting characters we saw in the market.

Cathedral (Munster)

I thought the history of the Cathedral was interesting. During WWII Freiburg didn't sustain very much damage. That is until November 27, 1944 when in just 20 minutes Allied bombers destroyed about 80% of Freiburg's buildings. The Cathedral was left untouched by the bombs. Whether it was by the grace of God or the bombers intentionally avoided the church no one knows. That's pretty amazing.

Add caption

The Cathedral is made from soft sandstone that is easy to work with. But it's fragile and in constant need of repair. 

The inside was gorgeous and we arrived just in time to enjoy a free organ concert. 

Free's good!

Schusterstrassee

This street is typical of old Freiburg. Lined with bachles or small canals filled with water on both sides of the street. Staufen has these as well. They just don't look very safe...

Freiburg is a college town and bicycles seem to be the main source of transportation. This was only a small portion of the bikes we saw. 

And of course the train. There was a big, busy train station in town.

Freiburg was a lively, busy town and made for a fun day trip.