Vita Classica and Hinterzarten

Me and Annina wanted to go see the new Harry Potter movie in the cinema, but our (my) goal was to watch the six old ones first. I brought them with me on my external harddrive, but every time we tried to watch one of them we either fell asleep or got interrupted. We ended up with only watching the two first ones before going to the cinema. The cinema was really nice and had something called couple seats. Two seats next to each other with tables on each side. We watched the movie in English which is not that normal in Germany and the cinema was nearly empty. I think I counted less than 10 people. Not that it mattered, less is often better!

Vita Classica Thermal Bath

On Saturday we finally had the chance to go to the thermal bath. It is called Vita Classica and is located in a small town called Bad Krozingen just outside Freiburg. We borrowed Annina's mom's car and drove out of the city and through the snowy fields around Freiburg to get there. It was actually very cool to drive outside the city and see the region. There were small hills everywhere with winery's and fields scattered here and there. We drove through several small towns and villages before we arrived in Bad Krozingen and the thermal bath.

Vita Classica was a really nice place. It is a roman inspired thermal bath with many small pools with different temperatures and decorations. The water ranged from 33C to 36C. There were also two big outdoor pools. The pools started inside and you went through a "door" outside. It was really nice with the cold temperature in the air and the hot water. There was a waterfall you could stand under and small cubicles with massaging air pumping through the water. Because it was cold in the air there was a thick layer of mist just over the water giving the whole place a really enchanted look. There was also a room called the music room, with a pool where they played music underwater. If you put your ears under the surface you could hear calm and relaxing music. I have tried to take some pictures to show the different pools and the roman inspired rooms. If you ever go to Freiburg it's defiantly worth the short drive out to Vita Classica.

We stayed in Vita Classica for a few hours going between the different pools and relaxing. My favorite place was the outdoor pool with the waterfall and the hottest pool that was 36C. They also have a whole section with saunas from all over the world, but you have to pay extra to go in there, so we didn't do that this time. But I want to go back and try the sauna world as well. Sadly we couldn't stay the whole day because a friend of Annina had invited us out for dinner at a Chinese restaurant in the afternoon. On the way back we took some pictures of the landscape with the winery's and the fields in the hills. Everything was covered in snow which is pretty rare since it doesn't snow that often in Freiburg.

The restaurant was really nice. We went with a friend of Annina and her boyfriend that knows the place and recommended it. It was a buffet with all kind of different Chinese food. I personally love buffets because then I can choose what I like and don't like and especially with Chinese food I don't like everything. That being said, the food was really good and I think I ate 4 big plates + desert. Afterwards my stomach was hurting, but it was well worth it! It was also really cheap. Sadly I can't remember the name but it's definitely another place I recommend!

The Black Forest and Hinterzarten

Last time I visited Freiburg I didn't have the time to visit the Black Forest, but on Sunday we decided to go there and look around. It was raining as we walked to the train station and the river that flows right next to Annina's house was really full. It must have been from all the snow melting.

The train ran up and down the hills outside Freiburg and soon the rain changed into snow. We arrived in Hinterzarten and got out. Hinterzarten is a typical tourist village on the edge of the black forest with very traditional Germany style houses. It is also home to the Adleschanze ski jump hill. We walked through the village to the outskirts of the forest where kids where sledding down a hill and having fun. We then walked to the Adleschanze ski jump hill and looked around there before heading back to the train station. It was snowing the whole time and it was pretty cold, so we decided that a short visit was enough for this time and that we would come back in the spring or summer and go further into the forest. Annina's family rent a cabin there which is really nice.

When we got back it was already evening and Hartmut, Annina's father came over and we all ate sandwiches and played dices. Her family really loves to play games together (board games, cards or dices) and I think its a great way to have fun while socializing and getting to know them better. I also learned how to make a new type of sandwich! Bread, butter, bananas and chocolate! It's really good!

On Monday evening me, Annina and her father went to a pub called Der Goldene Stern for the weekly quiz night. The questions were pretty hard and a lot about Germany, but I knew at least some answers and our team didn't come last. The other people in our team where all really nice and welcoming! The quiz night was pretty similar to the one we have at home in Lillehammer with general questions and then listening to music. I also ate the quiz chicken schnitzel which was delicious and came in a big portion that I almost couldn't finish! It was all in all a great evening. Here is a cool picture from the pub. It's of the urinals in the men's restroom!

On Tuesday we didn't do anything worth writing about and on Wednesday morning I left with the train/airplane back to Norway. It was sad to go home to cold Norway with -18 degrees. The Wednesday I left it was +15 in Freiburg. It was also sad to leave my girlfriend again, but at least it's not that long until she comes and visits me in Norway! This is the last post on this blog for a while, the next time I go traveling is probably in March so stay tuned until then and happy Christmas and a great New Year!

Second visit in Freiburg

Finally after almost two months of working I am taking a holiday again and I am going back to Freiburg in Germany to visit my girlfriend. The trip down was supposed to take around 8 hours, including train and waiting at the airport. But what was supposed to be a routine trip turned out to be something very different. It all started of with my train from Lillehammer being 30 minutes late. Luckily that was not a problem since I had booked the train 1.5 hours ahead of my flight in case of delays just like this one. When I got to Gardermoen (the airport), delivered my backpack (which for some reason is special luggage now) and gone through the security I noticed that my flight was delayed as well. After a lot of waiting I got the information that there was snow in Frankfurt and that was the reason for the delay. After about 3 hours and a free meal voucher from SAS we where allowed to board the plain. Turned out I would be waiting another 2 hours before we even took off. At least they gave us free food and drinks on board as well (you normally have to pay for it).

When we finally landed and got off the plain and into the waiting buses I saw the snow that was causing all the troubles. All 3 centimeters of it... I guess the Frankfurt airport doesn't have the same experience as Gardermoen (where there is snow half the year anyways). The train from Frankfurt to Freiburg was at least on time or so I thought!. I got as far as Karlsruhe before the train had to wait 25 minutes on a passing train that was delayed. I ended up arriving 00:40 instead of 20:00. But I made it and that's all that matters!

The plan was to go to a thermal bath the next day, but the weather was not that good in Freiburg either. The car had frozen and didn't want to start so we had to change our plans. Instead we visited the local Freiburg Christmas market. The market is made up of many small booths selling various homemade goods and food/drinks. On of the famous things you can buy there is Gluehwein, a wine that's heated and served hot. It has a very Christmasy taste and comes in both red and white. I also tried something called Striebele which is a kind of sweet bread snack. It looks funny as you can see on the picture :)

In the evening I went with Annina to her Norwegian lessen. We did different exercises, played games, some grammar and reading. I had to help the teacher pronounce words and read (she was German and had a German Norwegian accent). It was nice to see how a Norwegian class in another country is. During my stay I also visited the kindergarten where Annina works every morning. Her father also works there full time. The kindergarten was located in a pretty boring looking building, but once inside it looked very cool. I loved the way the rooms were designed, some had extra levels and non looked the same. It's hard to describe and I wish I had some pictures to show you instead, but unfortunately I don't. 

Since it's advent we had to bake some Christmas cookies. We decided to make cinnamon stars, coconut macrons and "black and white" cookies. We had to improvise a little while baking because we forgot to buy some and had to little of other ingredients and it took us several days to get them all done with various levels of success, but in the end they all tasted good and that's what matters (to me at least).

The weather has not been that good with snow and cold the first few days and then rain, so we haven't had the time and interest to go and explore that much. However we did go to a Cafe with a friend of Annina called Carla and that was really nice. Other than that and the other things I already mentioned the first week has been lazy :P I will post a second post about my visit to Freiburg in a few days and it will have a bit more interesting reading I hope.

Freiburg, part 3

On Saturday morning me and Annina went to the münster market, a market outside the big church. Annina wanted to show me some of the local favorites and we were also shopping groceries for Annina's mom. I had a delicious sausage at one of the many sausage stalls and we also bought a famous cheese cake which is only available at the market. There was so many people with bags from the cheese cake stall so it was apparently very famous. It also tasted delicious.

Later on in the day we went to watch SC Freiburg play against Køln in the Bundesliga, the highest division in Germany. From what I was told SC Freiburg was playing exceptionally good this season and where in 5th place before the match. The stadium was packed with people of all ages. It was really nice to see that a lot of families with kids had shown up too. The game was as good as it could get and although I am not that into Germany soccer I was quickly dragged into the home supporters songs and screaming. At the end of the match I was a true SC Freiburg fan! The game ended 3:2 to SC Freiburg and they climbed to 4th place. Bonus info: Lukas Podolski (famous German striker on the national team) played for Køln.

On sunday morning we headed back to the Münster (the church), this time to climb up into the bell tower. After a long climb up a narrow stone staircase we reached the first main room. From here we first climbed another stone staircase (halfway outside the church) up to the topmost vantage point that was open (the very highest point was closed due to renovation). Here we had a fantastic view of the city below. The second thing we did was climb up to the bell room. There were bells in all sizes, some gigantic and weighing many tons and others much smaller. As we were standing there the bells began to ring and we both got startled by the loud noise.

Later in the day we went with Ursa (Annina's mom) and Niklas to Ursa's garden a 20 minutes bike ride away. The garden was located in the hillside overlooking Freiburg and she used it to grow different kinds of vegetables. The woods surrounding the garden were filled with chestnuts and we spent an hour or two collecting them. Afterwards we had lunch with a Finnish man who also used the garden. He had built a primitive house that he used to live in during summer time. He had cooked pumpkin soup and baked bread in an oven he had made. It was really nice to sit on his veranda and eat and enjoy the warm sunny weather.

That evening me and Annina went to a Shisha restaurant called Cafe Istanbul. Here you could order a Shisha pipe and any type of tobacco in addition to drinks and snacks. We went for lemon flavored Shisha and I had a glass of lemonade while Annina had a cup of apple tea. The cafe played Turkish pop music on the television and it was funny to watch it. It really set the atmosphere of the place.

Monday morning we went to a restaurant on a hill on the opposite side of Freiburg. The building looked like a castle and right next to it was a small church. We met a friend of Annina and had breakfast together there. We wanted to play minigolf afterwards, but the minigolf place was closed because of to many leaves. We then went to the restaurant where Annina worked before she went to Australia to eat a famous cake they had, but of course they didn't have that either. We still had another really good cake and the day wasn't totally ruined by our bad luck. Right next to the restaurant was a small lake with a path around it and we walked around it and enjoyed the view.

That evening Annina's father had invited us over to eat dinner and play cards. He had cooked lots of jummy food, the potatoes and baked pumpkin being my favorite. After dinner and desert (cherry cake) we all sat down and played Rummy 500. I taught them the American rules and we played for many hours. It was a lot of fun. Every round the leader was changing and it was a close race the whole way. In the end I was almost guaranteed a win, but then Ursa got an extremely good round and beat me by 10 points.

Nothing worth mentioning happened my last day and it was with sadness that I left on Wednesday morning. I took the ICE express train to the airport in Frankfurt and then flew back to Norway. However I am going back in the end of November, so expect more posts about Germany then! Also be sure to check out the slide show under or my Picasa profile for all the pictures I took!

Freiburg 1: 25. September 2010 - 06. October 2010

http://picasaweb.google.com/fatsheep/Freiburg1

Europa-Park and other activities

On Tuesday Annina had made an appointment at a friend of hers who is a hairdresser. I had promised not to cut my hair before I went to Germany and it was now looking long and unorganized. Annina's brother Niklas also came along to get a haircut. Normally when I cut my hair I cut it short, but Annina doesn't like that so I agreed to leave it longer this time. I ended up with a "surfer style" look which I am pretty satisfied with. It's just hard to make it look good so I have to use gel to style it the way I want. Very interesting I know, but there isn't much else to write about this day except for the evening.

In the evening Annina's family invited me for dinner at a restaurant called Zähringerburg which is located on the outskirts of Freiburg and a bit up in the hillside. The road up was narrow with curves back and forth and in the dark it was almost a bit spooky. Sadly because it was dark we couldn't see the view from the restaurant. It was still a nice place with really good food. I ate freshly caught deer from the woods with potato/bread patties and vegetables. For desert me and Annina shared cake with cream. Annina's dad had a mustache for the evening and apparently this was something the others didn't like at all and kept asking about during dinner. He thought it was very funny and it turned out later it was all a joke from his side. Annina's family is really nice and easy to like!

Europa-Park

Wednesday morning after Annina was done in the kindergarten we borrowed Annina's moms car and drove to Europa-Park. Europa-Park is the biggest amusement park in Germany and is only 30 minutes from Freiburg on the autobahn. The park is divided into "countries" with country specific themed rides, shops and decorations. Europa-Park is the biggest amusement park I have ever visited. It took us the whole day to do the rides we wanted to go on and in the end we only had time to take two rides twice. This was without waiting in long queues (max 20 minutes). The biggest rollercoasters were located in "Iceland", "Russia" and "France". Both mine and Annina's favorite ride was called Silver Star. It is a gigantic rollercoaster that goes over the parking spaces on the outside of the park. I also enjoyed two rollercoasters called EuroSat and EuroMir, a bobsled ride and a rollercoaster called Blue Fire. To get the maximum out of Europa-Park I think you have to go two days in a row, but I was still happy that I got the chance to go there at all and we both had a great time.

One really cool thing that they have in Europa-Park is the real 1:1 training model of the Russian space station MIR. It was donated to the park in the 90's and is part of "Russia". It is now kind of a museum where you can walk through it and see how the astronauts lived while onboard MIR. Several of the Russian astronauts who actually was on MIR has visited the training model in Europa-Park to remember their time in space.

The day after we went to Europa-Park Annina showed me her favorite ice cream place. I had a caramel ice cream and she had something called spaghetti ice. Basically its vanilla ice put through a machine to make it look like spaghetti, then strawberry sauce as tomato sauce and white chocolate sprinkled on top as the Parmesan cheese. I really liked the idea and it also tasted very good. After eating our ice creams we went to pick up my glasses which were now finished. After some adjustments and paying I could leave with my new eye wear. Although it will take time to get used to wearing glasses and how I look in them, at least I can see a big difference when wearing them especially when reading things in the distance.

On Friday Annina had invited some of her friends over for a few drinks and then we were going bowling. It was nice to meet her friends and I could practiced my German while they practiced their English. The bowling alley was very similar to the ones in Norway. We were 7 players and I ended on second place both rounds. The drinks there were really cheap. I had a half liter glass of beer for 25kr. I realized that bowling is actually quite fun and that I should do it more often. Earlier the same evening before Annina's friends came over, me, Annina and Niklas played a game called "Hotel". It's similar to monopoly, but still different. The goal however is the same, to own all the hotels and knock out the other players. I failed miserably and lost, but it didn't matter that much. That is the end of this post. I will write another one that covers my last days in Freiburg and this I will post in a few days. Enjoy for now!

First days in Freiburg

It's been awhile since I wrote my travel blog. In fact the last thing I wrote about was my last days in Sydney. Since then I have been working in Norway and saving money for my next travels. Now the time has come to post again and this time I am in Freiburg. I have also changed my blog address reflecting that I am no longer in Australia. I am now visiting places all around the world and Germany is a natural place to travel to since my girlfriend lives there! This means I have a free guide to show me around :P

Freiburg is a town far southwest in Germany next to the Swiss border and the town of Basel. It is also close to the French border. The city is known for its sunny weather because of the location so far south. The region is famous for wine, skiing and of course the "Schwarzwald" known as the Black Forrest in English. Freiburg is an old town with a lot of history and this is clearly seen when walking around the city. Annina showed me around the city center on my second day. The streets and houses all look old, but with charm. There are still two big gates standing from the time there was a wall around the city, and in the middle of the city is the Münster, a gigantic church from 15th century. There are side alleys and cobblestone roads everywhere. It's easy to see that this town has been around for a long time.

Annina met me at the Frankfurt airport. It was so nice to see her again after nearly 2 months apart. After a long hug and some kisses we drove back towards Freiburg on the Autobahn. The Autobahn is famous because on parts of it there is no speed limit. We where going around 150km/h and still cars where driving past us at much higher speeds. When we arrived in Freiburg we were both hungry and since I arrived exactly on our 9 month anniversary we decided to go out and eat. Annina knew about a great little family run pizza place and we went there and eat. The food was really good and the atmosphere likewise.

Like I mentioned, the day after I arrived Annina took me for a walk through the city. She showed me all the different places worth seeing, including her old school, the university, theater and cinema. Sadly it started to rain in the afternoon so we had to hurry back home before we got to wet. In the evening Annina's mom came home and we played a board game called Carcassonne. It is a surprisingly well thought out game and a great deal of fun!

The next morning after Annina was done working (she works 1.5 hours in a kindergarten every morning) we went back into the city center of Freiburg (She lives only 10 minutes outside) to go shopping. I had promised Annina to take a eye test to see if I need glasses. This is something I have realized that I maybe need for a long time now, but never done anything about. It turned out I do need glasses especially for driving or when I am looking at stuff in the distance, so I ended up buying a pair. We also went shopping for a wireless router for Annina and soccer tickets for the local Freiburg SC against Köln match in Bundesliga.

In the afternoon we walked up the Schlossberg, a tall hill in Freiburg. Here they grow wine and on the very top of the hill is a tower built of metal and four gigantic tree trunks. We climbed this tower and had a fantastic view of Freiburg and the surrounding area. After taking photos and enjoying the view we sat down at the local beergarden which also had amazing views. We could even see Annina's apartment from the bench where we were sitting. Freiburg is such a beautiful city with great atmosphere and full of history.