Three weeks ago, I went down to the train station, where I met Brother Aaron and my dad! Pops had arrived in Amsterdam a few days earlier and visited Aaron, and assisted in moving all of Aaron's belongings down to Freiburg before he moves to Zurich. We lugged all of their luggage down to my apartment on the Straßenbahn, but forewent using public transportation for the rest of the day, since everything in F-burg is pretty much in walking distance anyway. After a bit of sightseeing, I took to them to Hausbrauerei Feierling,
the resturaunt/brewery that brews and sells simply the best beer around. After a few beers and a snack, we continued onward as I showed them a few of my other favorite cafés around Freiburg (Schlappen, Aspekt), and walked back to my place sometime late at night, all feeling a bit woozy (from the alcohol and travel-tiredness). The old man fell right asleep on my bed, as Aaron and I stayed up a bit chatting with Johann, one of my awesome roommates. As Aaron took the extra mattress that we layed on my floor, I was left with only the couch in the kitchen. It was rather cramped at my place that night.
Until Jana (one of my roommates) woke me up at 7 while making coffee, I slept rather well on the couch with my sleeping bag. We wandered back into the city that morning, where I showed them IES center (the building my exchange program is based out of) and went to the famous Market on the Münsterplatz, where we bought some Wurst and I showed them around the Stadtsgeschichte (city history) Museum, and the beautiful interior of the Münster (a type of Cathedral cathedral), as well as the amazing exterior, that is currently being rennovated. As such, the tower was closed so we were unable to ascend to the top, but I was still able to point out to them the "mooning gargoyle" (pictured below).
On display at the Stadtmuseum was an interesting display of watercolors and photographs showing the Before and After from the Allied bombardment of Freiburg during WWII, which my dad found especially intriguing.
Eventually we went to go pick up our rental car. The Germans working there were a bit peeved that we didn't show up when we were supposed to and came a few hours late (who knew that "Your car will be available to pick up at 10:00" meant "Please pick up your car at 10:00 and don't be late"? Ah, the Germans....). Also, due to a mix-up on the employees at Herz, both Aaron and Dad were listed as drivers for the car, so, as we left the car rental place, Aaron got to drive a bit, but the bad weather picked up and it was raining and thundering, so dad drove the 1 1/2 hour drive on the Autobahn to Landau.
We stayed with Regina (whom I had already visited and who had visited Colorado for Christmas, leaving Aaron as the only one of us that had not actually met her yet), the mother of Jonas, who is a German exchange student living with my family for the year. Regina put up with us while we stayed with her for a few nights. The next morning we took her along to a nearby can-factory, where we took a guided tour. Since Dad works for Ball Corporation (albeit in the Aeropsace sector and not the can manufacturing sector), he knew about the brand new steel-can factory in nearby Haßloch.
The experience in the can factory was definitely not what I expected. Apparently the whole factory had burned to the ground a few years ago, and was rapidly rebuilt up to full capacity ('cause, hey, the Germans gotta drink their beer outta somethin'), and can now produce more than a billion cans per year. Inside, it was very loud (we had to wear earplugs), and we had to wear orange reflective safety vests. Overall, it was quite impressive
. It was very clean, and we were (surprisingly) allowed to walk right up to the fast-moving machines, and our guide even reached inside to grab cans in mid-production.
Afterwards, we met up with Regina's friend Stefan, who took us to some nearby castle ruins. It was cold, but the weather was fantastic and clear. On almost every nearby hilltop we coud see the remains of yet another hundreds-of-years old castle, right out of the middle-ages. As seen in the picture below, from the castle we were standing at there was already another one just on the next hill over. Aaron brought along his binoculars, we could see castles around for miles (erm, kilometers :) ).
Stefan also took us to a nearby village with a small historical museum, then we all ate dinner at a genuine Weinstube (a "wine tavern" I guess), with delicious traditional German food (I ate some Spaetzel, and I think Aaron had a big plate of all sorts of different sausages), and delectable local wines. It was a small, yet cozy place with only the owner working that night, and we were only one of three parties there.
The next day, we took another small roadtrip with Regina, in which we visited yet another castle, then drove to a small city in nearby France. This castle, however, had been fully rebuilt and people actually live in it, and we took a guided tour (auf Deutsch!, so Aaron and dad weren't able to understand too much) that led us through the dungeon.
While driving across the border, we had to stop to take a picture of the sign, and of course not pass up a chance to piss on France, relieving ourselves in the trees just off the side of the road. Wissembourg is a dainty little village just across the border into France with not much to do on a Sunday, though. We enjoyed our time there (and Aaron and I played around childlishly, much to the dismay of our father, I think), and explored on foot around the old city wall.
The next morning, we thanked our gracious host of three nights, and took a final farewell picture before Regina headed off to work and we headed off to explore our ancestry in Stuttgart...
(more to come in next post)
