Salzburg to Freiburg, Germany, May 16

After another nice breakfast at Hotel Amadeus, we drove to Freiburg.  Half the route was highway.  The second half was a secondary road with LOTS of trucks and not many places to pass, so it took us a bit longer than expected. It was supposed to be a rainy day, but we were lucky and we only had a little drizzle.  There were so many solar panels along the way.  Many are on barns.  Impressive.
   
We are staying 10 kilometers out of Freiburg....basically in an industrial park, but the hotel is pretty nice, mostly people on business.  We were starving when we arrived, having skipped dinner.  We drove into Freiburg and found a restaurant that was okay.  Mark really wanted sausages, but got some sort of bologna, which he said was good. We both got more asparagus soup.  Asparagus is everywhere.  We found that we had left the chip out of the camera, a bummer as we found a beautiful street with wisteria hanging everywhere with plants well over 100 years old.  So, we drove back to our hotel and headed back out for a photo session.  Freiburg is a beautiful old university town with a pedestrianized center, running water in the streets, beautiful stonework, old houses, a beautiful river, bike paths and an amazing clock tower. (Which, unfortunately, has a McDonalds in it.). The running water dates to the Middle Ages.  It was for water, never for sewage.  They keep the city air conditioned in the winter.  Freiburg is one of the greenest cities in Europe with strong support for the Green Party.

Years ago, we visited Freiburg for one night. I was pregnant with David and needed a nap.  So. Mark took Nick & Jecca into town to explore.  They had a blast, but, when Mark got in the car to go back to our hotel, he realized he had NO idea where it was or its name.  Of course, this was before cell phones.  So, they decided to try various roads out of town, hoping to hit the right one before night fell.  Luckily, on the second or third try, they found it, to everyone's relief.