As Thursday was a bank holiday in Germany, and school gave us Friday off, too, we decided to really make the most of our last trip, spreading our visits to Freiburg and Lake Constance over five days. After meeting at the station in Freiburg and walking for half an hour in the wrong direction before realising our youth hostel was entirely over the other side of the city, watching a German youth projectile vomit over the side of a bridge and nearly getting lost multiple times whilst dodging countless students off for a night out, we eventually arrived at our rather alternative hostel in Freiburg. The whole hostel had a very bohemian atmosphere to it, with cushions and rugs to sit on instead of sofas and window's in the shower cubicles. It was truly a hippie's paradise. I, however, am no hippy. It was therefore a slight shock to my system, but provided us with a lot of laughs, nonetheless.
More important than the hostel from the 1960s, however, was the city itself, which is beautiful. Like Heidelberg, Freiburg has a huge student population, although we didn't really see too many of them on Thursday, as I imagine they were all nursing their hangovers from the night before. We explored the town a little in the morning, naturally taking pictures of every pretty-looking building possible and trying to avoid falling in the water, which casually runs through the city in little trenches by the side of the road. (Anyone who knows me well will know that not falling in was definitely easier said than done!) As it began to warm up a little, we caught a cable car up into the hills up to the Schlossberg, essentially a giant tower that gives spectacular views over the city. Looking at the Black Forest from above is truly a beautiful sight, though I did find myself clinging to the railings for dear life at some points, as the tower was definitely swaying in the wind. Back on solid ground, we headed to a much loved Mexican restaurant for a spot of lunch before hopping on the train over to Constance.
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| Heading up the hill in a cable car |
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| The road goes ever on and on... |
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| View of the Schwarzwald |
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| Nom. |
Somewhat naively, as it now appears with hindsight, it did not even occur to me that it would not be warm, dry and sunny in Constance. I suppose I imagined that the town was concealed inside a temperate bubble; immune to the changes in weather occurring throughout the rest of Germany. I've heard so many things about Constance, the beautiful town nestled on the side of the Bodensee - a lake that spans Germany, Switzerland and Austria. I've heard that it looks absolutely beautiful in the sunshine, that on a clear day you can see the mountains rising up around the edge of the lake, that you could hire bikes and go on a beautiful cycling tour of the lake if the weather is fine. Think about that for a second. What do all of those scenarios have in common? The answer, my dear friends, is good weather. What did the weather do whilst we were there?
It pissed it down.
So, I hear you ask, what does one do when the town is the lake and the lake is the town, but you can't even really see the lake because of all the driving rain? Simples. You eat. Which is what we did, for most of Friday anyway. We really did try to not let the weather bother us; we wandered round with our umbrellas, tried our best to ignore the puddles forming in our shoes and even made it down to the pier to photograph the revolving statue of a prostitute that welcomes the boats into the harbour (oh, Germany!). But it gets to a certain point when you are wet and cold, your morale sinks lower than your body temperature and it is time to give in and go back to the hostel for a cup of tea. We did, however, manage to venture back out again later on for a lovely meal and some cocktails, so it wasn't a complete waste of a day!
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| A spinning prostitute that welcomes boats into the harbour - must be a German thing! |
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| Using a break in the rain to take loads of pictures! |
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| Cocktail time! |
Saturday, though I wouldn't go so far as to say it was warm or sunny, it was a little drier. This was our cue to spend as much of the day as possible outside, so we jumped on a ferry and headed over to a few little towns around the lake. Our first stop was Mainau, famous for its flowers - basically Kew Gardens on steroids - where, despite the clouds, the flowers looked beautiful. Next we hopped over to Meersberg, another little town on the side of the lake, where we stopped for a bite to eat and to enjoy the view.
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| We're on a boat. |
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| The Bodensee made of flowers |
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| Found a potential suitor waiting for me on the island! |
Back on the mainland, we still had an hour or so to kill before dinner, so we decided to hire a pedalo...
Picture the scene. Four twenty-something girls, all of reasonable levels of intelligence, all having survived a year in a foreign country whilst (almost) mastering a second language. Hiring a pedalo, in comparison to some of the things we have been through this year, should technically have been a walk in the park. Oh how wrong we were!! Emma and Sarah decided to take control first, leaving Hannah and me to sit in the back and enjoy the view. It soon transpired, however, that maybe this was not such a good idea, as the other two had some....issues with the whole steering-and-pedaling-at-the-same-time situation, especially as by this point the rather stern-looking German woman who had rented us the pedalo was standing at the edge of the water yelling instructions at us in German that we could neither hear nor understand. It was agreed by all that Hannah and I should take over (though given my track record with directions and coordination, that's debatable). By this time, however, we had bobbed out a little into open water and were now sailing precariously close to the harbour, where the ferries dock in and out of Constance. Pedaling for our lives, we shot across the harbour, managing to avoid being hit by two yachts approaching from the left and a 1000 people-capacity ferry tearing towards us from the right, not really knowing whether to hysterically laugh or cry. Though I did have visions of us not being able to get back again, bobbing out into the middle of the lake and having to be towed back again by the angry German lady, we did manage to make it back safely, though I can completely understand if the German lady wants to run for the hills the next time any English girls want to rent a pedalo!
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| Think we might be about to crash into the boats there, guys! |
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| We survived...just. |
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| We nearly died, but it was still funny! |
So I am back home in my little flat in Bensheim as I write this, knowing that my last jolly holiday in Germany is over. I have made three lovely new friends this year, and it has been so much fun travelling with them and sharing so so many giggles. Though I will still see Sarah at uni next year, I'm really going to miss our little group and look forward to our next outing that we plan once we are all back on English soil. It's scary how quickly the end is approaching, and whilst I still intend to make the absolute most of the next three weeks, the most pressing issue now, is how the bloomin' heck am I going to fit all my stuff into two boxes and a suitcase???!!!
Wish me luck!
Emily
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