We have now arrived in Freiburg in the heart of the Black Forest (I wonder what cake of the day will be?).  We spent the afternoon wandering around this lovely old city (town? Who knows!).  My nose took me to the flower market around the cathedral, not because of the flowers but because of the lovely smell of the sausages being cooked.  They do know how to cook a sausage here!

The Market is set in Cathedral square, named because there is a dirty great big cathedral in the middle of it. I’m guessing the cathedral came first.  Unless Freibiurg’s 16th century town planners were very optimistic and named the square in the hope that one day someone would build a cathedral, a bit like most UK new towns have roads that go nowhere as they built in “expansion possibilities”.  Who knows, perhaps a thrifty market stall holder saw an opportunity and began selling cathedral magnets before it was actually built.  That’s what they call the future market in stocks and shares isn’t it?  Maybe it all began here?  Anyway, where was I?  Oh yes, sausages..no…the cathedral.

I quite like a good old cathedral as they are usually free.  We decided to head in. The first thing that hit me was how dark it was.  Then I realised that I still had my sun glasses on, so I took them off, and it was still dark…and now  bit blurry (as they are prescription lenses) so I popped them back on and waited for them to return back to normal.

Within seconds, Karen was in her element as she found a stained glass window with a Pretzel (sometimes referred to as a Bretzel in these parts) on it.  They are also sometimes referred to as “beer bread” as they are a common snack in a Bier Kellar to go with your pint (or litre here) of beer.  They are very good at soaking up alcohol so make great pub snack. Karen doesn’t drink though, so generally I drink the beer and she eats the bread, which is why she is now into trousers with elasticated waists and I find myself in the gutter most nights.

The other thing that hit me (not literally, although it was so dark in there it would have been an ideal place to mug someone) was the organ playing.  Karen read a sign and using her considerable German skills informed me that there was a recital here tomorrow night.  I’m guessing this was the practice.

Funnily enough on our last night in Como we were walking back from dinner (by that I mean “tea”.  I’m just trying to cater for my Southern audience reading this.  Some even call is “supper” (you know who you are Dr Rob) but that  is always a bowl of cornflakes during News at 10).  Anyway, we were walking back after our evening meal and passed a little church.  From inside we could hear organ music.  It was about 10:30 and the church appeared to be in darkness.  We tried to the door (following Ingrid from Vienna’s advice. Not Ingrid from the train.  I didn’t have a camera on me to just “click and delete later”).  It was locked.  We stood for a while with our ears to the door.  We guessed the organist must just be practicing for a recital so we left him/her to it.

Through the gloom of Freiburg cathedral, I could see a light on and a grey haired gentleman (who looked a bit like Raymond Baxter.  Google him kids) at the organ keyboard.  Next to him was a young lady turning his music (my apologies if this role has a proper name).  The thing was, either he was just practicing the hard “twiddly bits” (official music term there), or the piece of music he was playing had a lot pauses and sounded awful. I suppose it’s not much fun practicing with a load of gawping tourists stood there with their phones pointed at you taking photos, but equally, it didn’t make me want to go and buy tickets for tomorrow night.  After a few minutes listening to him, we quietly headed to the side door to leave.  As we got close I saw what looked like a big ash tray.  Not being a complete idiot about cathedrals (by this I mean that I have managed to bluff my way through producing a few episodes of Songs of Praise) I knew this was the collecting dish.  I didn’t actually put any money in it, but fell compelled to tap it.  The loud splash and resultant water on the floor demonstrated that this wasn’t actually a collecting dish but the receptical for the holy water.  We left, just a wee bit faster.

Today’s cake of the day was a Black Forest Gateaux.  It had a wee bit more cream than the ones we used to have in 70’s had, so I might have try it agin tomorrow to get a better cake to cream ratio.  I can’t supply  the recipe tonight as although we have wifi in our little loft apartment, it won’t connect to the internet. I am currently sat in McDonalds trying to upload this.  Wish me luck!

Trip Tally
Cars x 5
Planes x 2
Trains x 14
Bikes  x 2
Trams  x 10
Boats x 4
Bus x 4
Metro x 5
Funicular x 1
Fake airships x 1
Museums x 4
Concerts x 3
Theatre x 1
Cinema x 1
Sport x 1
Tours x 5
Different cakes eaten x 22
Different beers tried x 17
Christmas shops visited x 3
Australians spoken to x 9