A weekend in Freiburg und Schauinsland

This weekend, all the students from UMASS who are studying at Baden Wurttemberg Universities met up for a weekend in the Black Forest. We arrived on Friday to a delicious home cooked warm German meal. We stayed in a hostel-esque cabin that was quaint and adorable. It even had a collection of cuckoo clocks! It was a half hour walk from the nearest bus stop, and about an hour from Freiburg proper. We were up on Schauinsland, a snowy, mountainous area of the Black forest! On Saturday, we were lucky enough to have views of the landscape and hike for a few hours up to a lookout observatory. The amount of fog was unbeleivable, and only added to the majestic nature of the views. In every direction there were mountains, snow, and fog. Below us was a small village where one could see the smoke coming out of the houses chimneys.

Group photos are difficult...

The town below

The insane fog

The lookout tower!

Tallest Mountain in the Black Forest

That view!

On Sunday, after hiking and picking classes for the semester, we decided to explore Freiburg. We had a few hours to walk around and sightsee. Freiburg was beautiful, similar to Heidelberg in that it had both an old town and a more modern section. Freiburg felt bigger than Heidelberg as well. We decided to climb up a lookout hill on the outskirts of town to get an aerial view of the city and it was amazing! After climbing down, we stopped into the large Cathedral in the Altstadt plaza. Not only was this Cathedral amazing, but outside of it a male opera group was singing outside and drawing a crowd. Their voices were incredible, and they were the first street performers that I endorsed! After the long weekend and lots of walking we decided to treat ourselves to... eighty cent gelatto! So cheap! It was heavenly- I got Hazelnutt :)

Freiburg- Clock tower and McDonalds

View of Freiburg from the tower

Freiburg Cathedral

Munsterplatz

After our return from our orientation, we went North again into the Black Forest in the town of Bad Herrenalb. This town was tiny, but beautiful in its own way. Here we were helping answer questions for the students of Baden Wurttemberg Universities who would be attending UMASS next fall. It was a really interesting experience hearing their questions and concerns with traveling to America. It was a role reversal, and really eye opening!