Tom`s travels: Freiburg im Breisgau & Baden-Baden (24/09/2023)

Towards the end of September, we headed to visit our friend Gersende in Strasbourg, where both Ania and I had studied and lived for a semester during our master's degree. As a day trip, we decided to visit a couple of towns in Baden-Württemberg as we hadn't had a chance back then. We started out by heading to Freiburg im Breisgau, considered the warmest and sunniest city in Germany. We switched trains once in Appenweier and reached then the south German town. Once there, we left the train station and headed towards the city center. We first reached the Rathausplatz, with at its center a monumental fountain, and on one side the Martinskirche, and on the other the two town halls. The Altes Rathaus was built in 1559 while the Neues Rathaus was constructed in the early 20th century and incorporated in an older 16th century pair of buildings. After a short walk, we then reached the core of the old town, the Münsterplatz, where the impressive Freiburg Minster is located. The Cathedral was begun around the year 1200 in a Romanesque style, but as is typical with such large buildings, its long construction time meant that it was then continued in a Gothic style until the early 16th century. It was built in a typical red sandstone, like other churches in the area, and its main feature is the 116m high tower. The interior nice and tall featured a main gothic altar from the 16th century, with other nice smaller altars, and wonderful stained glass windows. Once outside the building, we had a walk around the square; the northern side was unfortunately completely destroyed during an air raid in 1944, while the southern side was spared and still features some interesting old buildings. One such is the Historical Merchants' Hall, with a stark red facade, built in a striking Gothic style in 1520. From the cathedral square, we then took a side street, lined by nice historic buildings. The street then opened up where it meets another street coming parallel, and at its meeting point is a nice fountain, the Oberlindenbrunnen. Opposite that is the Schwabentor, dating to the 13th century, but rebuilt in 1901 to make space for traffic. Once through the gate we then climbed the nearby hill, the Schlossberg, at the top of which we had an amazing view of the old town and the surrounding landscape with vineyard-covered hillsides. Once down the hill back in the old town, we walked through some other streets passing by the Martinstor, another preserved city gate, originally dating to the 13th century but modified in 1901 to fit newer traffic. Continuing on through the rest of town we passed another landmark, the Haus zum Walfisch, a red gothic house from the 16th century. It was time to move on, so we headed to the train station and took the next ride which brought us all the way north to the famous town of Baden-Baden. Once there, as the station is pretty far from the city center, we took a bus that led us all the way through the center and past it to reach the hamlet of Lichtental from where we would make our way back on foot. Having gotten off the bus we first visited the Lichtental Abbey, a Cistercian nunnery founded in 1245. The complex features several buildings built and expanded in the following centuries, including the nice Gothic church from the 15th century. From there we then headed northwest, down the valley, walking along a nice path sided by a small river and all around pretty houses and forest. We passed some impressive mansions and eventually reached the main area of Baden-Baden. The place was packed, unsurprisingly as it was a warm sunny Sunday, but quite surprisingly as usually Sundays are empty all over Germany. We passed by the theater from 1862, the Kurhaus from 1824 now a spa resort, casino, and conference complex, and the Trinkhalle from 1842. This latter used to be a central building in the spa complex where guests would drink the curative mineral waters under a 90-meter arcade lined with frescos and benches. Baden-Baden, in fact, along with other places around Europe was inscribed in the Unesco World Heritage List of great spa towns of Europe. From there we then continued on our walk and entered the old town. The main street was packed with people, but the side streets were rather empty still. Heading uphill we reached the Friedrichsbad, an impressive neo-renaissance spa building built in 1877. Under it, excavated in 1847, were the ruins of the ancient Roman baths, testimony of the town's famous hot springs. Nearby we reached the Collegiate church, a nice gothic structure from the 15th century, which was unfortunately closed. We decided then to head back down through town, admiring the rest of the nice architecture of the old town before eventually heading to catch our bus to the train station. Once there we managed to switch over to the train that brought us back to Strasbourg.