Freiburg; Saturday, 27 August, 2016

5:30 came rather too quickly, but at least the alarm call worked and I was out of the hotel in time to catch the hopper bus to Heathrow and check-in for the flight.

A smooth journey through the airport, flight and journey through the airport at the other side had me waiting for the bus to Freiburg that I originally thought it wasn’t going to be possible to catch.

Consequently, I was in Freiburg earlier than I thought I would be, and even after stopping off at the tourism office to pick up a Freiburg Welcome Card – giving me free use of the public transport in the whole region, it was still too early for the hotel to cope with as they didn’t have a room ready for me. I was able to leave my luggage in the storage room, but still had a fair amount in my back pack that I didn’t have an opportunity to get rid of, so had to lug around town for the afternoon – in some pretty warm temperatures.

After a bit of wandering around town I eventually found a shop selling drinks and quenched a massive thirst before sitting down to plan what to do. I decided that as it was so hot in the city centre it might be a little cooler up in the mountains so I headed out to pick up the cable car up into the mountains surrounding the city, that was included free in the Welcome Card.

A short tram and bus ride later it was obvious that a lot of people had the same idea as me as the cable car was very busy with lots of people in the queue. It meant the full load of 7 people were being packed into each gondolier, but it did mean that a pretty long queue was being cleared very quickly

The cable car is quite long, with a very steep climb up to the summit, taking around 10 minutes to make the journey. At the top the weather was still gloriously sunny, but a cooling breeze made if feel quite a bit cooler than it was down in town – though it was at this point that I remembered that the of course my sunblock was still down in my suitcase in the hotel, so I needed to make sure I kept in the shade as much as possible.

After having a walk around the top area for a bit I headed over to the very nice looking restaurant built above the top station and had a light lunch and a cold beer, during which a text finally arrived from the hotel saying that my room was ready.

Having soaked up a little bit of sun and finished my late lunch I caught the cable car back down the mountain, the bus back to the tram stop and the tram all the way back to my hotel where I was able to check in, unpack and have a lovely cooling shower.

Once some of the heat of the day had finally died down – so that it was only in the mid-twenties as dusk arrived – I headed out into town for a bit of a wander before grabbing a bite to eat and then returning to the hotel