Weinachten in Freiburg

I’m sitting in the tiny kitchen of our rooftop flat in Freiburg, eating Brot (bread) mit Butter und Gelee (with butter and jelly). Unlike American bread, this is dense, firm, brown bread with a thick crust- it doesn’t crumble when you spread cold butter on it, and makes for a satisfying breakfast.

Amy is still asleep after another late night with my uncle’s family, comparing California wine (I brought a bottle) to local wine from the Kaiserstuhl, a small mountain range in the middle of the Rheintal (Rhine Valley). It’s weird to wake up before dawn, even if “before dawn” can mean “8:15” as it did today. It’s after nine and I’ve showered, shaved, flipped the laundry (it’s been drying in front of various space heaters throughout the night), and am eating breakfast, and it’s still just starting to get properly light out. The church towers to the west are illuminated, and some of the higher buildings as well, but our neighborhood is still in the shadow of the Schwarzwald (Black Forest)

After a late breakfast with family we explored Freiburg a bit more yesterday, but it was cold and everything was closed. Eventually we ducked into the Starbucks I made yesterday’s posts from, and then came back to the apartment to read, nap and relax. Then, as usual, back out to the family for dinner.

My uncle’s wife is from Cyprus, but has lived in Germany for 30 years or so. The food was, in a word, phenomenal: Roast duck (German) with gravy (also German), meat dolmas (Greek), some sort of fried meatball (Greek), tzatziki (Greek) with boiled as well as fried potatoes (both German), Rotkohl (red cabbage, German) and of course the two wines. Much of it was meat-based, but I got my fill of German food with a touch of Greek, and I’m assured the meat was delicious.

And now the sun has just about reached us, and is shining off the Ziegel (tile) and Schiefer (slate) roofs, clearly illuminating the huge gilded clock on the double-spired church by my uncle’s house. I can’t read it with the sun blazing off the Zeiger und Ziffern (hands and numbers), but it’s about 9:20, so time to wake Amy and go meet the family for a road trip down to Karlsruhe to meeting my other uncle and his family, my parents, brother and grandmother for a family Christmas luncheon. We’ll be back here tonight, likely with my brother and father in tow as they strive to get out from underfoot of my aging grandmother and the worked-up clan.

 

The view out of our apartment with the Münster (cathedral, left spire with the scaffolding), the Schwabentor (not the Martinstor, as I called it earlier- I always get the two confused), and the Feldberg (Field Mountain) in the background. The first truly sunny day we've had so far. Freiburg.

 

The view looking the other way. The two-spired church in the background isn't nearly as far as it seems- maybe a kilometer away. My uncle lives right across the street, so we just walk it. Freiburg.

 

Out the same window, now a bit more to the left. The house there has a gorgeous widow's walk on top, and you can see a classic slate roof on the right. Freiburg.