GERMANY BLACK FOREST DESTINATIONS I


n a cafe in a cobbled square, I raise a toast to Freiburg,


nestled in the heart of the Black Forest. It’s a town set against forested mountains, filled with cobbled streets and gabled beer houses. The fizz in my glass is Wier, a locally produced tipple made with beer and wine. Strangely – but like most things in Germany – it works, reflecting the area’s culinary diversity as well as its status as one of the country’s top wine-producing regions. Nearby, children float wooden


boats down the waterways that line Freiburg’s main streets. These narrow channels, just a few inches in width, were built during


the 13th century, when houses were made from wood (most still are). The channels brought water from the surrounding hills, should fire break out. With its beer houses and


tilting townhouses, Freiburg feels wonderfully historic, although a large student population makes it one of the area’s liveliest towns. There are 32,500 students at the University of Freiburg, which was founded in 1457, initially as a specialist school for pathology. Though this particular faculty can now be found on the outskirts, as +locals insisted on its relocation after pointing out that Germany’s sweltering


summers magnified the stench of the rotting corpses kept by the pathology department. Apart from the (thankful)


removal of the pathology department, the town’s Altstadt (old town) has been wonderfully preserved.


Although there are plenty of beer gardens – my favourite was Hausbrauerei Feierling, a tree-filled courtyard attached to the brewery it’s named after – reminders of the area’s connections with wine are everywhere; there’s even an urban vineyard next to my hotel, the Park Hotel Post. I also


develop a soft spot for the town’s many delis, serving delicacies such as locally made walnut pesto and beer marmalade. In Freiburg’s town square is


Freiburg Minster, a beautiful cathedral with the most colourful stained glass I’ve ever seen. During the Second World War, the glass was removed and placed into storage, before being refitted once the bombs stopped falling. In fact, the entire building


was one of the few to remain unscathed. But its survival wasn’t simply down to the fact that it didn’t take any direct hits. Nearby buildings crumbled under the pressure of shockwaves produced by the


28 September 2017 travelweekly.co.uk 59


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