Day Four was Thanksgiving in the U.S. In Europe, it was Thursday. In any case, it marked our first experience with the Deutsche Bahn. Gerhard dropped us at the Frankfurt train station bright and early, and showed us how to proceed. The station was rather nice but unassuming from the outside but is really cool on the inside.
The cold inside the train station was unexpected, though I suppose it shouldn't have been. The trains are outside; they have to get through, etc. But it is weird, because you are inside, and the main areas are warm, and there are restaurants and newspaper stands and everything else, and then you go to wait for your train and this wall of cold air just hits you.
Anyway, we were headed to Freiburg, on the western edge of the southern Black Forest, because Lisa has relatives there, and there is a shop that bears her name. Frankfurt to Freiburg on the Deutsche Bahn is a two hour, nine minute ride.
I spent some time in the Freiburg train station looking for a postcard to send my mom, a quest that was ultimately unsuccessful due to my failure to find stamps. We wandered around town looking for the magical store with Lisa’s name on it. I believe we took several wrong turns and asked some nice German people where to go, but eventually found it. It is a knife store. Not so much with the souvenirs. Lisa went to the counter tell them she shared a last name with the store, but no one spoke English and we don’t know any German. Finally she pulled out her credit card and pointed to the name. The lady caught on quickly and laughed and got the owner (?) and we all smiled and had warm fuzzy feelings.
Eventually we met up with Lisa’s relative Heimo and his son, Rene, and Rene’s pregnant girlfriend, Janna. (They showed us ultrasound pictures.) Actually, I think we met Heimo first and he took us to lunch at an Italian place, which I found somewhat amusing. The rest of the family was at work, maybe, and we met them at dinner. I believe that for my Thanksgiving dinner I had some sort of schnitzel. We checked out the Freiburg Cathedral and the Christmas Market and then went back to Heimo’s house to spend the night. It actually sort of reminded me of my grandparents’ house. The décor was … interesting. The shower set-up also was … interesting. Since we were planning to depart early the next morning, I figured that could wait a day. Hey, when in Germany...
