From Bern we drove to Freiburg, arriving there as night fell. The buildings in the Altstadt date back to the 1400s.
We found our way to the HUGE cathedral in the old town. It was beautifully lit. The Swiss historian Jacob Burckhardt once said that the church’s 116-meter tower “will forever remain the most beautiful spire on earth.”
Wikepedia:
The Freiburg Cathedral is the only Gothic church tower in Germany that was completed in the Middle Ages (1330), and has lasted until the present, surviving the bombing raids of November 1944, which destroyed all of the houses on the west and north side of the market. The tower was subject to severe vibration at the time, and its survival of these vibrations is attributed to its lead anchors, which connect the sections of the spire. The windows had been taken out of the spire at the time by church staff led by Monsignor Max Fauler, and so these also suffered no damage.
The cathedral was locked up for the night, so we’ll return in the morning to see inside.
I loved the interesting cobblestones here–they were rounded and a different color. On the sidewalks, the cobblestones were small ovals. There were stone designs in front of the shops telling what sort of shop each was–like a pretzel for a bakery, or a tool, or a sewing machine for a tailor.
YUM!! Käsespätzle with crispy onions!
Our Frankfurt Germany Mission 