Germany by rail. Destination #1 - Freiburg (read this 1st)
Hi everyone. 
Many of you know me from SSC and SSP. I occasionally lurk on this forum, so I decided to register and show my "Germany by rail" series. Here goes . . .
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Windows Live Local recently added bird's-eye coverage of some German cities, so I thought I'd collect some images similar to my sprawl threads. But this time I'm gonna go a step further and turn them all into a little "tour," complete with story line. 
Most of the time when people show pictures of their cities, they like to show just the scenic, notable or nice areas. What I'll try to do with these threads is show a bit of everything - nice, not nice, and mundane - so that those of us who've never been to Germany get a real good sense of what these cities are like.
Here's the itinerary for the entire tour:
http://img519.imageshack.us/im…3/germanyitinerarybb7.gif
1. Freiburg
2. Offenburg
3. Karlsruhe
4. Mannheim
5. Heilbronn
6. Stuttgart
7. Ulm
8. Augsburg
9. Munich
10. Nuremburg
11. Bamberg
12. Erfrut
13. Welmar
14. Jena
15. Gera
16. Chemnitz
17. Dresden
18. Leipzig
19. Halle
20. Dessau
21. Magdeburg
22. Wolfsburg
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Freiburg
Location of photos
http://img246.imageshack.us/img246/6479/freiburgmapky5.jpg
To begin my journey I boarded a Lufthansa 747 at SeaTac, and after a layover at O'Hare, I headed to Frankfurt.
http://konzern.lufthansa.com/g…download_boei_747_400.jpg
At Frankfurt I switched planes and got on a small aircraft headed south to Freiburg. Once at Freiburg I would meet up with my friends Hans and Franz, whom I met years ago while they were visiting Seattle. The three of us would then head out on our train trip. We've been planning this for years!
Here's Han and Franz!
http://blogimg.com/docisin/hans_franz.jpg
1. Here's the Freiburg airport where my small craft landed. It was a great airport - no lines, and no baggage claim!
http://img119.imageshack.us/img119/8232/freiburg1ze9.jpg
2. After we dropped my stuff off at their apartment, we went downtown to tour all the tourist spots
http://img162.imageshack.us/img162/6322/freiburg2pl2.jpg
3. Beautiful!
http://img162.imageshack.us/img162/7439/freiburg3fw4.jpg
4. We walked along the streets and passed on a bridge that goes over a cute little stream.
http://img239.imageshack.us/img239/8754/freiburg4jn4.jpg
5. More loveliness!
http://img239.imageshack.us/img239/7015/freiburg5sk5.jpg
6. After walking downtown for a bit, we went back to their apartment to eat and pick up the car. On the way back through town we stopped here to get gas.
http://img239.imageshack.us/img239/939/freiburg6li2.jpg
7. And then toured more of the old parts of the city by car. The vineyards on the hillsides were spectacular!
http://img239.imageshack.us/img239/7690/freiburg7lw7.jpg
8. More vineyards on the hills, in back of houses and apartments. I bet these people get drunk all the time!
http://img388.imageshack.us/img388/7334/freiburg8hx0.jpg
9. There was a heat wave, so by the end of the day we decided to go for a quick swim.
http://img388.imageshack.us/img388/8232/freiburg9or5.jpg
10. Afterwards we showered, and for dinner ate with Hans' parents, who lived in the house with the orange roof.
http://img388.imageshack.us/img388/2046/freiburg10ng5.jpg
11. The next day I asked Hans and Franz, "Surely not all of Freiburg is old! Can we see some modern stuff, just for the heck of it?" So we got in Frans' car and drove through some of the modern sections.
http://img388.imageshack.us/img388/1543/freiburg11ne7.jpg
12. More modern stuff. I would have gotten a bit worried if the entire place was nothing but fairytale buildings!
http://img388.imageshack.us/img388/1765/freiburg12gl5.jpg
13. Highrises! They're even a bit ugly (phew!)
http://img238.imageshack.us/img238/120/freiburg13er3.jpg
14. We then drove through the outskirts of town.
http://img388.imageshack.us/img388/1959/freiburg14fw6.jpg
15. And hit a bit of the countryside.
http://img238.imageshack.us/img238/1319/freiburg15wt5.jpg
16. On the way back, we drove through some really boring commercial/industrial areas north of the city.
http://img238.imageshack.us/img238/3905/freiburg16kv4.jpg
17. And near the south end of town drove through some newer development. I just loved how the fields directly abutted the city!
http://img238.imageshack.us/img238/4819/freiburg17pr4.jpg
18. Many of the outlying neighborhoods or villages were themselves quite cute, even though they weren't neccessarily old.
http://img516.imageshack.us/img516/3010/freiburg18jl6.jpg
19. Unfortunately I don't think there's such a thing as a "cute" industrial area.
http://img516.imageshack.us/img516/889/freiburg19rd1.jpg
20. More cute, newer houses. Many of these were actually duplexes or quadroplexes. I also became aware at how many newer dwellings had solar panels on their roofs. They should do this in California and Arizona!
http://img516.imageshack.us/img516/3483/freiburg20ip4.jpg
21. There was also an assortment of institutional-looking buildings.
http://img516.imageshack.us/img516/2087/freiburg21vm5.jpg
22. And some other neighborhoods that were sort-of quaint, but not as quaint as the Medival town center.
http://img160.imageshack.us/img160/498/freiburg22kk1.jpg
23. Some really boring apartments, and some other institutional-looking building.
http://img160.imageshack.us/img160/2906/freiburg23qt2.jpg
24. Lovely - a strip shopping center! I felt right at home here, it was just like America! We ate dinner at a restaurant here.
http://img160.imageshack.us/img160/2906/freiburg24qr8.jpg
25. The next day was a Sunday. We went to church here. Hans and Franz lived in the apartment on the right-hand side of the picture - the one with the orange roof.
http://img160.imageshack.us/img160/7964/freiburg25wj4.jpg
26. It was almost a shame they didn't live in one of the top floors of this apartment, the views would have been spectacular!
http://img108.imageshack.us/img108/9509/freiburg26rc7.jpg
27. Here's what these newer-but-nice neighborhoods look like up close. More solar panels on the roofs!
http://img108.imageshack.us/img108/8066/freiburg27oh8.jpg
28. And then we made our way back towards the center of town, passing through some older stuff yet again.
http://img108.imageshack.us/img108/1522/freiburg28vw8.jpg
29. I forgot to ask what this was, but I just loved the orange roof!
http://img108.imageshack.us/img108/7016/freiburg29su3.jpg
30. Not everything had an orange roof, of course. Some new units were being constructed here.
http://img108.imageshack.us/img108/5746/freiburg30kg0.jpg
31. By the end of Sunday we began contemplating the rest of our journey. Our train was to leave in 2 days.
http://img395.imageshack.us/img395/7337/freiburg31lj5.jpg
32. But there was still more of Freiburg I wanted to see. The next day was hot again, so just before lunch we decided to go swimming in another public pool.
http://img395.imageshack.us/img395/5395/freiburg32iw0.jpg
33. But first Franz had to stop by work to tie up some loose ends before his vacation. He worked in the building with the blue roof.
http://img395.imageshack.us/img395/4167/freiburg33sx3.jpg
34. While Franz was doing his stuff at work, me and Hans decided to drive around a little more.
http://img395.imageshack.us/img395/7295/freiburg34bm1.jpg
35. He showed me the last apartment he lived in, which was in this complex here.
http://img160.imageshack.us/img160/6950/freiburg35dx3.jpg
36. He also showed me these cute little garden plots that many Germans like to spend their time on. I also marvelled once again at the vineyards on the hillside.
http://img160.imageshack.us/img160/4990/freiburg36gm9.jpg
37. Afterwards we had to get gas again.
http://img160.imageshack.us/img160/4247/freiburg37ad2.jpg
38. And then Hans showed me Freiburg's biggest industry (I forget what this thing made, it was some factory).
http://img160.imageshack.us/img160/4710/freiburg38dy9.jpg
39. One more pass through the center of town
http://img160.imageshack.us/img160/3079/freiburg39sg4.jpg
And then another quick drive through the countryside a ways north of town (off the map). At 6pm we picked up Franz from work and ate with Hans' parents again.
http://img246.imageshack.us/img246/5684/freiburg40bb4.jpg
40. The next morning, it was time for us to go downtown to the train station . . .
http://img246.imageshack.us/img246/1790/freiburg41xd3.jpg
. . . and head to Offenburg to begin our trip!
http://img246.imageshack.us/img246/7651/freiburg42dm8.jpg
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