Easter, Black Forest Style

 Sunday morning dawned in Strasbourg, and we woke to find this note...

The girls were out of bed like a shot but took awhile to locate where that wascally wabbit had hidden their baskets.  Squeals of delight ensued when they finally did though...

 As instructed, we skipped off to the nearest Rabbit Hole - Nana and Grampa's  room...

 And the search began in earnest...The Easter Bunny had left eggs in all of the most unlikely places.  And they had so much fun trying to figure out what crazy places the could look next.

 Hunt over, we packed our things into the car and set off for our Sunday drive.  We were headed over the river and through the woods...because it was a high holiday and NOTHING was open so we thought a leisurely drive through the Black Forest would be our best bet.  The roads were winding, and the rain was falling, and we were content to just sit and enjoy the scenery. I snapped a few pictures - through the car window...most of which did not turn out...

 We stopped for a bite to eat after locating a very quaint hotel restaurant that was open and had room for us, and we finished our drive by entering Freiburg - our final destination on our list.  Sadly, the weather had not cleared, it had gotten colder and even rainier.  We did set out to see some of the sights but ended up cutting our losses after the church.  We ducked into a restaurant that was open, again, for a beer in an attempt to warm up and stay dry.  We went to another restaurant directly after that, for dinner and then went back to the hotel for the night.  Freiburg just wasn't going to be one of those towns we were going to get to explore in depth.  That was ok though because we had saved it for Easter precisely because we knew that things would be closed.  We still got to see some of the sights as they were part of the town itself.

The Freiburg Münster (Cathedral Church) was started in the early 13th century, but much of it was destroyed in the bombing raids in World War II.  Surviving the strikes was the spire - said to be one of the most beautiful in the world - and is the only surviving medieval tower in Germany that was completed in the Middle Ages.

The Freiburg Bächle runs through the entire town.  An unusual system of gutters that used to provide water to help fight fires and feed livestock but never as a thoroughfare for sewage.  It is said that if you accidently step in one, you will marry a local.  Now, on beautiful days, you will find kids pulling boats by strings through them or people sitting down and soaking their feet while sipping a drink.  With the cold and the rain, neither of those things appealed to us.  So we skipped on down the road...

We passed the City Hall...

The red Historica Merchants' Hall...

And so many of these...

Located just in front of the doorway to most businesses in the old town, these medallions used to signify what type of business you would find inside.  Some of them are self - explanatory...

And some leave you scratching your head and wondering just what may have been here once upon a time...

 We also ran into these guys (and girl) surrounding a fountain.  I guess they didn't get the memo about the "non-sewage" use of the fountains and gutters, but they sure made us giggle.

 After a rainy night and facing another holiday (Easter Monday is celebrated in Germany also) we hopped back into our monster (the rental van)...

Stopped at another ridiculously cute restaurant in a picture-perfect village for lunch...

and made it home in time for dinner and to see this...

 And as promised - it snowed on Tuesday (we went to the mall).  Nana and Grampa bid us goodbye on Wednesday morning (along with Papa).  We were all a bit tired and a lot sad but mostly just happy that we had the chance to have such great adventures together for the past 2 weeks.