Schaffhausen – Freiburg

Day 10 + 11 – July 15/16th

The breakfast at Best Western Hotel Bahnhof, was really good.

There was everything you could imagine. Have you noticed, the more expensive the hotel is, the smaller are the rolls 😆

See route on Googlemaps.

We started the day driving a little south west of Schaffhausen to Neuhausen am Rheinfall and Rhine Falls. The largest fall in Europe !

They are 150 m (450 ft) wide and 23 m (75 ft) high. In the winter months, the average water flow is 250 m³/s, while in the summer, the average water flow is 700 m³/s. The highest flow ever measured was 1,250 m³/s in 1965; and the lowest, 95 m³/s in 1921.

The Rhine Falls were formed in the last ice age, approximately 14,000 to 17,000 years ago, by erosion-resistant rocks narrowing the riverbed. The first glacial advances created today’s landforms approximately 500,000 years ago. Up to the end of the Wolstonian Stage approximately 132,000 years ago, the Rhine flowed westwards from Schaffhausen past Klettgau. This earlier riverbed later filled up with gravel.

About 132,000 years ago the course of the river changed southwards at Schaffhausen and formed a new channel, which also filled up with gravel. Part of the Rhine today includes this ancient riverbed.

and a second movie – click here to watch it – and the last two videos is recorded by my wife third video and fourth video

During the Würm glaciation, the Rhine was pushed far to the south to its present course, over a hard Late Jurassic limestone bed. As the river flowed over both the hard limestone and the easily eroded gravel from previous glaciations, the current waterfall formed about 14,000 to 17,000 years ago. The Rheinfallfelsen, a large rock, is the remnant of the original limestone cliff flanking the former channel. The rock has eroded very little over the years because relatively little sediment comes down the Rhine from Lake Constance.

I had booked a room at Clarion Hotel Hirschen in Freiburg-Lehen, just 10-15 minutes drive from the city center.

It was only 1 hour and 30 minutes driving, so we checked in around 2 pm.

The room was okay, except for no curtain and the safe was only for passports and wallets.

There was free parking – BUT the restaurant has a lot of guests from the city, so after 18.00, there are no parking lots left ! But we found out, that you can reserve a parking lot in the parking garage at eur 10 per day – so much for free parking 😉

We went into Freiburg. We were told, that the best place to park our car was at Parking garage Altstadt – Schlossberg.

It was a really hot day and we appreciated the water channels, with their cold mountain water, very much 🙂

The tower of the Cathedral was under renovation

Having see really many churches and cathedrals the last week, we had to see the Freiburg Cathedral also. The cathedral is called Münster was build from 1200 till about 1650 by the use of local sandstone. Read more on Wikipedia

I simply cannot help thinking of Ken Follett’s book ‘Pillars of the earth’, when I see all the wealth in these churches and cathedrals.

It is a huge Cathedral

Time to get something to drink

Thought it would be a good idea to ask the manager, what was going on in the restaurant scene in Freiburg. He did not know ! Flappergasten I went outside and ended asking two girls at a neighbor table where to go. They told us to go to Skajo, which is on top of a 4 floor with a terrace on top overlooking the city. Thank you girls 😉

Skajo is an in-restaurant and bar and I had the impression, that people came here to be seen ! Helle made a small video – take a look

Helle could not really find something she liked, but ended up getting the Fishfilet Salad Plate with salmon instead of fishfilet.

Both were good and the view was fantastic !

Freiburg is a really cosy city and we were happy that we booked two nights at the hotel.

On out way back to the car, we took a moment and enjoyed the jazz music at Schwarzwälder Hof – watch Helles video

When we came back to the Hotel there were no free parking lots and I ended up parking in front of the front door of the hotel !

Having been in so many hotels already, we got lost finding our room and ended on another floor where they were renovating a room – this is what it looked like – I am glad, it was not on our floor.

The breakfast in Clarion Hotel Hirschen was impressing – the waiters were slow and not very much serviceminded. Empty trays in the buffet. So it was a quick lunch and then we drew back into the city center of Freiburg.

A small tip – take a picture of the sign, where you are parking 😉

Shopping in this heat is great. A lot of shops has aircon and when that was not enough, then…

Lunchtime, we were in Kaufhof and thought we could just get something quick to eat for lunch in their Cafe Dinea. Helle got a salad and I got my first Wienerschnitzel on this trip.

I am not sure what it was I got, but Helle took these two videos of my experiment – video one and video two. It tasted okay, as long as I did not thing about what it was, I was eating !

Then we went back to the hotel to relax before our big dinner at the hotel’s outdoor restaurant.

As the Foodies we are, we had to order the Feinschmecker-Menu   🙂

I do understand why it is difficult to get a parking lot after 18.00 hours – It was a great meal !

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