Road trip - day 8

We had a continental breakfast at the Bluhotel before packing & deciding to follow our plan to investigate Old Freiburg by tram.

We drove as per our instruction map to the tran station around the corner from the hotel & parked on the street. It had sounded easy to just get Tram 3 into town ..... the tram itself ended up easy but buying a ticket was not!!! It took 29mins with trams coming & going before we managed to board with a valid ticket ;)

The most surprising thing was the speed; the tram took off towards town with locals not taking too much heed of the tram lines!! We didn't see any casualties though!

We arrived in the old town to find a delightful open market around the Munster platz. Loads of local produce & flower & plant stalls. The Munster was impressive both in height & location. Inside the sun was streaming through the beautiful stained glass windows. It was very atmospheric with many visitors taking seats in quiet contemplation & lighting candles. There was a strong smell of lilac with blooms decorating the church.

Back outside we strolled around the market & bought a few hand crafted wood presents. We had a coffee in the square & then found amongst the Bratworst stalls a tofu stand!!! Very excited to be able to partake if the local type of cuisine!! Even more surprising was the length of the queue .... far longer the the normal foodie stands.

Not long afterwards we decided to find the return tram, this time without any hitches. We were again surprised to see kids playing near the tram tracks, bicycles, pedestrians & even a car.

On our return to the suburbs we stopped in a garden centre for a drink & cake before getting on the road ... about 2 half hour trip ahead of us to the next Gite.

The trip was uneventful; on the approach to Pontarlier we found various supermarket signs & settled on a Hyper Super U. It was packed!!! Loads of Swiss cars. We stocked up on the basics & had a good mooch.

Eventually we found the new Gite. The road to Pontarlier had been relatively easy going given the altitude of the town. The last 5 miles saw us on a steep narrow road with quite a drop on one side. The Gite itself looked great from outside, very big traditional chalet with a beautiful view over to mountains in the distance & alpine meadows across the valley. The sound of the cow bells from the field behind was pretty & tinkly!! Inside the Gite was presumably a traditional chalet, from maybe the '70s!! I'm reserving judgement on how it might pan out.

We had tea & watched Dr Who on the TV all night. The Gite owner came around to make sure all was ok, didn't have the heart to tell her the cutlery & dishes weren't great ;) She will return on departure day (sat) around 9.30pm to take the tourist tax & pay for the heating & maybe the cleaning charge. It's a bit chilly of an evening so we donned wooly jumpers & put on the heating.... hope the weather doesn't get too bad! Sounds like we'll be visiting the tourist office for internet access & advice on trains to Switzerland.