Schauinsland

On Wednesday, we attempted to reset our internal clocks by exposing ourselves to the sun from late morning until sunset. After breakfast, Stefan went downtown to rent a bike. He then biked up Schauinsland--Freiburg's nearest tall mountain--while Elias, my mom, and I took the cable car up. To take the cable car, we had to drive to the Seilbahn station, which meant spending half an hour sitting outside our Ferienwohnung in our parked fancy schmancy rental car figuring out how to shift from park into gear. This actually required getting out the manual to learn that one needs to tweak the shifter not once but twice for every gear change and that the button one tries pushing after tweaking just once only puts the car in park. I then tried to remember rechts vor links while driving the relatively big car through narrow streets that we shared with bold drivers, daring bicyclists, and long streetcars. The rental car has a nifty feature that yells at you if it thinks you're going too fast in a construction zone or getting too close to parked cars, so I of course was grateful when we finally arrived at the cable car station near Horben. Efficient public transportation would have been faster.

My inner acrophobe has apparently moved out permanently. I experienced zero adrenaline rush riding the cable car, and when we got to the top of Schauinsland, I easily climbed the viewing tower--a first for me, yet for better or for worse, no big deal. I would have appreciated at least a smidge of panicky thrill, but oh well.

We enjoyed lunch together at the restaurant atop Schauinsland--Pommes and Flammkuchen--then hiked through woods and meadows back down to Horben for cake and coffee, with Stefan orbiting us the entire way on his bike.

Queen Anne's Lace

Mountaintop meadow

Bee on a stalk

Lichen on a stick

Studying the German bucolic (E says "buCOWlic")

Bench with a view

View with a bench

This fire hydrant...

...is a design award winner.