DAY 1
The Mooring ladies & I arose at 4 a.m. on Friday morning in order to make our reservation with Eurostar leaving St. Pancras at 650. Luckily, Fi had arranged for a taxi to pick us up, so there was minimal schlepping of luggage en route to the train station--great news for yours truly (I am not a bellboy). Upon arriving, I was reminded of just how nice St. Pancras is. Notice the Olympics rings:
Fi's particularly fond of am enormous bronze sculpture at one end of the station. I guess I can see why, with the romantic theme & all. The subjects are snogging, as they say in the local parlance. For my part, I was particularly fond of my ham & cheese croissant from Le Pain Quotidien; not all of us can be art-lovers.
Boarding the train was painless, as is usually the case with train travel, & in no time our journey was off to a start. The overall trip on the rails was some 1-2 hours, but that seemed to pass in a moment, & before I knew it, we'd traversed the English channel, & I was officially on French soil, slowing to a halt in the seaside ville of Calais. Bonjour.
As dedicated Sausage readers will recall, leading up to our trip, I experienced some concern about the make & model of our rental car, as we couldn't determine that in the booking & would only find out upon pick-up. Well, much to my surprise, we landed a Mercedes:
Not exactly the BMW X1, but not a bad substitute either. Billed by Mercedes as a Compact Sports Tourer, the B180's interior was certainly spacious enough for 4, & with a little art & elbow grease, I even managed to cram all of our baggage into the back too. Under the hood, it was rocking a 2.0 liter in-line 4-banger, enabling us to push along the European highways & byways at a clean 54.3 mpg. It's a good little car. Anyway, in motoring from France to Germany, I didn't really take any photographs, save one. The kodak moment arose in a Belgian gas station, when I stopped in front of a drinks cooler only to realize it was entirely filled with only one variety of beverage:
I'd never seen it before, but subsequent research reveals that JUPILER is the best-selling beer in Belgium. Because the filling station kept such a large quantity in stock & the Belgians aren't exporting any of this to the UK or US, I can only assume that Jupiler must be the most delicious nectar in Europe's capital. Why else would they be hoarding it all for themselves?
As I said, there are no pictures from Luxembourg. To be honest, I don't really have anything worthwhile to say about France, Belgium, or Luxembourg from this part of the drive. We only stopped for fuel & bathroom breaks in those places. Eventually, though, after 7 or 8 hours of automotive transit, we reached our hotel for the evening, located in the charming town of Freiburg, in Germany.
I've been wanting to see Germany for a long, long time, & from all the research I've done, my anticipation couldn't have been greater. Luckily, Freiburg was absolutely beautiful. Resting beneath a giant hill on the eastern border of Schwarzwald, Freiburg has the feel of a mountain village, the sort of place that every small Rocky Moutain Town in Colorado has tried to recreate. The cobblestone streets were quaint & immaculate, so the town seemed smaller than I suspect it actually is. As soon as we arrived, I felt very happy to be there.
The Mooring ladies & I arrived fairly early in the evening, so we had ample opportunity to stroll around, take in the sights, & sit down to a nice meal. After dinner, Fi & I repaired to the town brewery to tipple some local lager & enjoy a bit of German hospitality.
Let me tell you, Hausbrauerei Feierling was a pretty happening spot on Friday evening! We eventually found a table, though, & (you will be proud to know) I honored my German heritage by ordering the largest beer on the list.
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