Unlike yesterday we awoke to bright sunshine - very bright as I had not been able to work out the way to lower the shutter the previous night which Colin discovered this morning!
I worked out a considerably shorter way to walk to the tram after yesterday and we had our multi-trip tickets already which are doing well as I keep forgetting to stamp them when we get on board. There was a Saturday market in full swing around the Munster and it was excellent. Comprised of fruit and vegetable stalls, flower stalls, hand made toys and further around deli-stalls. We started by both ordering massive ‘bratwurst im brotchen’. We chose the most popular stall based on the queue length and then somehow managed to get to the front on the queue whilst inspecting the offerings. Mine was slathered with ketchup and Colin’s with mustard and ketchup and we followed the crowds to stand behind the stall infant of the Munster to eat them and accidentally drop onion shards to the floor for the pigeons and sparrows to hoover up at a later date.
We walked the entire circuit of stalls around the cathedral (which was good for Colin) and ended up buying the most German purchase of two slabs of Reggiano Parmesano from an Italian deli stall after a lot of tasting. I then carried these in my rucksack for the rest of the day. We continued onto the funicular station and took it up the hill to look down onto the city and walk in the coolness of the trees. The views were pretty impressive from here and it was a lot calmer and quieter. After a lot of moaning by me about the lack of mobile phone reception, made all the worse as Colin’s phone is considerably older but didn’t seem to have a problem, we made out way back down again.
After all that exercise we were ‘forced’ to stop on the ‘Rathausplatz’ for another very good ice-cream and cold drink. We were both quite tired and Colin’s knee has been playing up a lot. I really wanted to explore a bit more and was determined to try and find somewhere that sold beer glasses that I could actually buy rather than ‘liberate’! I found a beer shop I had identified whilst studying the map back in Baiersbronn and managed to buy a nice pair of their own tasting glasses - not quite what I had intended but they are a nice reminder of the city.
Tiredness kicking in, we caught a number 4 tram towards the University Botanic Gardens where we were able to sit in the shade for an hour or so until I heard a really strange nose from the nearby lily ponds, only to discover dozens of marsh frogs which I have not seen before - amazing. Eventually we were effectively kicked out along with many other people as the park was being locked up at 6.00pm so as heavy raindrops started to fall, we made out way back to the tram stop stopping briefly for some more milk and some fruit for breakfast.
It was back to last night food hall and we managed to get the same seats as we had last night. This time I followed Colin’s lead and went for an Afghan food bowl which was delicious… another two glasses seem to somehow have joined our collection.
Tram back and after the time in the Botanic Gardens my hay fever has really kicked in on our last night in Germany.
