Freiburg
Our second spot on our three week trip through Germany took us to the pleasant city of Freiburg. The town itself sits at the base of the black forest, which is renowned for its natural beauty. Throughout Freiburg runs hundreds of small aqueducts and connecting rivers, which only adds to the towns connection to its surrounding nature.
On the first day, we took a guided tour of the city, which revealed some striking facts about the town that I would have completely overlooked. Germany’s Nazi history appears everywhere, even though most of the town was flattened during World War II, even in the writing on University buildings.
Personally, one of the most interesting parts of Freiburg was a sustainable farm and bio fuel farm we were able to tour as a class. These two farms sat on opposite sides a grassy hill. The sustainable farm was quite large while only having a few workers, producing dairy from their cattle. The process was streamlined and efficient, from cattle breading and the final milk and cheese. The bio fuel farm was also quite interesting, as it was initially a pig farm but during a drop in meat prices, switched to creating bio fuel. While this was a steep initial investment, it has proven to be beneficial at offsetting the drop in meat prices, where today the farm has fully switched over to only biofuel production.
During our last day, we visited the lake town of Titisee, a beautiful lake higher up in the mountains of the Black forest. While this was not explicitly focused on sustainability, it drew my interest, reminding me of home back in Colorado; the trout filled rivers, high mountains, and cool drizzle.
Freiburg feels like a lifetime ago now, but I would love to return one day and explore the town again.
Auf Wiedersehen und alles Gute!
Max Rajendran
