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Brandon O'Brien

Travel and Adventure Journal

I wanted a place to journal all my travels and adventures around the world. I always enjoy going back and reflecting on my past travels and getting to relive them through my words and photos.

You're reading posts I wrote on September 2 throughout the years. Return home.
Excursion to Freiburg

Excursion to Freiburg

Friday, September 2, 2022 @ 7:24 PM in 2022 Germany and France

Day 9

There was a lot of activity on the streets outside our Airbnb last night. It seemed like drunk people were walking by screaming and shouting until almost 5 in the morning. Tonight we're going to try shutting the windows to help keep the noise down. We were both up by about 7am, had some coffee and ate breakfast over the next hour and a half. I was looking at the train schedule to Freiburg and saw that the train we wanted (departing Strasbourg at 9:58am) had some issues so we tried to get to the station for the 9:20 train. Unfortunately we missed the tram and wouldn't get to the station in time so we meandered through town to the station and hung out for a little while until the 10:20 train.

Because of the different train we took, we had about an hour to kill at our connection in Offenburg, Germany. We walked into town and got some food to hold us over so we wouldn't be starving when we got into Freiburg. I got essentially a sauceless pizza and Sam got the same toppings on a pretzel. Both were good and did their job of filling us up. While we were eating, Dakotah had a poop explosion and got his onesie covered. We ended up having to change him and wipe him down in a park behind a big church. We also realized we were almost completely out of wipes so we'd need to pick up some more in Freiburg.

We got back to the train station and hopped on our 11:26am high speed train to Freiburg. The trip only took a half hour and was pretty uneventful. Our regional train pass was working well since we could hop on an off whichever trains we wanted to in the area without having to buy new tickets. When we arrived in Freiburg we ran into a DM store and picked up a new packet of diaper wipes.

Walking into town we saw an archeological museum that had a bunch of grape vines in front of them. Some of the grapes were ripe and we tried a few which were really good. We're assuming the grapes they had out there were the ones that grow really well in the area. From there, we made our way over to the Schlossburg area where we were going to hike up to the Schlossburgturn (the big tower). The walk through town brought us through a bunch of markets and really cool cobbled streets that still have some old sewage and water canals in them (no sewage now, haha). We also passed by the Martinstor which was a 13th century gate in the wall around town. Now there's a McDonalds underneath it, lol.

The hike up to the tower was pretty steep but it was mostly paved and pretty well marked. There were a bunch of various trails that all weaved through each other but most ultimately made it to the tower. The tower is 153 steps up to a big lookout with some amazing views of the area. I went up there while Sam stayed on the ground. It was probably a good choice on her part since the tower was slightly swaying in the wind at the top.

After hiking back into town, we went to the Feierling biergarten and had some of their Inselhopf (an unfiltered wheat beer that was very easy to drink) and some sausages with kraut, mustard and some slices of bread. It was nice hanging out in the beer garden, even if there were a decent amount of flies and our waitress wasn't very attentive. It took quite a while to flag her down and get the bill.

From the beer garden we walked over to the Freiburger Munster (the main cathedral in town) where we snapped some pics and then started walking back to the train station. Along the way we saw a bunch of people with boba tea so we hunted the shop down and got some too. We got one with taro and coconut and it was a good thirst quencher. We both realized how little water we'd had to drink today so having something to drink other than beer was extremely welcomed.

The train rides back to Strasbourg were uneventful. We just retraced our route here by getting the high speed train to Offenburg and then a regional train to Strasbourg. We got back into Strasbourg around 5pm and were pretty hungry already. We walked around a little while hoping to see somewhere that jumped out to us but ultimately decided on more Asian by going to a place called East Canteen. I got a Japanese pancake and Sam got some Pad Thai. The pancake was really filling and Sam's pad thai was really flavorful.

On the walk back to the hotel we saw one restaurant that I bookmarked as a potential location to eat tomorrow. It was also next to a cheese and meat shop so we'll probably get some meat, cheese and a baguette and snack on that with our wine that we still need to try. Tomorrow is calling for thunderstorms all day so we're going to take it easy and play it by ear. We're hoping to find some souvenirs in town so tomorrow might be a great day to do that.

Teaser photos:

Martinstor
Martinstor
Near the Gewerbekanal
Near the Gewerbekanal
Schlossbergturm
Schlossbergturm
View from Schlossbergturm
View from Schlossbergturm

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Tags: france, germany, freiburg, strasbourg, europe

Posted from: France

Another Working / Reading day

Monday, September 2, 2013 @ 9:04 PM in 2013 Europe

Day 68

I went for an hour long run this morning along the beach then waited around the hostel because I had to switch rooms. I had lunch then waited, worked and read while my bed in the new room was getting made.

After getting situated in the new room, I showered and then read and worked a little longer. It started to get noisy in the hostel so I went outside and read in a park for a while. For dinner I had some tortellioni (which I learned is non-meat filled tortellini), chicken, asparagus, lemon, garlic, butter and olive oil concoction again.

I'm kinda running out of things to do here so I'm thinking about renting a paddle board this week and taking it out. I've never tried it before but the ocean is really calm here and I've seen a lot of people out on them.

The ClearCheckbook Money Management app for Windows Phone 8 was approved by Microsoft today. I'm hoping that will help bring more users to the site and help existing users have more options to access their finances. Now all that's left is a Blackberry 10 app and then I'll be happy for a while.

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Tags: daily journal, england, brighton

Posted from: England

Venice - Day 10 - Eurotrip 2008

Venice - Day 10 - Eurotrip 2008

Tuesday, September 2, 2008 @ 10:00 PM in 2008 Europe Wedding

We started the day wandering through some of the fish and fruit markets. If we actually had a kitchen or a way to prepare the food, it would have been awesome to get some of the fresh seafood and prepare it for dinner.

After the markets we went to St. Mark's square and took a tour of the St. Mark's Campanile (the big bell tower). There were some amazing views of the entire city of Venice and surrounding islands. Pretty much all you see are the orange roofs of the buildings and the winding alleyways going between them.

Once we finished up at St. Mark's, we did some more aimless wandering and eventually came across a waterfront where there were some huge yachts parked. We took some photos and explored some more before getting some dinner and heading to bed. Tomorrow is another big travel day taking us from Venice to our final stop of the trip, Rome.

Note: This post was written about 13 years after I went on this trip. Unfortunately I didn't keep a journal so this is pieced together from our itinerary and photos.

Teaser photos:

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Tags: italy, venice

Posted from: Italy