Germany by rail. Destination #2 - Offenburg
Offenburg
Location of photos
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1. A short time later we arrived in Offenburg. The scenery along the way was lovely! Our train pulled into the station.
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2. After debarking, we walked around the historic heart of the city and ate lunch at the central plaza.
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3. Then we checked our luggage into a hotel next to the train tracks.
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4. The heat wave was still on, so for a couple of hours we walked a few blocks to the west and went for a dip.
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5. Afterwards we continued our jaunt around the central city. There was a modernistic office complex alongside the river.
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6. And back at the other end of downtown we explored more of the old city. Some new buildings were rising amid the old.
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7. We visited an old church
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8. And some institutional structures.
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9. At the end of the day we rented a car and decided to drive around and explore more of the city. We saw some modern parts
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10. And plenty of faceless apartment blocks.
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11. Not to mention some industrial areas. I have a confession to make: I'm fascinated with the stark brutality and hard geometric forms of industrial areas, so pardon me if I take so many pictures of them!
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12. As I did in Freiburg, I once again noticed that many of the houses and other buildings in the newer neighborhoods and outlying villages had solar panels on their roofs.
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13. But not all of them.
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14. It was still hot and we were tempted to jump into this house's pool!
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15. But instead we stopped at this gas station and got ourselves some drinks.
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16. We drove past some more institutional-looking buildings.
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17. And some more residential areas. Once again, it was interesting the way the farms so closely abutted the dense residential areas.
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18. Same thing here. These apartments appeared to have great views of the little lake to one side, and the fields on the other.
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19. More industrial areas.
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20. That night we ate at a pub in one of the little outlying villages to the south. We got really drunk, too!
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21. The next morning we headed to the east parts of the city to visit some of the vineyards. There were neighborhoods and villages climbing the hills, placed carefully among the vineyards.
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22. This was far up a hillside. The views from here were wonderful!
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23. More of the same. We bought some nice Reisling from a little store in a village.
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24a. On the way back down the hill heading toward town, we passed by some quaint newer houses, dressed up in Alpine fancy.
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24b. So I just had to take a little detour and see them up close. They were so cute! I want one of those A-frames!
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25. We then passed through some more commercial and industrial areas and went into some stores. Hans saw some plants in this Home Depot-type store he just *had* to have, but me and Franz talked him out of it!
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26. We also saw some more of these little garden plots. Hans, our plant and gardening buff, told me his parents had one of these in Frieburg, they're called [url=http://www.spiegel.de/international/0,1518,410799,00.html]Schrebergarten[/url].
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27. It was still hot and we saw many people in their swimming pools.
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28. In fact we were tempted to go for a dip in this lake! For some stupid reason, the car we rented didn't have air conditioning. 
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29. Another cute village.
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30. We continued to be hot and complained about the heat and the lack of air conditioning in our car. On the map we saw an outlying lake to the west of the city, so we thought we'd check it out - it seemed enticing! But how disappointed we were when we got there!
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31. On the way back toward town, the heat was making us silly. Franz, who was driving, decided to drive around this circle five times!
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32. So we stopped in this shopping center to get some more refreshments. Go away heat! I thought Europe was supposed to be pleasant in the summer!
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33. My obession with industrial areas continued. Even the industrial areas often directly abutted fields.
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34. More industry. Beautiful!
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35. But don't worry, I see beauty in the cute little villages, too!
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36. More swimming pools! Even later in the afternoon it was tempting to just dive into some of these!
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37. But instead we just drove through some more little villages surrounding the city.
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38. And I also got more of my industrial fix.
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39. More.
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That sure was nice! Too bad we can't stay here, and we must go on. Time to head north to Karlsruhe!
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