Have you visited any of the towns in the Black Forrest? To be honest, it wasn't until I had been living in Freiburg for a few weeks that I was told that I was actually living in a town in the Black Forrest. I thought it was literally a forrest you drive and park near and walk around! To my surprise, I had just moved into it!
Freiburg im Breisgau, ranked number three on the Lonely Planet's top cities to live in, maybe you will see why but the time you finish reading. Until I decided to move there, I had never even heard of this town. I looked it up on Pinterest and thought, hey it looks cute and I want to learn German, so why not? I also was under the impression that it doesn't get very cold since it's on the south west border of Germany (I couldn't have been more wrong). Since I was born and raised in sunny southern California, I was a little worried about just jumping into a life where you truly experience all four seasons, so this seemed like a good way to ease myself in.
Well, it gets cold. Simple as that. Not quite as cold as the rest of Germany does, but there are times when I feel like i'm living in a walk in refrigerator. And it's not even winter yet!
I had been living in Freiburg for about a month when I finally decided to get my camera out and go for a walk. From my house, you can walk up the hill into the forrest or you can also walk down the hill into the forrest. Basically wherever you go, you can get straight into the forrest. But the brief walking passing the neighboring homes really captivated me once I was paying attention to the detail. For example, black berries grow everywhere so if you go for a walk, you could most definitely pick up some snacks on your way.
Coming from Southern California where you can actually get money for taking the grass from your front lawn and make it more drought friendly, I really loved this walk admiring all the beautiful gardens. Something I was told about living in Freiburg is that it's actually illegal not to have any plants in your front yard! So basically the total opposite of SoCal, they want you to bring in more plants to water.