Spent the weekend exploring again. First I caught a train to Strasbourg, which was a pleasantly scenic journey, good views of the Schwarzwald hills around Baden-Baden. It was a lovely bright autumnal day, a real shame I left my camera at home. On the bridge over the Rhine (Strasbourg is just the other side) there was a cormorant sitting on each strut, looking down into the river for fish. At the station I met up with Fiona and we hit the city.

Strasbourg is extremely pretty. It has an area called Petite France where all the houses are in the old Alsacien style, with steep tiled roofs and grand dark timbers. The streets are too narrow for cars, and nothing seems to go quite in a straight line. There are plenty of tempting cafes and little bakers selling Flammkuchen (a sort of savory Alsacien snack). The cathedral is also worth seeing. It's a magnificent gothic structure, started in about the 12th century, with one tall spire, and a huge clock on the inside that tells you the season, the time of sunset and your approximate position in the universe. Looking around inside was very moving. We also climbed the tower which gives you a great view of the city. You can see how none of the tiles match on the roofs, but they just mix all the colours up anyway. You can also see the European Parliament building in the distance, though that looked like the architect's model had fallen over just before they started drawing up the plans.

At the Strasbourg tourist information office, I asked the lady where Ikea was. I thought it would be a bit of an odd question, but she said, "Ah nonnnn, c'est pas bizarre, c'est normale!". Perhaps every second query is for Ikea. We drove there to try and get some cheap furniture for my room. I have a pet hate for Ikea's pine effect furniture, so I went strictly for joyfully coloured plastic and folded metal. I still have to build most of it, but I'll stick up a picture when it's done. So the Swedish multinational has claimed another victim.

We spent the night camping next to a vineyard just outside Freiburg. We were right next to the vines, just next to some trees. It seemed an ideal spot until the insomniac farmer started driving up and down the vines in his tractor. We were sure he would sling us out, just after we had put up the tent and started cooking, but I guess he wasn't expecting to see anyone around, so he drove within about 20 yards of us without seeing and went away. Then it was a perfect place to camp, nice flat ground and really quiet. My new folding chair was also very handy.

On Sunday we went into Freiburg, which is also very pretty, though it turns out almost all of it was reconstructed after the war. We went to the Stadtgeschichtmuseum, where the history of the city is recorded. There was a photo showing how after the war the cathedral was practically the only building standing. We got a guided tour of the museum, including an exhibition about St Augustina, who was blind until she was baptised and then she could see. She lived as a hermit in a cave just outside the town, hiding from her nobleman father who was trying to marry her off. The lady who showed us round was really nice. She spoke nice easy German but without being patronising, and by the time we left I felt I knew the town inside out. It has a history that basically involves being invaded at some point by every major European power. The other chap on the tour was a German and he was also very patient. I think he actually quite enjoyed watching us learn about the town. It makes you feel good to randomly meet nice people, especially in a foriegn country.

We got out of the museum just in time for mass in the cathedral. It was pretty good, though either the acoustics where we were sitting weren't very good, or most people didn't know any of the words to the hymns. Lots of people were clearly foreign tourists, so I guess that would explain it. The sermon was about Edith Stein, now St.Teresa Benedicta of the Cross. She was a Jewish woman who studied and Freiburg Uni., converted to Catholicism but was then to Auschwitz by the Nazis where she died in the gas chambers. It was good to be in the cathedral for a service.

We had a very good beer in a brew-pub after mass, and then drove to St Peters, a little Schwarzwald village with an incongruously fine rococo church. It used to be part of a Benedictine abbey. It has enormous frescos of scenes of the life of St Peter, and shows him holding big keys of heaven and curing lepers. They were really great. The representation of St Peter was much more convincing than it often is in earlier art, the artist didn't seem ashamed to make him look like the kind of man who was stubborn and occasionally rash like the character in the gospels.

After so much religious tourism I was feeling a certain amount of church-fatigue, but I felt we were getting close to the character of the area. Every village you drive into has a sign showing you what the mass times are for the churches in the town. The catholic ones seemed to always be at the top, but they showed protestant service times too. Also, they really don't open anything except the real tourist shops and restaurants on a Sunday.

After a bit a of a walk around the surrounding scenery, we drove home as scenically as we could manage, until we got spectacular-view-fatigue, and I drove the car home up the Autobahn. It was my first time on a road with no speed limit, but in a Micra laden with cheap Swedish furntiture, there was no danger of me breaking any speed records.

Now I need to prepare for this afternoon's German test...