Germany (Lonely Planet, 6th Edition) - Andrea Schulte-Peevers [386]
White Rabbit Club ( 590 0628; www.white-rabbit-club.de, in German; Leopoldring 1; 9pm-2am Tue & Thu, 4pm-2am Wed, 9pm-3am Fri & Sat, 8am-noon Sun) It’s never too late to disappear down this rabbit hole, a student wonderland of cheap beers, DJs and gigs. Things get even curiouser at Wednesday night’s open jam sessions.
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Entertainment
Get the free listings monthly, Freiburg Aktuell, at hotels and the tourist office.
BZ-Kartenservice ( 01805-55 66 56; www.freiburg-ticket.de, in German; Bertoldstrasse 7; 9am-6pm Mon-Fri, 9am-4pm Sat).
Jazzhaus ( 349 73; www.jazzhaus.de, in German; Schnewlinstrasse 1) Under the brick arches of a wine cellar, this venue stages first-rate jazz, rock and hip-hop concerts at 8pm at least three nights a week. It morphs into a club from 11pm to 3am on Friday and Saturday nights.
Konzerthaus ( 388 1552; www.konzerthaus.freiburg.de; Konrad-Adenauer-Platz 1) A hulking modern concert hall that doubles as a cultural events centre.
Waldsee ( 736 88; www.waldsee-freiburg.de, in German; Waldseestrasse 84; 11am-2am Mon-Thu, 11am-3am Fri & Sat, 10am-1am Sun) This lakeside haunt, 30 minutes’ walk south of the Altstadt, hosts events from jazz sessions to club nights.
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Getting There & Around
AIR
Freiburg shares EuroAirport (www.euroairport.com) with Basel (Switzerland) and Mulhouse (France). Low-cost airlines easyJet and Ryanair fly to destinations including London, Berlin, Rome and Alicante from here.
BICYCLE
Bike paths run along the Dreisam River, leading westward to Breisach and then into France.
Mobile ( 292 7996; www.mobile-freiburg.com, in German; Wentzingerstrasse 15; 4hr/day €8/15; 9am-6.30pm Mon-Fri, 10am-4pm Sat), in a glass-enclosed pavilion across the bridge from the Hauptbahnhof, rents bikes and sells cycling maps.
BUS
The Airport Bus ( 500 500; www.freiburger-reisedienst.de) goes hourly from Freiburg’s bus station to EuroAirport (€20, 55 minutes).
SüdbadenBus ( 3680 388www.suedbadenbus.de, in German) and RVF ( 207 280; www.rvf.de, in German) operate bus and rail links to towns and villages throughout the southern Black Forest. Single tickets for one/two/three zones cost €2/3.40/4.80 (half that for children aged six to 14); a 24-hour Regio24 ticket costs €5/10/10 for one person and €8.50/17/17 for two to five people.
From Freiburg, bus 1066 travels at 4pm on weekdays to Haslach, Hausach and Schiltach (2¼ hours) in the Kinzig Valley. See the town listings in the Southern Black Forest for other bus options to/from Freiburg.
Bus and tram travel within Freiburg (www.vag-freiburg.de) is charged at the one-zone rate. Buy tickets from the vending machines or from the driver and validate upon boarding.
CAR & MOTORCYCLE
The Frankfurt–Basel A5 passes just west of Freiburg. The scenic B31 leads east through the Höllental to Lake Constance. The B294 goes north into the Black Forest.
Car-hire agencies include Europcar ( 515 100; Löracherstrasse 10) and Avis ( 197 19; St-Georgener- Strasse 7).
About 1.5km south of Martinstor, there’s unmetered parking on some side streets (eg Türkenlouisstrasse). To get there from the Altstadt drive south on Günterstalstrasse (the southern continuation of Kaiser-Joseph-Strasse).
TRAIN
Freiburg is on a major north–south rail corridor with frequent departures for destinations such as Basel (€14.10 to €21.80, 45 to 65 minutes) and Baden-Baden (€17.80 to €27, 45 minutes to 1½ hours). Freiburg is also the western terminus of the Höllentalbahn to Donaueschingen via Titisee-Neustadt (€4.80, 38 minutes, twice an hour). There’s a local connection to Breisach (€4.80, 26 minutes, at least hourly).
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AROUND FREIBURG
Schauinsland
Freiburg seems tiny as you drift up above the city