Freiburg

Its spire is carved open like stone lace, and the historian Burckhardt called it the most beautiful tower on earth. Climb the tower to look up into the hollow spire. Stalls ring the church Monday to Saturday mornings, farmers north, traders south.

Gutters barely a hand's span wide run along old-town streets, once for fighting fires and watering livestock. Legend says stepping in one by accident means you will marry someone from Freiburg. In summer children float wooden boats and run alongside.

East of the centre rises a hill with old castle remains, quickly climbed by a short funicular from the city garden. From the lookout tower at the top you see past the minster spire and the roofs, over the Rhine lowland to the Vosges in France.

A red 16th-century merchants' hall on the minster square's southern edge, arcaded below with statues of four Habsburg emperors on the upper front. Coloured tiles pattern the corner turrets, and banquets are held in it today.

Housing built from the late 1990s where French army barracks stood, with many households living car-free. In its solar estate the houses make more power than they use and sell the surplus. Walk the lanes from the tram terminus: few cars park on the street.

A former Augustinian monastery now holds medieval art. The original statues and gargoyles from the outside of the minster were brought in here out of the weather, so you see them at eye level.

Old-town pavements are patterned with Rhine pebbles, and in front of shop doors a picture set into the ground shows what the shop sells. There is a pretzel outside a bakery and spectacles outside an optician, so walk looking down.

A circulating gondola built in 1930 climbs 3.6 kilometres to a summit at 1,284 metres, the longest of its kind in Germany. On clear days the Alps show from the tower at the top, and a forest trail leads back down past an old silver mine museum.

A glacial lake deep in the Black Forest, under an hour from Freiburg by train. You can hire rowing boats or pedalos, and cuckoo clock shops line the lakeside strip. The nearby Feldberg is the highest peak in the Black Forest.

Old volcanic hills rising from the plain north-west of Freiburg, among the warmest places in Germany. The loess slopes are cut into terraced vineyards, threaded by sunken lanes worn deep into the soft earth. Wild orchids flower in the meadows in May and June.

The two survivors among the gates of the 13th-century walls, both raised to their present height around 1900. Martinstor stands mid-street on the main shopping drag with trams gliding past. The outer face of Schwabentor shows Saint George slaying the dragon.

At 1,493 metres the Black Forest's highest peak, an hour-plus from Freiburg by train and connecting bus. Its bare grassy top catches strong wind, so summer hikers still carry a jacket. Skiers come in winter, walkers in summer for the trail down to the Feldsee.

A waterfall in the Black Forest town of Triberg, dropping in seven steps over a total of more than 160 metres, among the highest in Germany. Entry is paid, then a forest path climbs alongside. Peanuts sold at the entrance let you hand-feed the red squirrels.

A small town under vineyard slopes to the south, where legend says Doctor Faust died at the Lowen inn. Geothermal drilling in 2007 made the ground swell, and cracks still run across the old Rathaus and its neighbours. A footpath leads to the castle ruin.

Germany's largest theme park, opened in 1975 at Rust to the north, each area dressed as a European country. Freiburg is roughly forty minutes off by car, so day trips are easy. One day will not cover it; ride the popular coasters right at opening.

A narrow gorge in the Hollental east of Freiburg, waterfalls and wooden stairways running beneath a tall stone railway viaduct. On Advent weekends Christmas stalls fill the ground below the viaduct. Paths are wet and slippery, so wear firm soles.

A church on a rocky hill above the Rhine, with France just across the river. Martin Schongauer's Last Judgment, a late 15th-century mural, still covers its interior walls. From the hill you see the Rhine and the Alsace plain spread below.