cobblestones & churches...a walk through Freising

Sunday we took a trip out to Freising, to take Sean to visit a friend from school. While he was busy playing, Matthew, Emma and I took this opportunity to have a wander through the old town. Freising is to the North of Munich, about 30 minutes from where we live.

A bit of background history for you - for around a thousand years Freising was the spiritual and cultural centre of southern Bavaria. In 1821 the Bishop moved his seat to Munich and left behind some wonderful religious gems, one of main reasons people visit the town. For us it was more about seeing Freising's charming altstadt (old town centre) with it's crisscrossed lanes lined by Baroque and Renaissance townhouses.

We had a lovely afternoon out, strolling and taking in the lanes. We stopped for lunch at the cafe in the middle cream coloured building below and enjoyed one of the best schnitzels we've had so far in Germany! Lovely to see the blue sky and feel the sun on our skin. Nice.

Amongst the cobblestones we came across these Stolpersteine (below), which funnily enough I had only just read about them on Munich Daily Photo. The Stolpersteine (German for stumbling blocks) is the largest project of art and commemoration in the world. The gold stones are ''cherished reminders of the pain and injustice experienced by the 11 million victims of National Socialism - and the loss of humanity occurring from it.'' For more information about the Stolpersteine project you can visit here, an absolutely fascinating read.  Munich, the birth place of National Socialism, strangely has a city council ban on the Stolperteine. Says a lot about Munich, I think. Although, I've read that many private homes in Munich have installed the gold stones on their own property. Interesting. Food for thought.

Alison x

ps. all photos in this post were taken by Matthew & Emma.