Today I have been wondering around Freiburg, enjoying the first sunny day of a spring that almost forgot to come to Europe in 2013. Seriously! This has been the longest European winter since the year I arrived in Europe. I know winter can be long in these latitudes, but if you could see the happiness in the faces of most of the people outside enjoying the sun and grabbing coffee in the terraces, you would understand what I'm talking about. Anyway, when I was walking from the train station, I saw this woman taking a picture of the first blossoms, and you can see her and them in this picture. Welcome spring!!!

I feel very lucky living in Europe, and now I feel even luckier living so close to Paris. Knowing I lived close to the French border, I knew that Paris was very close by train, and last weekend I had the opportunity to try out how close it was by taking the TGV to the Gare de Lyon (and it was indeed only a couple of hours). I have been in Paris several times, and there are plans I repeat over and over: taking the metro to Hotel de Ville, crossing "Île de la Cité", stopping by Notre Dame, and then continuing to walk through Rue de Rivoli until I reach Palais Royal. Then I go to le Jardin des Tuileries, continue to "Place de la Concorde", and then I walk all the way up through "Avenue des Champs-Élysées" until I get to the "Place Charles de Gaulle", where "l'Arc de Triomphe" is located. I took this picture at the end of my walk there.

Today we visited Karlsruhe, one of the big German cities in the Baden-Württemberg state. Before going there I read that there has been some speculation about this city being used as a model for Washington, D.C. (since both cities have a centre from which the streets radiate). I couldn't stop thinking about this point when we were walking in the city center. When we passed by the Rondellplatz, we observed this obelisk that might, in fact, be a model for the American one. Probably this city is very nice during the summer, but today we realized spring hasn't come yet to Karlsruhe because it was rainy, grey, and cold... brrrr.

There are 2 Alsatian cities bordering the north of Switzerland: Saint Louis and Huningue, where you can do an interesting bike ride along the Huninguen channel. This old channel, fed by the Rhine River, was built in the 19th century and used to be a fluvial medium of transport in this region. Despite the chilly weather today, we decided to ride along the canal and went all the way up to Kembs. When we were approaching the town, I found this funny tree in the middle of this growing field. Kudos to the owner for sparing the life of this little tree!

A couple of weeks ago I went by train to Besançon, the Capital City of the Franche-Comté region in France. The town has a very interesting history, being one of the first cities conquered by Julius Caesar in the "Gaul" region. I enjoyed walking around the old city center, and when I was on my way up to visit the Citadel designed by Vauban, I stumbled upon these ancient Galo-Roman ruins. Every time I find those types of ruins, I have to stop by, because for me it's a clear reminder that those cities have been there for a really long time.

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