Germany

Freiburg is city in the border between Switzerland and Germany. It was the end of my destination during my trip on April 6-9, 2007. I started very early from Torino, around 6 am, and went first to Milano Centrale station. Then, I changed the train and by cis-alpino (1.30 pm), I accrossed Switzerland. In the border between Swiss-Italy, there will be passport or ID check (I forget the exact name of the station, but it was near Como). It probably because Switzerland is not yet member of Schengen country. So, prepare you document!! For me, because I am from outsite of EU, it took longer than the others. I just showed my passport (without italian resident permit at that time), but finally it was oke because I have schengen visa and multiple entry.
The ticket price of Milano to Basel is around 62 euro and it will take >5 hours to cross Swiss. But it is oke since the views are very beautiful: mountain of alpen with lake. So beautiful.
I changed again the train in Basel and continued by express train (ICE) to go to Freiburg. Something that you have to remember, when you buy ticket here, they will ask the price in Franc (CHF). They accept Euro (EU currency) buy if you have return money, they will give it in Franc, not in Euro. Don't be confuse: there are two Basel stations, Basel-SBB and Basel-Bad. Basel-SBB is Basel station in the region of Switzerland and Basel-Bad is belonging to Germany. It takes only 45 mins from Basel-SBB to Freiburg. So, it was completely dark when I arrived in Freiburg station. At night, Freiburg is nice although I can say that Torino is more crowded. Less people and quite silent.

The main view of Freiburg is Freiburg Munster (catedral). Interesting, big, and old with beutiful relief and gotic. That is the only building which was not destroyed when Alien army bombarded Freiburg during 2nd world war. People think that it was a miracle and holy place. In the yard of the church, they have a traditional market at saturday or sunday. I am not so sure whether only monday or also saturday. There are also some interesting places, such as Schwabentor (tower of Freiburg), small hill near there where you can see all the city of Freiburg, churches, e.g. Her Jesu, and modern building with artistic design and nice colour style. Nice small lake is also there. The train system (tram) is modern, not old as Torino or Milano, but more expensive.