A Vintage Streetcar

While the Besançon celebration continued with a reception at the Rathaus, Red Baron was scheduled to be at the Independence Day Party at noon. The Carl-Schurz-Haus traditionally organizes this get-together on a Saturday before or following the 4th of July.

By no means I wanted to miss the Black Forest Badgers, an impromptu band of musicians affectionately drawn by George* every year anew from the American students of the Academic Year in Freiburg.
*The music man of the Freiburg-Madison-Gesellschaft

I intended to take streetcar number 1 from Freiburg's center Bertoldsbrunnen to the Ganter Knoten, the stop near the Ganter beer garden where the party had already started at noon.

What a beauty!

As usual, streetcars do not arrive on time when you are pressed for time. Suddenly streetcar number 7 stopped a lovingly reconstructed tram from 1927 that is operated by the Friends of Freiburg's Streetcars on some Saturdays throughout the year. I always had intended to ride that particular Museumsbahn, and now it stood there in front of me, ready to step in.

My ticket

Looking over the motorman's shoulder.
On enamel: When getting off the streetcar, place your left hand on the left handle.

Happy people on wooden benches

The conductor hops in, closes the door, and off we go.

I arrived just at the fest ground when the Black Forest Badgers were refreshing themselves for the next round of songs. Due to the many participants this year, the band's sound was more profound and vibrant than in previous years.

In the meantime, my stomach was ready to eat itself. A salad and a pork steak, both small, would have been fine. See what I got on two plates. They even did not fit onto the star-spangled placemat.

On this Independence Day Party, as usual, there were quizzes, games for children, etc., but there was more music too. We had an easy listening to grassroots sounds.