Tomorrow we leave for Paris at 5:51am. Train from here to Stuttgart and then from Stuttgart to Paris. I think it will be fun, except for the fact that the forecast is calling for rain, rain and more rain. But at least it's warm and rainy. :) Way to look on the bright side.
Pictures forthcoming.
08 July 2010
07 July 2010
Mission Accomplished
Ashley is here and after a long day of traveling, she is sleeping off the plane ride. I would post a picture, but I think she might actually kill me if I did that.
We walked around the city a bit when she first got here, but shortly before I went to lunch she decided to lay down and take a nap. That was 5 hours ago. :)
At some point she'll get up, we will grab dinner and watch Germany beat Spain in the semi-finals of the world cup!!
We walked around the city a bit when she first got here, but shortly before I went to lunch she decided to lay down and take a nap. That was 5 hours ago. :)
At some point she'll get up, we will grab dinner and watch Germany beat Spain in the semi-finals of the world cup!!
06 July 2010
Bad Blogger
I've been bad about keeping up with things - mostly because I haven't really gone anywhere or done anything terribly interesting.
This semester was full of research. I've spent several weeks up at the literature archive in Marbach, and another week in Munich while Andy was here researching at the state library in Munich.
Tomorrow Ashley arrives and I will try to be better about updating - with photos while we are traveling to Paris, Berlin, Rome, Florence, Munich and to visit our family. I'm so excited. Her plane lands in Atlanta in 1 hour and 14 minutes according to the Delta airlines Web site. Then she'll be on her way to Stuttgart where I will pick her up tomorrow morning.
YEA!!!!
This semester was full of research. I've spent several weeks up at the literature archive in Marbach, and another week in Munich while Andy was here researching at the state library in Munich.
Tomorrow Ashley arrives and I will try to be better about updating - with photos while we are traveling to Paris, Berlin, Rome, Florence, Munich and to visit our family. I'm so excited. Her plane lands in Atlanta in 1 hour and 14 minutes according to the Delta airlines Web site. Then she'll be on her way to Stuttgart where I will pick her up tomorrow morning.
YEA!!!!
25 March 2010
Incommunicado
I spent the last 6 weeks away....4 weeks in the US visiting my husband and now another 2 weeks with my parents. Right now we're in Nittenau, where I have stable internet access. We head to Regensburg tomorrow and will be heading back to visit my family this weekend. My parents leave on the 31st.
Oh....and apparently one of my former roommates has found my blog. Do I care? Not really. There isn't anything on there that I wouldn't say to anyone's face.
09 February 2010
A Visitor from the US
I've got a visitor from the US this week. It's Flat Stanley!!!
If you'd like to follow Flat Stanley's adventures in Tuebingen, you can check out his blog here.
If you'd like to follow Flat Stanley's adventures in Tuebingen, you can check out his blog here.
01 February 2010
Tuebingen Fasnetsumzug
1. It snowed for a good chunk of the first half of the parade, but that didn't stop anyone from enjoying themselves. It kinda reminded me of the time we went to see the Macy's Thanksgiving parade with my grandmother - though it was wetter because of the rain and there was a lot more complaining (then, not today).
2. German children are not afraid of scary people in freaky masks. Maybe because they're used to seeing it every year. I'm not sure. But in the US if people with whacked out witches masks were roaming the streets terrorizing people, children would be crying and someone would be arrested. Not so in Germany.
3. The Germans are a hearty people. See notes 1 and 2.
31 January 2010
21 January 2010
The Library
It's a nice and quiet library. They have WiFi, plenty of tables to work at, copiers you can print to, and lots of books. I find that I get a lot more work done at the library than I do in my room. Though I suppose posting to my blog isn't really work, but whatever....work with me here.
The only down side of the libraries here is that you have to leave your bag and jacket out in the foyer and you can't check out any books. Well at least you can't check them out from this library. From the main library you can check out books, but you usually have to order them ahead of time and then pick them up. I have yet to do that because I find it absurd.
Their organizational structure is also a little strange. They have all of the Romance language stuff in one area, the German stuff in another, etc... But it doesn't seem like there is any sort of numbering organization like the Library of Congress system. I feel like whatever the book is numbered here, it might be numbered something different elsewhere, but that may not be true. That may just be my sense of the situation. Anyway, it's two stories and I almost always go to the second floor because there are fewer people walking in and out, though the German books are downstairs.
Anyway....this has been a report from the library. Back to work....
Christmas Vacation: Part 4
When we decided to drive down to see my family for Christmas, we needed to figure out what we were going to bring everyone as gifts. The most important thing was the girls. Who ended up getting candy from my trip to Strassbourg. Then we decided to go by this wine shop around the corner and get bottles of local wine. Now, I'm not 100% sure what the local wine tastes like, but it's a gift, right?
So the morning of our drive down to the family, I ran some errands, checked out the store and came back with fresh bread for Andy and me. We had breakfast and then headed over to the wine store together. We decided on three bottles for each family and picked the same three for each. Then we got the car and headed down with our bags and gifts and crappy directions from the internet.
The problem with directions on the internet in Germany is that they label everything by the street number. Which is fine for the major roads that are marked well, but for those little tiny roads that are not marked at all, it is a totally different matter. Plus, I don't have a printer, so I have to write everything out by hand, which means that Andy has to try to decipher my shorthand, which makes perfect sense to me, but not so much to him. We headed off found the streets that we needed and at some point just started following the signs that pointed in the direction of towns nearby, because honestly that's how they do most directions here. There's no northbound or southbound freeway. It's the Autobahn in the direction of Stuttgart or in the direction of Ulm and you'd better hope you learned where each of those cities was on a map because if you go the wrong direction you're going to have to turn around.
We finally found the back road to Kolbingen - where my one set of relatives live and stopped in for a visit. I had called them ahead of time to let them know we were going to stop by, and about 10 minutes after we arrived, my cousin Marc showed up with his wife and 1 year old son. We had coffee, tea, cake, cookies, etc...all home made by Hedi. We told them that we would come over for lunch the next day and said our goodbyes and Headed down to Mühlheim to make it in time for the children's mass at the Catholic church.
Sieglinde picked us up, with Lena and Annika and we headed into the old part of town. Mass was fun. Well I guess it wasn't really mass because there was no communion, but the kids from the kindergarten did a great job of putting on the story of the birth of jesus. They were very cute, but at some point Andy realized that when children speak German it sounds to him like what they're saying is totally fake. Like Udo on the Simpsons. At the end of the mass, the priest basically told all of the adults that they weren't off the hook and that they were required to go to mass for Christmas. Whatever....
So we headed home, the girls opened their gifts, we opened our gifts and we had dinner. I mentioned that we were going to see Hans and Hedi for lunch the next day and it became clear that it was going to be a problem, since Lydia had planned something special for lunch the next day, so I had to call Hans and Hedi and tell them that we weren't going to be able to make it - but that also meant that we weren't going to be able to see Marc, Connie, and Karl, because they were leaving to go visit her family on the 26th. This was a little upsetting, but there was nothing that could be done about it.
We proceeded to dinner, which was something relatively traditional. Rotwurst with sides - at this point I can't remember which sides, but sides. It was also really tasty and dessert was good too. Living in a university town and cooking for myself I often find that I try to replicate a lot of the things I eat at home, or that I'll run out and grab something quick and cheap, but it's nice to have a home-cooked meal, and even better when it comes with the cultural context of tradition. Eventually we headed to bed for the next day's fun.
In the morning Annika came over with Stefan and showed us a newspaper clipping of the Nachtwächter of Mühlheim who was going to be doing a tour of the city that night. She really wanted to go, so we decided that we would go along with her and her dad. It was later in the evening, and we still had to eat our special lunch of Venison roast and other tastiness. I really enjoy venison. I have never had a bad meal with venison. I know it can be gamy, but I suppose when you live in a small town surrounded by forest and your family has been eating game for generations at some point you learn how to cook it so that it's tasty. And it was super tasty. Along with it we had red cabbage, potato salad, and a berry compote. Super tasty.
This is also the point where we realized that they didn't trust that I was feeding Andy enough. Every time they asked if he wanted more I wouldn't really ask him, because he would tell me if he wanted more. I just said, "no" that he doesn't want any more. This meant that they thought I wasn't translating things for him and just answering for him. This also meant that at some point they started making fun of me and saying that I wasn't allowing him to eat and that they started trying to communicate with him directly by just offering him food. It worked out ok....but it was clear that they thought I was somehow controlling him, rather than us having our own way of communicating that doesn't require many words and can me done without most people noticing.
Speaking of translating - or not - the Nightwächter thing was really fun - cold but fun. We walked into town, which was fine, but steep and icy. Remember "Steep and Icy" that's going to become a theme at some point. I translated the important parts of the tour for Andy and I think he enjoyed it. Stefan said that he learned some things about the town that he hadn't known about and we headed back to the house - down the steep and icy path this time. The next day - 2nd Christmas or the 26th of December - we undertook another steep and icy adventure.
12 January 2010
Christmas Vacation: Part 3
The first real day with the car we went to Rothenburg ob der Tauber. It's a cute little medieval city with an old defense wall surrounding it. It's also the biggest tourist trap in the world. They're on the Romance Road, so there's a built in Tourism angle there, plus they like to bill themselves as something close to "Christmas Town" and to be honest they do have probably the single highest concentration of year round Christmas stores around. They were also having their Christmas market, so we figured, that it couldn't hurt to go to another Christmas market. Even if you don't buy anything, they're fun.
It's about 2-3 hours from Tübingen by car, so we got to test out my navigational skills. With instructions from the internet, and a Germany map from 2002 we set off. We actually made out pretty well driving, and even found the parking lot that I was looking for. It was indeed a cute little town, and they had some really cute shops. In the end we bought some ornaments from the Käthe Wohlfahrt store, a framed picture of the city (something we like to do for every city we go to), Bratwurst, and Glühwein.
We headed back that evening and had dinner at an Irish pub, Saints and Scholars, up next to the building where I spend most of my academic time. I've been there before, but only for drinks, and not for food. From their Web site you can see what they have to offer - pretty standard pub food, but not bad. I had a burger and Andy had the fish and chips. My burger was a little strange, but tasty - I think they put a sort of eggplant tapanade on it, but I can't be sure. Andy was quite pleased with his fish and chips. Usually when we go to ethnic restaurants in Germany things are a little off. Asian food is slightly strange. Mexican food is usually with some weak tomato sauce, or sometimes even bbq, but Andy was pleasantly surprised with the quality of his Irish food. But as my father would say - how can you really screw up boiled beef and cabbage. :)
The next day we drove about 4 hours down to Neuschwanstein, a 19th century castle in Bavaria, upon which the Disney castle is supposedly based. The drive down wasn't bad, though it was cold and a little rainy most of the way. From the Neuschwanstein Web cam one can see that there was snow on the castle, so I expected it to be a bit colder down there than in Tübingen. We got a little lost, but I think that I actually meant to go the way that I did. Upon arrival, we got our tickets and then made the 30 minute trek up the hill to the castle. This was my third time at the castle, but somehow I had forgotten about the half hour super steep hill. I'm not sure how.
Once up there we took some beautiful photos and got our guided tour of the castle. Three things became clear to Andy during the tour. #1 - our tour guide was really strange. I can't really describe him, ask either me or Andy to do an impression of him the next time you see us. It was hilarious. #2 - Japanese tourists do not believe that the signs telling them not to take pictures are real. They will take pictures no matter what.
And finally, #3 most American tourists are an embarrassment. They're like everybody's weird uncle. The guys who always says: "Man they sure built things to last," or "Hey I wonder what the heating bill is on this place." Can it jerk! And while you're at it maybe you could keep your kid from screaming and your other kid from stepping on the backs of my shoes while we're going up this narrow staircase. After that experience I think Andy understood a little better why, when encountered with groups of American tourists, I usually pretend to be German. Unless someone seems really lost and like they need help, I don't need to engage.
We drove back, got lost again, and ended up eating dinner at a place called Unkel up in the University quarter. It's affiliated with Stern which is right around the corner from my place and they have pretty tasty and relatively reasonable Italian food. Pasta, pizza, etc...
The next day we headed down to visit my family for Christmas.
It's about 2-3 hours from Tübingen by car, so we got to test out my navigational skills. With instructions from the internet, and a Germany map from 2002 we set off. We actually made out pretty well driving, and even found the parking lot that I was looking for. It was indeed a cute little town, and they had some really cute shops. In the end we bought some ornaments from the Käthe Wohlfahrt store, a framed picture of the city (something we like to do for every city we go to), Bratwurst, and Glühwein.
We headed back that evening and had dinner at an Irish pub, Saints and Scholars, up next to the building where I spend most of my academic time. I've been there before, but only for drinks, and not for food. From their Web site you can see what they have to offer - pretty standard pub food, but not bad. I had a burger and Andy had the fish and chips. My burger was a little strange, but tasty - I think they put a sort of eggplant tapanade on it, but I can't be sure. Andy was quite pleased with his fish and chips. Usually when we go to ethnic restaurants in Germany things are a little off. Asian food is slightly strange. Mexican food is usually with some weak tomato sauce, or sometimes even bbq, but Andy was pleasantly surprised with the quality of his Irish food. But as my father would say - how can you really screw up boiled beef and cabbage. :)
The next day we drove about 4 hours down to Neuschwanstein, a 19th century castle in Bavaria, upon which the Disney castle is supposedly based. The drive down wasn't bad, though it was cold and a little rainy most of the way. From the Neuschwanstein Web cam one can see that there was snow on the castle, so I expected it to be a bit colder down there than in Tübingen. We got a little lost, but I think that I actually meant to go the way that I did. Upon arrival, we got our tickets and then made the 30 minute trek up the hill to the castle. This was my third time at the castle, but somehow I had forgotten about the half hour super steep hill. I'm not sure how.
Once up there we took some beautiful photos and got our guided tour of the castle. Three things became clear to Andy during the tour. #1 - our tour guide was really strange. I can't really describe him, ask either me or Andy to do an impression of him the next time you see us. It was hilarious. #2 - Japanese tourists do not believe that the signs telling them not to take pictures are real. They will take pictures no matter what.
And finally, #3 most American tourists are an embarrassment. They're like everybody's weird uncle. The guys who always says: "Man they sure built things to last," or "Hey I wonder what the heating bill is on this place." Can it jerk! And while you're at it maybe you could keep your kid from screaming and your other kid from stepping on the backs of my shoes while we're going up this narrow staircase. After that experience I think Andy understood a little better why, when encountered with groups of American tourists, I usually pretend to be German. Unless someone seems really lost and like they need help, I don't need to engage.
We drove back, got lost again, and ended up eating dinner at a place called Unkel up in the University quarter. It's affiliated with Stern which is right around the corner from my place and they have pretty tasty and relatively reasonable Italian food. Pasta, pizza, etc...
The next day we headed down to visit my family for Christmas.
Winter Wonderland
I've decided to interrupt the recap of my Christmas vacation with an observation about the difference between snow storms in the US and in Germany.
I don't really feel like we've had any snow storms here. It's been more like days upon days of snow. I think places like Buffalo or Minnesota get snow like this, but most places I have lived get a singular snow storm, which freaks everyone out, and then spend a week trying to get back to "normal." This is normal here. I think we're going on 5 days right now - with a day long break in the middle somewhere. Early in December we had a few days of constant flurries, where nothing stuck, but there was white stuff floating down from the sky, but now we've got actual snow, and the temperatures have not gotten above freezing in a couple of weeks. However, for all the constant snow, we have only gotten about 6-8 inches total, or at least that's the amount that is sitting on top of the picnic tables outside my academic building.
You might be wondering how people react to the snow here. Well, unlike in the US, there are no people rushing to the grocery store to purchase milk and toilet paper. Nothing has closed down, but again we only have about 6 inches of snow. Only the major streets have been plowed with regularity. The sidewalks are plowed occasionally. In the old part of town with the cobblestones, it's every man for himself. Every so often a street sweeper will come through and "sweep" the snow so that there's a thin layer of mushy brown slush everywhere. It's not so much a Winter Wonderland as it is a slippery brown slushy nightmare.
Oh well. At least we're getting a break and some above freezing temperatures!
I don't really feel like we've had any snow storms here. It's been more like days upon days of snow. I think places like Buffalo or Minnesota get snow like this, but most places I have lived get a singular snow storm, which freaks everyone out, and then spend a week trying to get back to "normal." This is normal here. I think we're going on 5 days right now - with a day long break in the middle somewhere. Early in December we had a few days of constant flurries, where nothing stuck, but there was white stuff floating down from the sky, but now we've got actual snow, and the temperatures have not gotten above freezing in a couple of weeks. However, for all the constant snow, we have only gotten about 6-8 inches total, or at least that's the amount that is sitting on top of the picnic tables outside my academic building.
You might be wondering how people react to the snow here. Well, unlike in the US, there are no people rushing to the grocery store to purchase milk and toilet paper. Nothing has closed down, but again we only have about 6 inches of snow. Only the major streets have been plowed with regularity. The sidewalks are plowed occasionally. In the old part of town with the cobblestones, it's every man for himself. Every so often a street sweeper will come through and "sweep" the snow so that there's a thin layer of mushy brown slush everywhere. It's not so much a Winter Wonderland as it is a slippery brown slushy nightmare.
Oh well. At least we're getting a break and some above freezing temperatures!
10 January 2010
Christmas Vacation: Part 2
The first weekend, we had plans to go to the Stuttgarter Weihnachtsmarkt with my friend Andrea and her fiance, so Saturday I gave Andy a little tour of the university and the city. Unfortunately that first weekend it was SUPER cold and snowy.
We went up to the building where I have most of my classes and grabbed a hot chocolate in the cafeteria there. Well actually, it's a little trick that I found out the other day. You press the cappuccino button and it gives you hot chocolate. One day they are going to fix it and I'll actually get a cappuccino, but for now it's tasty hot chocolate. And rather hot. I showed him a couple of other buildings at the university before heading back to the Altstadt. Then I let him see the two grocery stores where I do most of my shopping. I think Andy was a little surprised by the lack of selection and the soviet style lines, but it was a Saturday and the stores would be closed on Sunday, so it made sense to me. :)
That evening I made dinner and we headed out to grab a drink. Collegium, the place right around the corner from my dorm was pretty packed. We were going to go to a place that my friend Bobby recommended just down the street, but it was full too and most of the places on the Marktplatz were also full, so we decided to go to the Schlosscafe. We ran into a friend of mine there and after a drink or two headed back to my dorm since we had to get up early to go to Stuttgart the next morning.
On Sunday we met Andrea and Cap at the train station and headed off to Stuttgart. The Stuttgarter Weihnachtsmarkt goes on for a couple of weeks (unlike the Tübingen one that is only for a weekend). It was a 5 minute walk from the train station, but most of that was underground. We wandered around, drank some Glühwein, ate some bratwurst and a Dampfknödel filled with cherries and covered in warm vanilla sauce and looked at the various stands. It was however REALLY cold. After almost freezing we headed to a pizza restaurant that Cap and Andrea had been to their last time in Stuttgart.
The place is called Vapiano, and in looking at their Web site they apparently have a couple of locations in the DC area, so we'll have to check them out the next time we're up in DC. The concept is fairly simple. You get a card when you enter. Then you decide what you want. There are various stations where you can order pizza, pasta, salad or drinks, and if it's something that takes a little longer they will give you a buzzer to let you know when to pick it up. We got a pizza and a salad to share along with a soda and an orangina. I don't recall how much it was, but not overly expensive. They also have fresh herbs on the tables so you can add basil, rosemary or whatever else to your pizza/pasta if you want.
We headed home on the train. We rode there and back using a Baden-Württemberg ticket, which costs 26 Euros for up to 5 people. Though there were only four of us, this meant that each of us rode round trip for 6.50 which is really reasonable. With the ticket you can also ride on the public transportation systems in the cities as well, which means if we had wanted to go someplace else around Stuttgart we could have done that with the ticket as well. Honestly it's a very reasonable way to travel.
The next day I was going to pick up the rental car so that we could have some other fun adventures around the area, so I got up early, took the train to Reutlingen, figured out what bus to take, and picked up the car. I had ordered a manual transmission Seat Ibiza - which is a subcompact cheap little vehicle. Instead they gave me an automatic 4 Door VW Golf. This was actually really lucky because I had been looking at the Golf as a potential next car so it gave me an opportunity to drive it and see what I thought of it. I picked it up, got a little lost getting out of Reutlingen, but made it back to the house in one piece.
After eating breakfast, we decided to head over to the Ritter Sport Factory to check out the factory store and the Museum. Unfortunately the museum was closed, but the store was open so we bought some discounted chocolate. The prices are definitely better than what you find in the store, and in the back section they have their "irregular" chocolates that they can't sell in stores, but which taste just the same. We ended up getting a 1 assortment of chocolate, some minis and a bag that I have wanted since I saw it the first time years ago. Then we headed back to the city to meet up with friends for coffee.
We ran into my friends on the way home and they were headed to Kalendar for a döner, so we told them that we would meet them there. We dropped everything off in my room and headed over to eat. After eating we went to a bar/cafe called Tangente Jour. It is here that Andy encountered Cherry Glühwein. I think it kinda changed his life, because now it is going to be his fall/winter "thing." He's decided that he wants to learn how to make really good Cherry Glühwein and we're going to have a fall/winter party this year and invite people over for treats and Cherry Glühwein. I'm all for it. It was damn tasty.
Not much to report after that. We headed on a couple of driving trips to Rothenburg ob der Tauber and Neuschwanstein the next two days which will be the recap in the next post.
We went up to the building where I have most of my classes and grabbed a hot chocolate in the cafeteria there. Well actually, it's a little trick that I found out the other day. You press the cappuccino button and it gives you hot chocolate. One day they are going to fix it and I'll actually get a cappuccino, but for now it's tasty hot chocolate. And rather hot. I showed him a couple of other buildings at the university before heading back to the Altstadt. Then I let him see the two grocery stores where I do most of my shopping. I think Andy was a little surprised by the lack of selection and the soviet style lines, but it was a Saturday and the stores would be closed on Sunday, so it made sense to me. :)
That evening I made dinner and we headed out to grab a drink. Collegium, the place right around the corner from my dorm was pretty packed. We were going to go to a place that my friend Bobby recommended just down the street, but it was full too and most of the places on the Marktplatz were also full, so we decided to go to the Schlosscafe. We ran into a friend of mine there and after a drink or two headed back to my dorm since we had to get up early to go to Stuttgart the next morning.
On Sunday we met Andrea and Cap at the train station and headed off to Stuttgart. The Stuttgarter Weihnachtsmarkt goes on for a couple of weeks (unlike the Tübingen one that is only for a weekend). It was a 5 minute walk from the train station, but most of that was underground. We wandered around, drank some Glühwein, ate some bratwurst and a Dampfknödel filled with cherries and covered in warm vanilla sauce and looked at the various stands. It was however REALLY cold. After almost freezing we headed to a pizza restaurant that Cap and Andrea had been to their last time in Stuttgart.
The place is called Vapiano, and in looking at their Web site they apparently have a couple of locations in the DC area, so we'll have to check them out the next time we're up in DC. The concept is fairly simple. You get a card when you enter. Then you decide what you want. There are various stations where you can order pizza, pasta, salad or drinks, and if it's something that takes a little longer they will give you a buzzer to let you know when to pick it up. We got a pizza and a salad to share along with a soda and an orangina. I don't recall how much it was, but not overly expensive. They also have fresh herbs on the tables so you can add basil, rosemary or whatever else to your pizza/pasta if you want.
We headed home on the train. We rode there and back using a Baden-Württemberg ticket, which costs 26 Euros for up to 5 people. Though there were only four of us, this meant that each of us rode round trip for 6.50 which is really reasonable. With the ticket you can also ride on the public transportation systems in the cities as well, which means if we had wanted to go someplace else around Stuttgart we could have done that with the ticket as well. Honestly it's a very reasonable way to travel.
The next day I was going to pick up the rental car so that we could have some other fun adventures around the area, so I got up early, took the train to Reutlingen, figured out what bus to take, and picked up the car. I had ordered a manual transmission Seat Ibiza - which is a subcompact cheap little vehicle. Instead they gave me an automatic 4 Door VW Golf. This was actually really lucky because I had been looking at the Golf as a potential next car so it gave me an opportunity to drive it and see what I thought of it. I picked it up, got a little lost getting out of Reutlingen, but made it back to the house in one piece.
After eating breakfast, we decided to head over to the Ritter Sport Factory to check out the factory store and the Museum. Unfortunately the museum was closed, but the store was open so we bought some discounted chocolate. The prices are definitely better than what you find in the store, and in the back section they have their "irregular" chocolates that they can't sell in stores, but which taste just the same. We ended up getting a 1 assortment of chocolate, some minis and a bag that I have wanted since I saw it the first time years ago. Then we headed back to the city to meet up with friends for coffee.
We ran into my friends on the way home and they were headed to Kalendar for a döner, so we told them that we would meet them there. We dropped everything off in my room and headed over to eat. After eating we went to a bar/cafe called Tangente Jour. It is here that Andy encountered Cherry Glühwein. I think it kinda changed his life, because now it is going to be his fall/winter "thing." He's decided that he wants to learn how to make really good Cherry Glühwein and we're going to have a fall/winter party this year and invite people over for treats and Cherry Glühwein. I'm all for it. It was damn tasty.
Not much to report after that. We headed on a couple of driving trips to Rothenburg ob der Tauber and Neuschwanstein the next two days which will be the recap in the next post.
07 January 2010
Christmas Vacation: Part 1
Since there has been little here updating what I've actually been doing aside from eating. I figured I would do a rundown of my vacation with Andy. This will be in parts, since he was here for a while, but it won't be a day by day - except for the long days like day 1.
His trip here started out with an overnight stay in Zürich. Unfortunately, not in a hotel. I had planned on hanging out at a bar or at the train station overnight while waiting for his plane to arrive first thing in the morning. I went to a lovely Scottish pub called the Bonnie Prince Pub to have a couple of drinks. I checked ahead of time to see what their opening hours were, and I knew that they were open until 1am, and that there were a couple of other places that were open later - but they turned out to be clubs - like dance clubs - and in my jeans and with my backpack I was not quite dressed or up for a dance club. Anyway, there was a guy in the bar that was talking about how he was headed to the airport for a flight, and I assumed that he was catching the last train there. Unfortunately, I think we all know what happens when you ass-u-me. (You make an ass out of u and me - if you haven't heard that one, you've been under a rock for the last 20 years.)
So when I got to the train station, I realized that I had missed the last train to the airport and would have to wait until 5am. That was only 4 1/2 hours. Really not bad if you think about it - especially if you have a book and can read the whole time. The problem was, that apparently the Zürich train station closes. Who would have thought? I mean I was in Salzburg with friends 12 years ago, and we hung out at the train station all night without it closing. But that was Salzburg, and Zürich is far less homeless friendly. So I got kicked out of the train station by some lovely police officers and proceeded to wander the streets of Zürich for the next 4 hours while I waited for the train station to re-open.
Let me just say that 4 hours is a long time to wander around a city. It's even longer if you're trying to avoid the police officers who clearly do not like people who look like homeless people wandering around their city. It's even worse when it's freezing and starting to snow. Actually, it may not have been snow. It may have just been that it was so cold that the moisture in the air was freezing. Who knows. Eventually I found a McDonalds that was open until 2am - which was nice, warm, and selling coffee. That meant that I only have 3 more hours to wander. I made it to the train station just before the first train at 5 something and headed to the warmth of the international terminal where I napped for a bit and picked up Andy.
We headed back on the train - first to the main train station in Zürich and then to Tübingen. Once arriving in Tübingen, we headed to my dorm so that I could take a shower and was the train station/airport off of me. That afternoon we tried one of the two Chinese restaurants in town and went to Collegium, the bar right around the corner, for a beer or two. Then we tried to fit two people into my bed.
The beds in Europe are obviously in the metric system, and while the bed is about the size of a twin, it's slightly longer, and slightly narrower than a twin. It's been a long time since Andy and I have had to share a twin bed and it was not the most comfortable experience, but eventually we found a comfortable position and got almost a full night of sleep.
His trip here started out with an overnight stay in Zürich. Unfortunately, not in a hotel. I had planned on hanging out at a bar or at the train station overnight while waiting for his plane to arrive first thing in the morning. I went to a lovely Scottish pub called the Bonnie Prince Pub to have a couple of drinks. I checked ahead of time to see what their opening hours were, and I knew that they were open until 1am, and that there were a couple of other places that were open later - but they turned out to be clubs - like dance clubs - and in my jeans and with my backpack I was not quite dressed or up for a dance club. Anyway, there was a guy in the bar that was talking about how he was headed to the airport for a flight, and I assumed that he was catching the last train there. Unfortunately, I think we all know what happens when you ass-u-me. (You make an ass out of u and me - if you haven't heard that one, you've been under a rock for the last 20 years.)
So when I got to the train station, I realized that I had missed the last train to the airport and would have to wait until 5am. That was only 4 1/2 hours. Really not bad if you think about it - especially if you have a book and can read the whole time. The problem was, that apparently the Zürich train station closes. Who would have thought? I mean I was in Salzburg with friends 12 years ago, and we hung out at the train station all night without it closing. But that was Salzburg, and Zürich is far less homeless friendly. So I got kicked out of the train station by some lovely police officers and proceeded to wander the streets of Zürich for the next 4 hours while I waited for the train station to re-open.
Let me just say that 4 hours is a long time to wander around a city. It's even longer if you're trying to avoid the police officers who clearly do not like people who look like homeless people wandering around their city. It's even worse when it's freezing and starting to snow. Actually, it may not have been snow. It may have just been that it was so cold that the moisture in the air was freezing. Who knows. Eventually I found a McDonalds that was open until 2am - which was nice, warm, and selling coffee. That meant that I only have 3 more hours to wander. I made it to the train station just before the first train at 5 something and headed to the warmth of the international terminal where I napped for a bit and picked up Andy.
We headed back on the train - first to the main train station in Zürich and then to Tübingen. Once arriving in Tübingen, we headed to my dorm so that I could take a shower and was the train station/airport off of me. That afternoon we tried one of the two Chinese restaurants in town and went to Collegium, the bar right around the corner, for a beer or two. Then we tried to fit two people into my bed.
The beds in Europe are obviously in the metric system, and while the bed is about the size of a twin, it's slightly longer, and slightly narrower than a twin. It's been a long time since Andy and I have had to share a twin bed and it was not the most comfortable experience, but eventually we found a comfortable position and got almost a full night of sleep.
Restaurant: Wok-In Asia Imbiss
In keeping with my Chinese food theme, we thought we would try out the other Chinese place in Tübingen while Andy was here. Wok-In Asia Imbiss is on the way from my dorm to campus and I've walked past it many times, but had not yet gone in.
The decor is far less kitchy than at Asia Bambus, but to be honest I'm not sure if this is a plus or minus. At any rate, there were plenty of tables, and the service was good. My review of this place is tainted by the fact that I was coming down with a cold and that we didn't order what we usually do. Typically we will order the Kung Pao chicken at a Chinese restaurant as a baseline, but since Andy had just eaten Kung Pao (Or Gung-Bao as they say in Germany) he wanted something different.
We started out with soup. Since I was starting to come down with something I figured a nice spicy soup was appropriate, so I got the Kung Fu Suppe, which was designated as "scharf" or spicy. It was indeed spicy, but I attribute that to the chili oil that was liberally added to the soup and which basically sat on top of the broth. I probably should have gone for the Peking Soup again - since that's the closest they have to Hot and Sour soup, but oh well. Andy once again got Chicken soup with veggies, since they didn't have egg drop soup. The soups were ok, but I think they were probably better at the other place.
For a main dish I got the #12 Knusprig gebackenes Schweinefleisch m. Gemüse (crispy pork with mixed vegetables) and Andy got the #57 Knuspriges Hühnerbrustfilet mit pikanter Erdnusssoße (crispy chicken with a piquant peanut sauce. Mine was ok - it was basically chunks of pork fried in a batter and mixed with sauce and veggies. Andy's was a whole chicken breast, fried and cut into slices, on top of veggies and a peanut sauce that wasn't terribly "piquant." Both were interesting dishes, but ultimately fell short in terms of taste and presentation. I'm used to international foods in Germany being a little off, but these were just weird.
If I were to choose a Chinese place to go to in Tuebingen, I would probably choose Asia Bambus, but we may have just picked odd dishes. It's not a bad place, and it is one of the only places where you can order online and pick up your food at the restaurant which is definitely a plus.
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