I have returned to Germany to the lovely home of the Abele's - why? I just couldn't get enough of this beautiful country, and also my couch in Greece fell through. So before I head off on my epic train journey (six cities in five days) I came back to bucolic Vaihingen an der Enz to relax and regroup.
I arrived here by train on Monday afternoon from Milan, and was picked up by Mrs. Abele. We went into Vaihingen to pick up a few things. It's really a lovely town, with old timbered buildings a town square with a fountain in front of the town hall, and a cabinet for book exchanges in the square!
Tuesday morning I mostly did laundry and such, but in the afternoon Mrs. Abele took Gunnar (the Icelandic exchange student) and I to Tübingen. This is where she and Mr. Abele went to school (for medicine), were married, and where Christian was born. Founded in 1477 by Eberhard the Bearded; Tübingen is one of the oldest universities in the country. Unfortunately it does not offer any sort of Engineering - like many old universities it is pretty strictly liberal arts with a strong showing in various theologies. We saw the church, the castle, the town hall, and went on a boat ride on the Neckar. The boat ride was quite pleasant. The boat is much like a gondola in Venice, and our boatman pointed out some of the sights which Mrs. Abele graciously translated into English for me.
After the boat ride we went to a restaurant which served only Maultaschen, a Schwäbian (this area of southern Germany) specialty. The restaurant serves only Maultaschen, but in twenty or so different kinds. I had mine with goulash and cheese, Mrs. Abele with eggs, and Gunnar with salad. Mine was absolutely delicious, and copied the recipe from Mrs. Abele later. Maultaschen is like and egg roll sized ravioli with sausage and spinach in the middle.
On Wednesday Johannes was home from school quite early, and did not have any afternoon commitments. We took the opportunity to go to the Zoo in Stuttgart; it is the largest zoological botanical gardens on the continent. It was built in the mid 19th century for king Wilhelm the I, a Schwabian king, in the Moorish style and now is known as Wilhelma. I haven’t been to the zoo in ages, and as such I enjoyed myself quite a bit. The monkeys are so much fun to watch – especially the baby ones. I really like baby animals whatever variety they come in. There were also electric eels and a mudskipper, a fascinating amphibious animal that looks like an overgrown tadpole. Between all of the animals were beautiful gardens with carved hedges and fountains, and all of the buildings are ornate Moorish domes.
Thursday I spent most of the morning pouring through the Abele's collection of books on Budapest and Vienna. Both Mr. and Mrs. Abele ended up being home from work early. Having discussed out trip to Tübingen, Thomas suggested we visit Heidelberg. Apparently this is a tourist hotspot, especially for Americans. The town is famous for its university, and is scenically situated on the Neckar, just like Tübingen. Heidelberg is actually the oldest university in Germany, founded in 1386, and the town is much larger than Tübingen. The town has a castle, and apparently rather poor luck, because the entire town, save for parts of the castle, and one solitary building, burnt to the ground in 1695. Also the castle was struck by lightening later and suffered damages again. Gunnar accompanied us in Heidelberg as well and we saw the main shopping street, the oldest building in the city, and the castle. We took in the view of the Neckar from the top of the castle ruins. It was rather odd to see so many American tourists: we couldn’t go anywhere without hearing someone speaking English!
For dinner we stopped at a Döner place and then had gelato. There was apparently some sort of performance art going on, because there was a very evenly spaced line of Germans waiting to view a poster. The all stood there for five minutes, took turns looking at the poster, and then quietly went on their way. Quite odd. Thomas had “American Cookie” ice cream, though it looked unlike any cookie flavored ice cream I have ever seen.
Friday was mostly errands. I have now made all of my reservations for my epic train journey (Vienna, Venice, Budapest, Prague, Hamburg, Berlin, Helsinki), and repaired glasses! Christian also returned home from Ireland and we did some planning for his upcoming visit to the states. We also took a brief hike up to a nearby knoll and took in the scenery.
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