Car Museums and No Crashing Chandeliers!

Yesterday was our last day of our Kompakt intensive language course and we celebrated spectacularly.  On Thursday, armed with the knowledge from my stack of 200+ note cards, I took my final exam. (Fingers crossed!) We got to start our Friday off right - no classes, just a lavish breakfast (can I just say again, for the record, how much I love Nutella?) with our class and then a city tour.  It was raining so we did one with the help of posters and imagination.  Then we joined the other 2 classes and took a bus to Stuttgart.

First stop: The Mercedes-Benz Museum!

Now, I'm hardly a connoisseur of cars.  I know they have 4 wheels, an engine, a battery, a spark plug (whatever that is), and many other little parts that tend to crap out when you need them and are expensive to replace. Other than that, I know nothing about cars. So the Mercedes-Benz Museum was not high on my list of things to see.   I was prepared to be bored out of my mind with pictures and models of pistons and engines.

I was wrong.

It was a lot of fun! Granted, I still don't know any more about cars now then I did before, but I had lots of fun in the museum.  We were given audio headsets (in English and German) and we took a pod-shaped elevator up to the top of the museum and then walked our way down through the different eras.  It was super cool.  The audio headsets were sensor activated so it knew when you entered a new room it would automatically begin playing.  It was a little scary sometimes!  The audio headset also had some device that would read a specific symbol on certain plaques to give you more information on specific items.  It was very high tech and cool.

The world's first car.

Behold - beautiful precision German engineering

Look at this beautiful early motorboat!

Another early car model. Still looks like a buggy to me.

Pimpin'

This one was my favorite.

How cute.

Love the wings.

New Concept Car

Front of the concept car

After we saw the Mercedes-Benz museum, we got to spend the afternoon in Stuttgart.  We ate lunch at this classy cafe, which probably only hires attractive people.  Luckily, we were dressed up for the opera so we looked attractive enough to be there.  Even better, I was able to get a club sandwich.  With mayonnaise.

It was super cold and windy in Stuttgart so we took shelter in the mall and found a port in the storm.

Yes I know I'm in Europe. Yes, apparently they have the best authentic coffee here.

Good thing I don't like coffee!

And yes, although my grande caramel hot chocolate was priced for highway robbery at 4 Euros, I can safely report it tastes just like it does at home.  It was comforting to have a piece of overpriced Americana in my hands after one month sans American stuff.

Then we met at the opera house to see La Traviata.  Now, in case you don't know the plot, it's the story of a French courtesan with TB who falls in love with a bourgeoisie author.  Now where have I heard this story before?

I love this movie. By the way.

Anyway, the opera was a lot of fun and I really enjoyed it.  It was amazing how loud (and for the lead, how high) people could sing. It was very cool.  Here's a clip of Pavarotti singing the famous drinking song from "La Traviata":

  

Don't you feel cultured now?  I do.

I was waiting for the chandelier to crash, but there was no Phantom in this opera house!

(Side Note: In December, the Stuttgart Ballet is doing Swan Lake. I'm so excited!)

Tomorrow, we hit the Stuttgarter Volksfest, the second biggest beer fest in Germany after Oktoberfest in Munich (aka an alcoholic's Disneyland).  Although I hate beer, I'm still going to order a Maß of beer for the obligatory facebook photo.  Or maybe I can get a Maß of Apfelschorle.... 

Lake Constance - It's a big deal okay?

Last week, the Kompakt course stowed us on all a bus and drove us to the Bodensee, aka Lake Constance.

Bam. A map. (Behold! The wonders of the internet!)

Anyway, the Bodensee is shared by Germany, Switzerland, and Austria and the majority of Southern Germany's drinking water comes from it.  Yum.  (But actually Germans hardly ever drink tap water, but that's another story...)

We began our trip at the ungodly hour of 8am.  We slept the 2 hours from Tubingen to the Bodensee, where we were informed that this was going to be sight seeing expedition.  We first stopped to visit a gorgeous rococo church.

Pink. That's my kind of church.

Actually, it is my kind of church.  It's Catholic!

I managed to snap a pic of the lavish inside before noticing the "Do NOT Photograph" sign.
Ooops.

Next stop was a historically rebuilt stilt houses (Pfahlbauhaeuser).  The original houses date back to the stone age, when ancient people apparently decided that living on raised houses on the lake would be better than living in the forest. We got a tour of the houses and it was super cool.  It was really fascinating to learn how the people in the stone age lived.  For example, using a stick and crushed stone powder to bore through another stone.  Yeah, it took from about a week to a month to do that, but someone had to do it!  Or who figured out that carving a slit in a rock big enough to stick a wedge of wood in there would make the rock crack when they put it in water? WHO FIGURED THIS OUT?!

I never could have survived back them.  I don't think I'm clever enough.  Also, I'm bascially blind. I would be eaten first.

Enough talk - Pictures!

After seeing the stilt houses we picnicked on the grass in front of a castle and then we got another tour of an amazing medieval castle.  They did up some of the rooms in particular styles from different eras.  One room was bronze age, another medieval... you get the gist.  My favorite part of the castle were the rooms used the by famous German poet, Annette von Droste Huelshoff, who is kind of a big deal here. They put her on the 20 Deutsche Mark bill, you know back in the day.  She spent her most creative days living in that castle and she eventually died there.  Even though I had never heard of her until then (German major fail), I was really interested and snapped up a copy of her love poems at the gift shop. (Once I get some free time, I'll actually get around to reading them!!)

Anyway...pictures!

Giant stone walls?  Check.
Moat? Check.
Drawbridge? Check.
Dragon? 

Medieval wall hanging.
Huzzah for chivalry! 

Germany's Next Top Model - 1300s edition.

Anyone care for a joust?

These swords were bigger than I am!

Literally: "Deathroom of the authoress Annette von D.H."

Her little bed.

Hey Annette!

After we noodled around the castle, we took a ferry to Constance and hung out there in the late afternoon and evening.

Goodbye Germany!
Hello Switzerland!

Inside the Marienkirche.
The light was streaming in and I had to take a picture.

More amazing stained glass.

A very Harry Potter-esque courtyard behind the church

Jake tries to break in a door.

Jake tries to break out of a door.

Just a typical day, really.

One of the cool relics in the church's crypt.

Although I didn't go, some the kids in the course crossed the border into Switzerland and were able to say for the rest of the night that "they went to another country".  We wrapped up the evening with a fantastic and completely filling dinner at this great Turkish restaurant and then drove home, exhausted and cameras quite dead.

Getting Lost in the Wilderness (Again)

As a group, the Tübinger Fünf have a pretty terrible track record with nature, wilderness, and hiking.  In the first week, we christened everyone with apt nicknames: Jake is Mr. Misdirection, Zach is the Whiner, Rachel is the Professor, Emily is "Stubby" (aka stubborn), and no one should be surprised that my nickname is the Diva.  Put the five us together and we get along quite well.  Until, of course, you put us together on a nature hike.

 The journey to visit family friends and long-time friends of the university was an experience.  This couple lives in Wurmlingen, another town and instead of taking the bus or train (reread that time we climbed to the ruins in Blaubauren) we were told to climb the mountain range between the towns. 

It was going to be scenic and fun.  

And then we would earn our dinner when we arrived.  

It would only take about 2 hours.

TWO HOURS?!

Nevertheless, we summoned up our courage (and copious amounts of Apfelschorle) and started our hike from the Schloss Hohen Tübingen and walked in the direction of Wurmlingen.

That's where our troubles began.

To quote Robert Frost:

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;	5
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,	10
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.	15
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference

This was the story of our lives. Except instead of one main decision, we faced multiple path decisions every 5 minutes.  In between squinting at signs ("I think this one has a cross on it, that means a church, right?"), following other strangers ("They must know where they're going"), and awkwardly waiting to ask locals ("This old couple. Ask them. No, no, they look mean.  What about this kid? He probably doesn't know anything. She looks nice, let's ask her!"), we finally climbed and then descended the mountain, certain we had picked the right path.


Alas.


Suddenly we found ourselves with a choice - climb up again toward to this church on another hill or climb down toward this town.


We chose the city, assuming that it was Wurmlingen. 


Does it surprise you when I tell you that it wasn't Wurmlingen?


I received a call from the family friends, politely inquiring where we were.  I expressed to them in awkward German, that I had no idea where we were.  They quickly explained that we were in the next town over.  And we were going to have to walk another 30 to 40 minutes to climb back up the hill and around.


Meanwhile, the obscene heat, lack of water, hunger, and crankiness was taking its toll.  
Now a quick Modern Family ancedote:

Basically.

After much wandering, swearing, yelling, crying, and moments of depression, we arrived.  3 hours after we were supposed to.  The path, which was supposed to take us on a scenic tour of  German nature and a visit to beautiful old chapel, turned into a Bataan Death March meets challenge course that we almost failed.

But dinner was delicious and we had an amazing time.

Best of all, we got to take the bus home.

In Ulm, um Ulm, um Ulm herum!

Hello my darling readers!

It's a late night here in Tuebingen, and since I have no desire to sit and watch my laundry go around and around and around (in the world's smallest front loading washer), I realized that I was forgetting something.  And that something was one more blog entry from our trip to Blaubauren!! I can't believe I forgot!  So you get an extra treat!  So curl up in your seats, grab a big ol' cuppa tea (or coffee if you're a caffeine addict), because I've got a post for you!

"In Ulm, um Ulm, um Ulm herum" is a German tongue twister (in German they're called Zungenbrecher; literally, tongue breakers. Cute, right?) about the city of Ulm, located right on the border between Baden-Wuettemberg and Bayern (the state where Munich, Oktoberfest, and Lederhosen come from).

Now Ulm is famous for its amazingly beautiful Gothic cathedral (well it's technically a minster, if you want to be picky).  Why?

Well:

 a) it took like 300 years to build (can you imagine growing up and dying and still not seeing something finished?!)

and b) it's the highest church steeple in the world.  It's 469 feet (143 meters) tall and you gotta climb all 768 steps to get to the top.

Unfortunately, as we were there I still was best friends with das Boot so I sent an emissary, the amazing Ms. Rachel up to the top to snag some pics for y'all.

Tada!

"And on the other side of the river is New Ulm and Bayern.
We Ulmers don't associate them"
No. Seriously, they don't.

Lovely shot of the back of the church from above

Fear Factor I

Fear Factor II

Getting a little dizzy...

Add this one to the "Jake's Faces" folder

Going down?

Gargoyles over Ulm

Quasimodo doesn't work here, sorry. 

Can you find me?
Hint: Left hand side!

Many thanks to Rachel who snapped all these pics!