our new apartment in Poltringen

Our backyard

OK.  I have been enjoying our new place in too much to write a blog post –my apologies to all our readers. 

…so as you know, we just moved.  Our new place is in Poltringen.  And our new apartment is soooo much better than the old one!  Amazingly it is about 15km upstream of the apartment we used to live.  And unlike stream’s open-sewer-likeness at the old place, it is rather lovely at our new place.  Check out this picture of the stream and our backyard.

 

We also live 2 houses away from a castle.  It is not Neuschwanstein, but it does have a mote!  Here is the view of the castle from our back deck.

Our neighborhood castle

 In fact we live within 5km of 2 other castles and one hill-top church, all of which also have great views as we have checked out in the last 2 weeks.

So we are now 10km west from Betsy’s building, and it is a nearly flat bike ride, a key selling point.  That means we are deep in Schwabish country, which is the local, traditional culture.  Within a few days of moving in, I was being taught some local Schwäbish words.  And we have noticed a big difference in the service we get at the local bakery --the people are so friendly here, unlike the “big” town of Tübingen.

We are much more in touch with the local happenings.  Like the recent Maibaum (May pole) festivities, seen in this picture.

This past Saturday we went to a play in the neighboring village (Oberndorf) –which is less than 2miles away, and we walked there.  It happened to be titled “Frau Schwab and Miss Smith”, which was a comparison of Schwäbish and American culture.  We got about half of the jokes, and most of the play was in German or Schwäbish.  …so Germans think that Americans are superficial and somewhat vulgar, but they still retain a lot of affinity for us.

Maibaum (May pole)

And halfway between Oberndorf and Poltringen is where I usually play bagpipes.  I am sure that people in both villages can hear me.  Those that have come across me practicing have been indifferent or very receptive.  I chose the location because 1) I shouldn’t disturb anyone, and 2) it is very picturesque –I am among wheat and canola (rape seed) fields.

wheat field over the Nekar (Tubingen) valley

 So today I was working on our deck, and while thinking about off shore wind turbines, this was my view.

Today's view of our backyard

That is right there are horses in our back yard!  And check out those clouds.  Later in the day there was a proper storm right over us.  I have a modest weather station, and I was so excited for the stormy weather.

And before I finish this blogpost, check out this picture, which is a relic of WWII style military. 

bridge capacity for trucks and tanks