Monday, August 27, 2012

Back to Tübingen and the Neckar Valley


Alright it has been over a month since our last post, but that is still more frequent than I check Facebook.  We returned to Germany 5 weeks ago, after our 3 week North American tour.  So I have been thinking of some of the differences between US & Germany (and Europe in general).  I will post those in a separate blog in a few days, so as not to overwhelm our readers.  But first here what we have been doing most recently.
Betsy has been furiously reading about Cobalt and rewriting a manuscript for publication.  This takes most of her free time.  This lets me play with my weather station, which I have been piecing together –so I too have been reading technical journal articles, but on weather stuff, instead of geology stuff.
We have making Friday evenings our time to go out to restaurants, and see town.  A week and a half ago we went to the only Mexican restaurant we know of.  It is in the middle of Tübingen, on the Neckar River; and the view is better than the food.  But we really went because one of Betsy’s colleagues, Katja, works there part-time, and for the happy hour margaritas.

The Neckar River is a great place for boating, especially during our week long heat-wave when the daily highs were over 35C (95F).  Several weeks ago, we went out with Katja, Martin, and James (all colleagues of Betsy), on a paddle boat.  We paddled around the 1km long man-made island, which has some of the most picturesque views of Tübingen.
A few days later Betsy & I went out in a row boat.

This past weekend we took a bike ride up the Neckar River.  There are lots of bike paths all over Europe, and the Neckartal-Radweg (“Neckar valley – riding path”) is popular for cycle touring.  It is 410km (255miles) long from the source of the Neckar to where it empties into the Rhine.  Betsy & I road 60km upstream from Tübingen, and then took a train to get back home.

Blog themes coming this week:  food, difference between US & Germany, what spouses do in Germany, and European travel.

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