This Week's Bike Rides

On Wednesday I rode to the source of the Neckar River (Neckarquelle).  It took around 5hrs to get to there.  Since I still had 5hrs of daylight left, I rode back.  That made the total 210km (130miles).

Here is a picture of Betsy with a castle covered in clouds and mist near Beuren, which is the location of the thermal bath we went to today.  It is about 30miles away, but we took about 3 hours getting there, because the bike route was hard to follow, and we took several wrong turns.  We spent 2hrs at the the bath, which is similar to a roman bath; there were different temperature pools and sauna rooms, plus rooms for just lounging.  There were dry and wet saunas, and several scented saunas --vanilla & salt were two that we went in.  The final thing we did was going into a 36C (97F) pool with 20 different stations, each squirting water or air jets for massaging (back, foot, shoulders, etc.)  Every 45sec we had to switch to the next station --there was a big countdown clock above the pool for everyone to watch.

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.

USA!

Apologies to our numerous readers (hee-hee!) for the long interval between updates. We've been busy. After 9 months in Germany we took a much anticipated trip to North America. We'll update you on our trip and then we hope to retroactively update you on what went on with us in May and June.

We flew to Minneapolis June 22 and I (Betsy) got to attend my future sister-in-law's bridal shower before heading up to Montreal a day later. I rejoined my colleagues from Tuebingen and beyond for a week-long Geochemistry conference. It was a great meeting and I made a lot of great connections with people in my field and presented my newer work. I did not see much of Montreal, but I did get a chance to visit my good friend Liz from Mount Holyoke, her boyfriend Pete, and her parents near Burlington, VT after the conference. I have many good memories of them all from college days.

German colleagues in Montreal

Beer, with HOPS!! in VT

Joe meanwhile flew out to Colorado to reconnect with folks from the National Wind Technology Center (NWTC) where he is still employed. He also caught up with a lot of colleagues we knew socially, as well as friends from salsa dancing and the Unitarian Universalist group we were a part of. Joe and I both took every opportunity to drink microbrewed ales, especially those loaded with hops. German beer is awfully light on hops for our taste.

Fire retardant in Boulder.

Paul & Katherine +1 at SoSun.

We convened back in Minnesota before heading down to Iowa in the middle of a heat wave. We stopped in the quaint town of Lanesboro, MN to celebrate our 1st anniversary by renting a tandem bike. I am a bit surprised we made it to year 2 after taking out such a contraption in that heat! We spent the rest of the week with Joe's 96-year-old grandma in Manning, IA. We played a lot of "Rummy Cube" and Joe flew the Red Baron Triplane kite he acquired in Boulder. That guy just loves wind!

The Germans are coming!

We returned to Minnesota in time for a reunion barbecue with my 3 good friends from high school. Laura and Sam got married in May, and Julie and Dave introduced little Dave to the world last December, so our group is now 12 with Mitch and Michelle's 3 kids Isaiah, Ethan and Elisa. Joe had a blast jumping on the trampoline with the boys.

Joe and the boys.

Wedded Bliss!

In addition to dealing with silly stuff like updating our bank accounts, we helped my dad build a fence at his vineyard. Sadly, I am now covered in poison ivy. The highlight of our trip was my brother Andy's wedding to his soulmate Amanda.

Our new fence.

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

Reisen mit Eltern, Teil 2: Rheintal

Our second mini-trip with my parents during their visit was to the Rhine Valley. While in Bavaria, we experienced German beer culture, and in the Rhine Valley we got to experience German wine culture.

Slumping tower of Heidelberg Castle

Prior to their trip, my parents expressed an interest in the Rhine Valley based on hearing relatives relate their experiences of river cruises up and down the romantic Rhine. We obliged them, but first we made a stopover in Heidelberg. I remember stopping in this university town along the Neckar River (same river as Tübingen) as a teenager on my first trip to Germany, and so I was eager to see it with older eyes. We packed a picnic lunch and hiked/took the funicular to the castle looming over town. We had a gorgeous view and our picnic was the envy of the other tourists. We spent a while longer wandering through old town, which dates back only a few hundred years, and ended our afternoon by traversing the "Philosophenweg" (Philosopher's path) - a path incised on the hillside and framed by stone walls - it was a famous place for professors to walk and talk (who has time for that now?).

Mäuseturm through grapevines

Rüdesheim, a wine-growing town on the Rhine, was recommended to us by a colleague. We arrived in the rain hungry after our hike in Heidelberg. The food was bland compared to the culinary highlights of Bavaria, but the wine was excellent! The next day my parents boarded the "Seilbahn" (chairlift) to the top of the wine hills and the "Niederwalderdenkmal" (monument commemorating a German-French war). We hiked along the sloping wine hills in the rain, with views of the Mäuseturm (Mouse Tower), a famous toll-station of the Middle Rhine in the Middle Ages. My parents boarded a second "Seilbahn" down to the adjacent wine village of Assmanhausen, and we met them at the bottom. We caught a ferry back to Rüdesheim and continued our journey North to Koblenz by car.

Cruising the Rhine

The wine excitement didn't stop there, because we stayed two nights at a family-run in and winery of sorts located on the Moselle River just upstream of it's confluence with Rhine in Koblenz. Joe and I got to try the wine and it was delicious. The next day we hopped onto a historic paddle boat for a day-long boat ride to Rudesheim and back. There is a castle about every two miles on this stretch of river, so we spent the day viewing castles from the boat deck while sipping Rhine wine. A nice repose after all of the hiking we'd done. The highlight for most Germans was the famous Lorelei Rock of lore. I actually thought the boat would tip as we went past it because all of the Germans moved to the Lorelei side.

We ended our second trip with a stop in the spa town of Bad Kreuznach, where we took a relaxing dip in some healing spa waters. It was good we got that little bit of relaxation in, because once we got back to Tübingen we were fully focused on moving into our new apartment. We expected help from my parents, of course, in exchange for all the travel planning. Up next: Joe's account of our new apartment.

Reisen mit Eltern, Teil 1: Bayern

During the last two weeks of April we had a visit from my (Betsy's) parents from Minnesota. It was their first trip to Germany and I had two shorter 4-day trips planned, punctuated by time in Tübingen, and followed by them getting to help us move to a new, permanent apartment. Here is a recap of our first trip.

Mom at Kloster Bebenhausen

We got ready for the parental visit by joining our local carshare program, "TeilAuto". Joe and I took a car to the airport one Sunday morning to "practice" driving on the Autobahn with a manual transmission. The big day came and things went mostly smoothly picking up my parents from the airport in Stuttgart. The first two days we stayed in Tübingen to get them acclimated to the time change, give them a chance to see town, and for me to finish up some unavoidable work obligations. We took a nice trip to our local Kloster Bebenhausen (former monastery) followed by my parent's first "Kaffee und Küchen" (coffee and cake). They loved it.

View over Neuschwanstein

We couldn't resist taking a detour to Schloss Neuschwanstein, possibly the most famous castle in the world, on our way to Munich. Joe and I had both been to crazy Ludwig's digs as teenagers (separately, of course), but it was fun to go back. We had a lovely day in Munich that alternated between seeing the famous churches, drinking coffee, watching the Glockenspiel, drinking beer, a bit of shopping and walking along the river, more coffee. Finally we tired and hopped on a streetcar and saw everything that way with our public transport day pass. It was kind of awesome. We ended the day with Schweinshaxen (pork knuckle) at the Schneiderweisse Brewhouse our friends Chris and Rachel tipped us onto. We got our fill of "Hopfenweisse", one of the few hoppy beers we've found in Deutschland, and took a 6-er for the road.

Famous Nazi camp greeting

We stopped off in Dachau for a more reflective day at the memorial. We learned a lot through our guided tour with a German historian of the "1968 generation", or the generation that began to talk about the Holocaust and question their parents' active or passive role in it. I had not known before that it was mostly a camp for political prisoners, and was not one of the "death camps" that were later established at places like Auschwitz. It was a good experience to put the pieces of history together in terms of events and situations that led to the founding of these types of camps.

View of Rothenburg from wall

We then headed toward Franconia, the region in Northern Bavaria. We spent the night at a wonderful family-run brewery hotel, where I taught my family to play an Italian card game (much to their dismay). We had a great time and finished our tour with a trip to Rothenburg ob der Tauber, a gorgeous, medieval walled city on the Tauber River. I'd heard it's quite touristy, but since it's not high tourist time yet it didn't feel so overrun. We climbed to the top of the Rathaus (town hall) bell tower for a beautiful view of the region, circumnavigated part of the city in the wall itself, and ended the day by poking around a 700-year old "Fachwerkhaus" (Half-timbered house) that had never been renovated. Once again I am thankful to be alive now and not in the middle ages!

3 countries, 3 days: Bodensee Bike Tour

Our route around the Bodensee

We just returned from our first successful overnight bike trip. We've been threatening to do this for awhile, and I've been dreaming about bike trips since I gave up owning a car 6 years ago. So, we chose Easter weekend to head down to the Bodensee, or Lake Constance to English speakers, in southern Germany. Most of March was Gorgeous (yes, capital "G") weather around here, but when I finally had days off it was back to winter/early spring. Nevertheless, I was overjoyed to be out of the lab for a weekend.
 

My rainboots frame Joe on a swingset.

We headed down to the Bodensee early Saturday morning and started our ride from Radolfzeil (I can't pronounce it either) toward the town of Konstanz. The kilometers ticked by easily and we toured around the island Reichenau as a detour. Turns out most of the fruit and veggies labeled "from our region" ("aus unser Region") in the grocery store come from here. We made it into Constance/Konstanz, situated so it straddles one of the fingers of the Bodensee, for lunch. During lunch it began to rain, so we crossed into Switzerland and booked it for the last 30 kilometers to the little town where we'd booked a room. We arrived at the Haus St. Michal in Dozwil and quickly realized we were in an isolated Catholic stronghold on Easter weekend. We were staying in a guesthouse run by nuns, where the rest of the guests were practicing Catholics, and it was across the street from the church in a mostly Catholic town. We had to walk to the second hotel in town to get our meals, but the dining room's opening hours were scheduled around Mass. Then we decided to watch the only potentially interesting movie in the guest house's common room: "Luther", in German, about the life of Martin Luther and the birth of Protestantism. Talk about awkward.

2012-2013 "Set" in Bregenz

Well, things couldn't get much worse, so when we woke up to snow we took it in stride. We also took it as a sign to get out of town as soon as possible. We biked through the next few towns until we were quite cold, and finally found a little harbor cafe with a fireplace to drink hot chocolate and wait out the storm. It was worth the wait, because then the day turned quite beautiful. Still cool, but sunny. We had a few unplanned detours but eventually crossed the border again, this time into Austria. We stayed in the lovely town of Bregenz, with a backdrop of mountains and the foreground being a lot of tourist dollars pumped into making it quite an artsy and appealing town. The town hosts theater productions with a 2-year run, where the set is actually built out into the water. There is also a "3 Countries" marathon. Sounds cool, but not cool enough to convince me that I need to run a marathon.

Common view on Bodensee: vineyards

Finally, today we hopped on our bikes and crossed back into Germany, which I have to say was my favorite part. We detoured into the picturesque island town of Lindau. The beautiful old town was unpretentiously rimmed by an old lighthouse tower and a lion statue protecting the harbor. We biked on through a string of quaint towns punctuated by vineyards, finally ending up in Friedrichshafen in our "home" state of Baden-Wuerttemburg. We hopped aboard a train with our bikes, and with just one transfer, 35 euros and 2.5 hours of riding we made it home again.

Betsy & Joe @ Bodensee

Well, I'm sure you're thinking we had a terrible time with the weather and all, but in fact all 160 km were rather enjoyable. Because we only had three days we didn't circumnavigate the whole lake, so we'll have to come back and finish up at some point. And, now we now how much we as a couple can and want to bike in a day. There are plenty of great bike routes left to explore, so let us know if you're up for it (we mean you, Aunt Linda and Uncle Bob, Chris and Rachel, Megan and Kevin, Liz and Pete...).