Tübingen, Germany

What a nice university town less than an hour south of Stuttgart! It reminded me a bit of Cambridge, Massachusetts, with the best of Germany thrown into the mix. We parked in one of the garages just outside of old town, having been alerted that on-street parking is tough to find and time-limits are strictly enforced. It was a short walk past vegetable vendors and florists, to a warren of cobblestoned streets leading uphill past assorted shops and cafés, including a record store (yep, real vinyl!). 

The City Museum is closed on Mondays, FYI, but there are plenty of other things to see and do. There were bookstores with titles in English, a super falafel place with well-spiced lentil soup, and plenty of top name brand shops from muesli to bath products. On a serious note, a church shop on the main square featured a reconciliation video of Germans apologizing for the war crimes of their grandparents to Jewish and Polish people around the world during several “Marches of Remembrance”. Very powerful and moving. A rock had been thrown through the church shop window the week before.

One of the large churches had an organist rehearsing so loudly that we could hear the music outside, so of course we went in! A lovely chocolate shop enticed us to buy gifts for other people, and we climbed the hill to the castle for fantastic views over the city. We didn’t go into the castle museum, but will do so on a future visit. There were flyers for lectures and activism on social justice issues – I may need to take some advanced German classes so I can understand more complicated vocabulary in order to attend some of those events.

We picked up a bunch of fruits and vegetables from an outdoor vendor on the way back to the car, so be sure to bring along your reusable shopping bags- though there were thin plastic bags available. We look forward to returning in the warmer weather, and again when it gets cold next December for the chocolate festival.