Last time Bill and I lived in Germany, we lived very close to the university city of Tübingen, which is a fine college town.  We used to visit pretty often because we lived about ten minutes away.  Consequently, we got to know the city pretty well and we ended up really loving it.  In the almost five years we were in America, I can’t tell you how many times I told Bill that I wanted to just spend a Saturday afternoon in Tübingen.

Well… today, we went there.  I had been dreaming of the moment for awhile and we got there in the early afternoon, as was our habit last time we lived in Germany.  We first took the dogs for a nice long walk in the woods and filled their Kongs with peanut butter… I think they are getting to the point at which our trips to local cities is becoming a treat for them.  They don’t get peanut butter filled Kongs unless we go out.

We drove my Mini, which was registering low tire pressure after the long trip across the Atlantic.  Bill decided to stop by a nearby gas station and give the tires some air.  That seemed to do the trick as we made our way to our old stomping grounds.  I will be honest when I say that I felt a bit of a stab to the heart as we passed the town we lived in last time.  Looks like one of the local restaurants is now a casino.

Anyway, we got to Tübingen after passing through Herrenberg, which was another local town last time we were here and is still “local” to us now that we’re back.  We parked the car, went to Vinum, which is our favorite Tübingen booze shop, and headed to the Neckarmuller, which is a great restaurant/biergarten in Tübingen.

We bought some vino at Vinum…

I took lots of photos, including a few of a guy dressed in drag who was intent on attracting attention to himself.

Beautiful…

Bill drinks a fresh Weissbier…

People in the food and beer lines.

It was a good day for beer drinking.

After we left the biergarten,  we went back to Vinum and bought stuff.  Lemme just say that I LOVE that store.  I am delighted we were able to go back.  Yes, it’s smaller than Spec’s, but it has all I need.  And they guys that run it understand why we love it… and they speak English, too.

They had some really good beer selections.

After Vinum shot of the church.

And then graffiti…

Vinum is awesome.  So is Chocolat, which is where you can get great coffee or hot chocolate in the city.

Then I had to pee.  So we stopped at Die Kelter, just on the way out of the city for a potty break.  Bill and I ate dinner there once in 2007 and really enjoyed it.  We enjoyed today’s visit just as much.  In fact, I think the bartender in training was getting a kick out of some of my irreverent comments.  The Germans put on a show of being very strict and uptight, but I have found that a lot of them are pretty funny if you press them.

This would be Keller Teufel (cellar devil), which is a very hoppy beer from Rottenburg… not far from here.  I enjoyed it, but I think Bill would like it more.

Love Die Kelter.  Yes, they serve food too.  And we did eat there once and loved it.  Be warned, the bathroom is a hike.

We got home at about 5:00pm and the dogs were delighted.  Bill and I listened to music and ate dinner.  Now I’m writing this as he does homework.

We like Ammerbuch.