Bill and I are always looking for new things to try on our Sundays.  Recently, one of Bill’s soon to be departed co-workers passed along a tip for us.  Not far from the cute little town of Neubulach is a silver mine, which also has an “asthma treatment” area within it.  I happen to suffer from asthma, which means recovering from colds and flu is a real bitch for me.  Unfortunately, the asthma treatment is not operating during the month of July.  However, from May to October, one can visit the silver mine.

Good mood music for this post…

Since I love walking into mountains, I figured it would be good fun to visit the silver mine today.  It’s not far from where we live in Unterjettingen– maybe twenty minutes, tops.  After a short drive through some pretty forested country, we arrived at the mine.

The grand sign.  We parked near here, but you can actually drive a bit down the road and park closer.  Parking costs nothing.  The walk down to the mine takes about ten minutes and is downhill.  That means when you come back, it will be uphill.  Keep that in mind as you decide where to park.

 

There are actually a few things to do in the area, as Bill is discovering.

If you want to, you can hike up the hill to the town or a mini golf course.

 

Or you can take a 45 minute walk on the Fledermaus (bat) trail.  We skipped the trail because I didn’t feel like climbing hills, but I might try it on another day.  Looks like there’s a nice creek you can wade in.

 

Helmets and capes are waiting for visitors.

I was a bit hungry on arrival, so we had a snack.  While Bill was ordering, I took a look at what was on display.  The shop has things for sale as well as exhibits.

Not a bad little museum!

We had beer, wurst, and broetchen.

Then we walked around the grounds as we waited for our guide.

Something for the kids to check out.

Finally, it was time to don our helmets and capes for the tour.  You might not think the helmets are necessary, but I’m here to tell you; all of the red helmets for adults were pretty scuffed up.  It’s not from falling rocks as much as it is from low ceilings.  I’m only 5’2″ and I had to duck a couple of times.  Bill hit his helmet a few times, too.

Bill reacts to my quip when he puts on his helmet…

“We’re through being cool!”  (You probably either need to be a certain age or a big geek to get this joke…)

The cape is handy for keeping your clothes from getting wet.  Or for completing the Devo look.

On our way…

The mine has silver, but it also has azurite and malachite.  I should mention that this tour was done in German.  Our guide was a young lass who spoke perfect high German and enunciated very clearly.  I still only caught a small percentage of what she said.  That was a surprise, though, because I wasn’t expecting to understand even that much!

You can spot these little guys throughout the tour.

I got a kick out of this one.

 

The silver mine tour runs for about 40 minutes.  I enjoyed it, even though it was in German and my German sucks.  On the other hand, I recently started doing Duolingo again and the word “tief”, which is used a lot during this tour, was one of the vocabulary words.  So I will probably never forget that word because it was used in a practical instance.

Since we decided not to try the bat trail, we headed back to the car…  It was an uphill jaunt to get there, but at least my muscles weren’t sore.

Very close to the mine is a the cute town of Neubulach.  Bill managed to find us a Brauhaus.  Because of our snack before the mine tour, we weren’t wanting any food.  But we did stop in for some beer, which is apparently brewed on the premises and is very good.  Since we live close to the Brauhaus Roessle, we’ll have to come back.  They have live music sometimes, too.

The bartender was friendly and efficient.  We sat inside, although there is a nice biergarten area outside.  Food is offered without pause.  

Bill checks out the choices.

They offer seasonal beers, but the one for July wasn’t available today.

Halloween maybe?

I had a Kellerpils…

and a hefeweizen.  Bill had a fest beer.

I was charmed by this cute little town.  It reminded me of rural France.

We’ll definitely have to go back and discover more about it.

They even have this…

The silver mine was very interesting.  We learned that this area actually has a number of mines, some of which are evidently open to visitors.  While the tour was in German, it was still pretty neat to see the inside of the mine and the surrounding nature.  I can’t believe we’ve been living in the Stuttgart area for a total of five years over two tours and just heard of this place last week.  Kudos to Bill’s buddy, Tim, for pointing out this attraction to us.

If you’re looking for a kid friendly activity for a Sunday, the silver mine might be a good bet, even if you have to exercise your budding German skills.