Tag Archives: Laichingen

Baden-Württemberg

Ten things I learned on our latest trip to Stuttgart…

Since we used to live near Stuttgart, I wasn’t planning to write a “ten things I learned” post for our latest jaunt down there, but for some reason, I feel like writing a travel post today. Maybe it’s because I recently made a photo folder for my new computer, and it’s flashing some of my prettiest pictures, as opposed to every picture on my hard drive. A few photos from our latest visit to the Stuttgart area have been included in my photo folder.

So, to satisfy my itch to write about travel, and to maybe generate some new views, here are ten things I learned on our latest trip to Stuttgart. I do learn new things every time I travel, even when it’s to places I’ve been to many times!

10. The TV Tower (Fernsehturm) is closed on Mondays during the winter!

The Fernsehturm is located very close to the Wald Hotel. I’ve been up it twice, and although Bill doesn’t remember going up there with me, I’d swear he went on my second trip. We thought maybe we’d kill time last Monday and go up it again, but alas, it’s closed on Mondays! BUT– after April 1, you can visit on Mondays… until the winter season starts again in November.

9. If you’ve already seen the Blautopf, and you liked looking at the deep blue water, you might also want to visit Brenztopf (Brenzursprung)!

I’m grateful that we were able to come back to Germany, if only because when we were living here the first time, I had never heard of Blautopf, let alone Brenztopf. These are very beautiful ponds in the cavernous areas near Ulm. Blautopf is in Blaubeuren, which is an obviously touristy town and has more facilities. It might be the “better” of the two ponds, given a choice. A visit to Blautopf can be paired with a trip to the Tiefenhöhle (Germany’s deepest show cave open to the public– also open after April 1), in nearby Laichingen.

However, Brenztopf, in Königsbronn, also shouldn’t be missed, for those who like looking at mysterious, beautiful, blue bodies of water. Below are photos from both places. The top three photos are from Blautopf, while the bottom three are from Brenztopf. Both places are probably best visited after April 1, for the “summer” season. On the other hand, if you visit before April 1, there are probably going to be fewer crowds to battle.

8. If you want to get the most out of a visit to Hohenzollern, you might want to wait until the “summer” season starts, on April 1.

It’s cheaper to visit Hohenzollern Castle in the “winter” season, because one can only see the grounds during that time. If you want to actually go into the castle and take a tour, you will need to wait for the warmer months. That is also when the Biergarten opens, although I can’t promise that an April visit will be any better weather wise than a March visit would be. If you’re short on money, a “winter” visit might be better. Tickets are significantly cheaper during the cold months.

Hohenzollern is beautiful in any season.

7. Taking the bus to Hohenzollern is so worth the money!

I mentioned in my post about Hohenzollern that Bill and I have had the experience of walking up the path to the castle. It’s definitely not for the weak. If you have any physical problems, or you’re just old and out of shape like we are, you might want to spring for the shuttle bus. Just sayin’.

6. Obviously, we need to schedule our dentist appointments AFTER April 1…

You’d think that after so many years of living in Germany, and near Stuttgart in particular, I’d already know this… But then, Bill is the one who schedules these things.

5. Besigheim is a very cute town, especially if you like German wines!

I never would have known about Besigheim if I hadn’t started following Facebook tip groups by Germans, for Germans. I wish we’d taken the time to shop for wines when we visited, but we were both eager to get to the hotel. As it was, we were still stuck in Stuttgart’s famous Staus.

4. Heidenheim is also well worth exploring, although it’s a bit of a hike from Stuttgart.

Now that we’ve seen it, maybe we’ll go back and see Schloss Hellenstein, which overlooks the town and has two museums. The castle dates from the 12th century, although the original version was almost completely destroyed in a fire back in 1530. Right next to the Schloss is a nature park, which has a bird of prey station and serves as home to many wildlife species.

3. It pays to check out restaurants thoroughly when you’re hungry.

When we visited Heidenheim, we wandered around a bit, trying to find a place for lunch. The first restaurant I spotted, La Strada, is where we ended up enjoying a lovely lunch. But we almost missed it, because although there was a menu board outside, the window next to the menu board made it look like the restaurant was deserted. All we had to do was go up a flight of stairs to find the entrance! The “deserted” room on the first floor was just another dining room that wasn’t open for lunch.

2. Always plan for a pause.

We were under the impression that La Strada had a warm kitchen throughout the day on Saturday. However, that turned out not to be the case… Our waiter was eager for us to finish up so he could take a break before the dinner shift. Not that we blame him at all for that!

Good pizza!

1. We still haven’t seen everything.

In spite of living in the Stuttgart area for a total of six years– the longest we’ve spent living in any place throughout our 20 year marriage– we still haven’t seen everything there is to see. Although Dr. Blair (our dentist) kids us, we love visiting Stuttgart and going on excursions. I always try to plan for at least a couple of outings to places that are new to us. In the future, maybe we’ll finally visit Kirchheim Unter Teck, the Porsche Museum, or the palace in Ludwigsburg.

There are also places that deserve a second or third look, like Hohenzollern and the TV Tower. Stuttgart looks different during the different seasons, or when the weather changes. I like living in Wiesbaden, and we definitely need to explore more up here, but every time I visit Stuttgart, I’m reminded of just how many things there are to do down there. I always enjoy visiting!

Overall

I often compare Stuttgart and Wiesbaden, since we’ve lived in both places. I get a lot of hits from people in the United States on my posts that compare the two places. I know this is because the two US military installations offer similar job opportunities. I want to reiterate that I’ve really enjoyed both areas, although Stuttgart remains more familiar to me, because we lived there longer, and didn’t spend two years in lockdown there. Our most recent trip was yet another reminder of how appealing both areas are, for differing reasons. But really, you can’t go wrong in either place, and on this trip, I was reminded yet again how lucky we are to be able to have and enjoy these experiences in Germany.

So… if you’re a German reading this, allow me to say “Danke sehr!” for being so welcoming and allowing us to get acquainted with your beautiful, interesting, and just plain amazing homeland! Now that I’m thinking about it, maybe next time we visit, I’ll pick a place to the east of Stuttgart to base us, so we can see even more of the places we haven’t seen yet. I’ve got until early October to make plans!

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caves, Sundays

Down in the hole… the Laichinger Tiefenhöhle

Special shout out to Dianne, who recommended today’s activity a few days ago.  It’s been quite hot in the Stuttgart area lately and she recently shared a link to the local travel group about the Laichinger Tiefenhöhle, a very cool (literally) vertical cave in Laichingen, a town about an hour’s drive from the local military installations.

Bill and I decided to visit Tiefenhöhle today.  From our home in Unterjettingen, it took about 90 minutes to get to the cave.  Once we got there, it was about 1:30pm and there was very little parking. The place was teeming with Germans enjoying the small biergarten on site and the Kletterwald, which is a big play and picnic area, along with a ropes course.  We didn’t take time to explore the Kletterwald, although it did look like the people who were using it were having a lot of fun.

I happen to love caves.  When I was in high school, I took an advanced biology class that offered many amazing field trips.  One of our first trips was to two wild caves in Virginia.  Ever since I took that trip in 1989, I’ve enjoyed spelunking.  Last year, Bill and I had a great time visiting Postonja Cave Park in Slovenia.  Well, I’m here to tell you that Tiefenhöhle bears very little resemblance to Postonja, Europe’s largest show caves.  This pit cave in Laichingen is much smaller and requires a lot more stamina to visit.  But it was well worth the effort and the price was right, too.  It was just four euros per adult to take the self guided tour.  The cave is open every day from 9am until 6pm from April 15-November 15.

This was a busy place today!  Parking is free, but I did notice some people weren’t very considerate about how they parked.  There were several spots that were almost, but not quite, large enough to park our Mini Cooper.  We ended up having to make a spot on the grass.  

This building is where you buy your tickets, visit the small museum, and perhaps enjoy cake or beer after your trip through the cave.

 

Once you buy your ticket(s), you head down a flight of stairs where there is a small introductory exhibit.  As you can see, you can press the button and hear about what you’re looking at.  Bill pressed the button for English, immediately outing us as Auslanders (as if anyone had a doubt).

He was a little embarrassed by the spectacle.

I’d be interested to hear the German for kids.  There are several of these stations in the cave, too.

Once you’re finished with the first exhibit, you open the door to the cave and start walking…

Seems harmless enough.

Start the very steep walk down…

My thighs got a workout…

These steps are really more like ladders.  I advise wearing long pants and good shoes.  The steps are often wet, cold, and can be slippery.  You may also want to wear gloves because the metal railing gets icy cold.  You definitely need to use the railings.  This is not a place where you’d want to faceplant!  

Toward the bottom of the cave…  This is the deepest show cave in Germany and the only vertical cave that can be visited by the public.  Once you’ve reached the bottom, you are about 55 meters below the Earth’s surface.  The deepest part of the cave is 80 meters down, but that is not part of the tour.

Now it’s time to climb up.  I hope your heart is strong!

I recommend stopping to take a lot of pictures as you catch your breath.

You may also want to wear something you don’t mind getting wet.  There is an area where water drips constantly and it will get on you.

A steep climb!

Bill is happy!  He likes it when I find stuff for us to do besides drinking beer.

One last shot before we started the last painful set of stairs.  I was pretty winded when we finally reached the exit.

Some readers may remember that Bill and I visited Blautopf in March of this year.  Blautopf, in the pretty town of Blaubeuren, is located about 16km from Tiefenhöhle.  If you wanted to, you could easily do the cave in the morning and then visit Blautopf, to see where the cave system ends.  In the museum at the cave, there is a cool display that shows how the caves wind up at Blautopf.  After you visit Blautopf, you could stop in the Hammersmith museum.  That would easily kill most of a day and use up plenty of energy.

Here are a couple of shots of the play equipment at the adjoining ropes course/picnic area at Kletterwald.  We didn’t hang around too long because it was time for beer.

This was just what we needed to regain our strength.  Leave it to the Germans to reward you after a tough climb!  We were joined by a very friendly German family.  The man of the family brought coffee and cake for the ladies– looked like his wife and two Omas.  Then they were joined by people who appeared to be friends, having a great time.  Across the way, there was a lady who had brought her adorable and very well behaved beagle!

The museum is small, but interesting.  You can stop by the restroom, too.  They are free of charge!

This is a skeleton of a cave bear.

As you can see, it’s a lot bigger than your garden variety brown bear.

Bill was impressed.

The caves are closed during the cold months, probably to give the bats a break.  I did actually see a bat flying in the cave.

These are pictures of the 3D display they had of the cave system.  In the first picture, you can see Blautopf, while the second shows the Tiefenhöhle.

 

I had to get a picture of this car in the parking lot.  I think it’s for moms who have just given birth and want to reclaim their bodies!  But Bill wondered if it was something involving kangaroos wearing boxing gloves.  I wonder if being so deep in the ground did something to his thinking!

It didn’t take us long to visit the cave, although we didn’t necessarily take our time.  Needless to say, this is not a stroller friendly activity, nor would I want to take young kids in this cave.  You have to be pretty surefooted and cautious to explore it safely.  I am not kidding when I say the steps are very steep both going up and down and it is quite strenuous, especially if you’re a fatass housewife like me.

There are areas in the cave that are low and/or narrow, so tall people or very overweight people may want to be especially cautious.  This is not an activity for anyone with mobility issues, claustrophobia, or heart problems.  You will probably work up a sweat, too, even though the cave is refreshingly cool.

I wore shorts and Keen sandals when we toured the cave.  The shoes were okay, but I wish I had worn long pants and/or socks.  The steps are not very deep or wide, so my bare skin kept touching the icy cold metal on the steps.  It wasn’t an altogether pleasant sensation and I got pretty dirty around my ankles.  Edited to add: there are spats available to borrow for protecting your lower legs.  I didn’t see them until after we finished.

Other than that, though, we really had a good time exploring Tiefenhöhle.  I would definitely recommend it to anyone who enjoys exploring caves.  Tomorrow, we will probably visit another cave attraction.  Stay tuned!

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Sundays

Bluer than blue at Blautopf…

Breathtakingly blue…

Sometime a couple of months ago, a person in our local Facebook group asked where to find a certain “blue lake” near Stuttgart.  A German member of the group supplied the answer to her query.  She was looking for Blautopf (Blue Pot), a beautiful spring in the town of Blaubeuren that feeds into the River Blau and eventually the Danube.  I was curious about Blautopf; I had never heard of it until it was mentioned on Facebook.  Once I saw pictures, I decided Bill and I needed to visit.

Going to Blautopf from Unterjettingen was a bit of a hard sell, though.  The town of Blaubeuren is a somewhat stout drive from where we live.  It’s somewhat close to Ulm.  Since we didn’t plan to bring our dogs, Zane and Arran, with us, it would mean they’d spend several hours home alone.  We had such pretty weather this weekend, though, that I finally wore down Bill’s resolve and off we went.  The drive took about 80 minutes on B28.  Alternatively, we could have gotten there by way of A8.  We also could have brought our dogs with us.  Blautopf is very dog friendly.

On the way to Blautopf, we passed through Pfäffingen, the town where Bill and I lived the first time we were in the Stuttgart area.  As we drove through, I noticed a very large man standing on the side of the road with his thumb up.  He was looking at us hopefully.  Alas, even if we were in the habit of picking up hitchhikers, we were in my Mini Cooper, which really accommodates only two adults, despite the presence of a backseat.  I was thinking to myself, “Dude, we’re in a Mini.  Even if we wanted to give you a lift, where would you sit?”

My first view of the town of Blaubeuren, which is very tourist friendly.  There’s lots of parking, although even in late March the town was full of people visiting the spring.  I imagine it gets packed there in the summer.

We stopped by the public WC, where I spotted this cute little poem…

Then we followed the crowd and the blue arrows pointing to the point of interest…

The spring feeds into a mill, which fuels a hammermill.  There is a museum where visitors can see horseshoes being made, among other things.  We stopped in after we gazed at the beautiful water.

The water gets to be about 69 feet deep in the middle.

Here they show how deep the water is at any given time.

The inside of the hammersmith.  We basically just observed all that was going on in there because it was pretty loud and the whole thing was in German anyway.  But we were able to see how the water fueled the machinery and it was well worth the visit.  It was also a cheap attraction.  An adult ticket is 2,50 euros.

It costs nothing to visit Blautopf, probably because it only takes a few minutes to see it.  Those who are feeling energetic can hike up the mountain to get some great views of the charming town.  There are also several museums and a monastery.  If we hadn’t been worried about leaving the dogs for too long, we might have stayed a little bit longer and taken in more of the sights.  Instead, we decided to stop by Gasthof Blautopf- La Locanda for lunch.  That was a good choice.  The food was outstanding.

Bill enjoys the sunshine as we wait for beer.

I love a good Franziskaner.

This particular restaurant has an advantage of being located very close to the spring.  I also noticed that there was a lovely aroma coming from the terrace.  When we sat down, I noticed a guy sitting near us who had ordered pasta.  The tomato sauce smelled so good that I decided I had to have that for lunch.

Bill ordered Spaghetti Principessa, which was spaghetti with olive oil, algae (which sounds weirder than it is), cherry tomatoes, capers, rucola, pine nuts, and very fresh shrimp.  It was delicious!  I wished I’d ordered it.  But I went with the more pedestrian Spaghetti Mediterana.

This was also an excellent dish.  The sauce was made of very fresh tomatoes, basil, and olive oil.  It was topped with Parmesan cheese.  

Service was friendly and the prices were very fair.  Our lunch was under 30 euros before the tip.

The monastery.

A map of the town.

Here are a few more shots I took with my new camera…


A pair of mallards were enjoying the pristine water.

I would definitely recommend Blautopf for a fun day trip from the Stuttgart area.  Although we didn’t do anything more than see the spring and the hammersmith museum, we could have taken the whole day to see other places along the way.  Our route took us past Bad Urach, where there are waterfalls and ruins, Reutlingen, and Tuebingen… all places where one can have lunch and fill up the day with activities.  If you visit during the summer months, you can also stop in nearby Laichingen and see the Tiefenhoehle, which is part of the cave system that forms Blautopf.

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