Wanderings

We've had a lovely couple of days in Tuebingen, exploring the city and getting some necessary things out of the way. On Monday, our whole group (save the one grad student sill in Paris) met up to have the German equivalent of passport photos taken. These are biometric photos that, evidently, are different from those we take in the states in a visually undetectable way, because we're not allowed to use passport photos from home for our student visas. Afterwards, having not yet eaten breakfast, Anya and I headed to a nice cafe that one of our fellow programmates recommended. While the others went off to open bank accounts, the three of us lounged outside and enjoyed day-old cake with coffee.

I had an enormous piece of delicious Himbeer-Kuchen that only cost me a single Euro--does it get better?

Our Yale friend is a theology student who's currently working on his second Master's (toward a PhD), and we've discovered that we all share a love of sitting, chatting, and consuming yummy things, not to mention wandering and discovering the city. We made plans to go to Mainz to see the Gutenberg Museum (which, last time I visited in 2009, was wonderful) on Thursday, and Anya and I headed to Kaufland to buy groceries for dinner.

That evening, Anya's second and extremely mysterious roommate emerged and altered our dinner plans (which was decidedly not a problem--house dinners are important dinners, especially when your roommate has been hiding in her room all week) and I wound up cooking dinner with (really for) two of the other CT students and the guy from Tennessee they met at their language course registration. We took a trip to Kaufland again (I wasn't kidding when I said it's around the block, has everything, and that we go constantly) and picked up some cooking supplies. It seemed easier to just do things myself rather than to organize four of us making dinner (though our dear friend Danny, with whom I was in lots of contact before leaving the States, watched me work and learned how to roast asparagus), so they started on the wine (3 Euros a bottle for an exceptionally drinkable Spanish red) while I started on dinner. We cooked up some Bratwurst, boiled some Weisswurst (Bavarian veal sausage), roasted some white asparagus (a German specialty), and boiled up the water for our very own Kaesespaetzle. For those of you unfamiliar with this dish, Spaetzle is essentially a cross between a dumpling and a noodle, and Kaesespaetzle just involves turning it into a quasi-macaroni and cheese. I sauteed some onions, made a quick roux with flour and butter, and tossed in some milk and the package of "Spaetzlekaese" that is "mountain cheese" and Emmentaler mixed together and sold in one easy bag. This earned some very impressive 'oohs' from the peanut gallery but is actually insanely easy and delicious.

This morning, Anya and I met our Yale friend for a delicious German breakfast at a cafe in the Altstadt. We ordered what ended up being a lot of food, but it was also extremely lovely.

I had a big plate of cheese, ham, fresh fruit and vegetables, and butter to eat on all manner of bread and rolls, along with a big bowl of cafe au lait/Milchkaffee and a boiled egg that was just short of hard boiled and wonderfully gooey. We sat and enjoyed the scenery outside, and then visited a great music and record store--where I found a poster for my very bare walls--before wandering all around the northwestern section of the altstadt. It was absolutely beautiful, made--if possible--even better by the stunningly beautiful weather, and we finally found ourselves on top of the hill upon which the castle sits before meandering back down to our bus stop.

Something on the top of the hill that looks like the castle, but is not. We're not sure, but it's quite pretty either way!

On Thursday we're venturing to Mainz for a visit, which there is, unfortunately, no convenient way to do. With the special tickets, though, that for 30 Euro get up to 5 people anywhere on a regional train in a single state for the entire day, we can do it for 20 Euro each, and will just have to bring fun things to do on the train while we roll slowly through the countryside. Given the natural beauty of this place, I think somehow we'll manage!