23.03 - Hohenzollern Castle + Tuebingin !!!

The castle had SPECTACULAR views. It was UNBELIEVEABLE. I'll let the pictures do the talking for the most part.

The tour was actually rather disappointing by comparison. We couldn't take any pictures inside and we only got to see about 5 rooms, which was one floor of one wing of the castle - Lame!

But it was still soooo neat to be there.

There was however a treacherous and exhausting hike up to the castle- many many stairs and steep inclines.

Following the castle adventure, we went to the nearby old town of Tubingen. I almost wish I were living there instead of Stuttgart. I have fallen in Love with that tiny city! It's so cute and old fashioned, and it truly looks like what I'd expect of a European town. We had lunch there at a restaurant that overlooked the river, and then we took a city tour.

 However, it was very cold and heavily snowing/raining on and off, which made it quite a bit less enjoyable, which makes me think I most definitely need to travel there again during the summer!

climbing up to the castle, looking back through the trees

The first gate/entrance to the castle.

stunning view from the top of the hill, if only it weren't so foggy

little garden

spiral road leading up to the actual castle gates

castle watch tower/ gates to get in

 

entry way to inner court part

looking down from the top entrance part

 

The castle sits on a Mountain top, with an extraordinary view!  

 

 

old corner lookout tower.

finally inside the inner gate, headed up to the castle entrance.

top of the mountain and fortress bier garten!

 

standing next to a statue of one of the Friederichs that ruled here. I was trying to look regal. I don't know what Jenny was doing.

View from the top of the castle from the otherside

driving away, the castle up on a hill.

 

And onward to Tuebingen!

Tuebingen! This is the Neckar River, and across the bridge is Old Tuebingen. It's so lovely!

We ate at a restaurant that has one wall all windows and looks out onto the river. We had 4 lunch choices since lunch was paid for in the 15 euro cost of the trip (such a good deal!). I choose the "Bretzelknoedel" aka the pretzel dough dumplings, in mushroom sauce.

A cute little road!!! Notice that ALL the parking spaces are open! That's because it's so much easier to walk around the town, it's so small. It's perfect!

One of the main squares in the city. Super duper cute!!!

The beautiful Neckar River and story book looking Tuebingen

So a lot of the really old looking buildings have actually been rebuilt. There is only one stone is a wall of the city that support a giant church and parts of the city- give that the place is on a mountain- that is of the Italian romantic architecture style instead of the Gothic style. That's this weird curved top stone, which looks like it has an eye drawn in the middle...

Our tour guide told us that it works like Platform 9 3/4 (Harry Potter reference) and that if you tap the brick 3 times "tzak tzak tzak" [that's phonetically how she said you have to tap the bricks] when no one is watching, and at a very specific time of day, then you will magically wind up on the other side of the wall.

I tried it, but I guess too many people were watching, because it didn't work.

Another little "gasse" or alley

A very old building that is now used as a university building in Tuebingen.

Walking up to the old fortress in Tuebingen.

view from the outside of the fortress in Tuebingen

Inside the fortress.

Fortress courtyard. It is now used as part of the university, so there are some classes and such that take place here!

 

The city Rathaus! The oldest building in Tuebingen! There is an astronomical clock (it got cut off in the picture) that is over 500 years old on the top of the rathaus!

Some really cute buildings in the city Martktplatz

There are a lot of tudor style (super cute looking!) buildings that were actually only built in the 1800s, so not nearly as old as they look.

This is the narrowest lane in Tuebingen. It's called "Hasegasse" which means "Rabbit Alley" because you have to hop like a rabbit to make it through, since it is so small. Barely 2 feet wide. Apparently there were a couple guys on the tour who had to turn a bit sideways because their shoulders wouldn't fit through normally.

There is a little canal that runs along one of the roads, and this is actually one of the main roads in Tuebingen. It's so cute and also weird how all the buildings are built right up against this canal, and all the doors have bridges to the road!

 

The Stadt (=city) Museum

This is what remains of a so called "Plumpclo" in what used to be a "Nonnenhaus" or where the nuns lived or women learned to be nuns, and now it is used as a theology studies building.

Cut off in the picture is the canal along the road to the right. The original building would have had this "Plumpclo" stretching all the way across the canal (only about another 4 feet- it's very small for a canal) and it was basically the first kind of indoor bathroom. People would do their business and it would "plump" into the canal, and be washed away.

 How sanitary, right?

 

This was actually the second building we saw that had one of these!
But, despite that, and the frigid weather, Tubingen was so wonderful!


And then we got back to Stuttgart, and TA DA- SNOW!

It wasn't actually sunny in this picture, that is my camera flash from taking this picture out of my closed window! I have a very pretty view!

 

 Yep, so as I mentioned, it was ridiculously cold and rainy/snowy all day, and we were outside for all but about 2 hours of the day! I'm cold just looking at the pictures from the day. However, it was still so much fun, and such a great excursion today!