Cold and rainy: Biberach Day 3 (18 Sep 2013)

Oh, Mr Sun, Sun,
Mr Golden Sun
Please shine down on me
(Traditional)

We thought late summer-autumn was supposed to be a golden time but not here, now. We’ve had rain and drizzle for a few days, which has created a bit of a wardrobe challenge.  Oh well, c’est la vie.

Anyhow, we  set off on Day 3 in the opposite direction to the previous day, visiting three places …

Riedlingen

A typical, pretty German town. It’s another town, like Biberach, on the Upper Swabian Baroque Route. Established in 1966, this route was one of the first theme routes in Germany. There is supposed to be a roadside logo, but we haven’t really noticed it. We’ve ended up driving through many of the towns on the route, but haven’t had time to check all of them out. The two churches in Day 2’s post are part of it of course.

We wandered around Riedlingen enjoying the tor (old wall gate), pretty old town shops, and the konditerei (pastry shop). Sue bought a lightweight cardigan on sale for €10, having left her only medium weight jacket back at the gasthof, not expecting it to be quite so cold. It was around 10°C with a forecast maximum of 14°C.

Sue noticed that many of the towns in the region ended with “ingen”. Once more Wikipedia came to the rescue. It’s a suffix meaning “descendants of” – usually, the original settler. The “ingen” suffix suggests a prehistoric or Mediaeval name. It’s of Celtic origin and is local to Swabia. Neighbouring Bavaria has “ing” names apparently.

Schloss Lichtenstein

Germany has quite a few “fake” castles it seems, though what constitutes fake is intriguing. We suppose they’re ones built after Mediaeval times during which fortification against others was the critical thing. Schloss Lichtenstein was built in the early 1800s, and is still in private hands.  It was worth a look, partly for its spectacular location on a cliff-face overlooking the valley, which we managed to view every now and then between cold, misty rain. Lovely view of the Swabian Alb, but boy was it cold as we waited outside in drizzly rain for about 30 mins for the tour to start.

We decided to do the tour, conducted in German. Sue was the only non-German speaker, but had a leaflet in English describing each room. The guide was animated and clearly had a sense of humour. Sue’s notes made it clear at the beginning (and end) that NO photographs could be taken on the tour (of the building’s interior), but the German guide said nothing and there were none of the usual “no photographs”, “no flash photographs” etc icons around. Len asked him, and he said “as long as I don’t see”! It was hard for him not to see given the small group in small spaces, but as others were taking photos, Len eventually joined in.

The castle’s main reputation is for its armoury, mainly collected by the ancestor who built it.

Tübingen

The historic university town of Tübingen was our lunch destination, and we’d researched a place in the old town that sounded rather nice – traditional but a bit lighter in style than the country fare we’d been eating. It took us a while to find, with the GPS getting us very close but not recognising that there was no parking except for people with permits. Eventually we followed town signs to a car park in a little shopping centre on the edge of the old town. We then walked into the old town and found the place pretty quickly, except … Mittwoch Ruhetag, that is, Wednesday Rest (closed) Day! Honestly, who closes on Wednesdays? Still, when you are a traveller you need to accept local customs that seem odd to you, and move on, which we did. However it was now nearly 2pm and many German places close off lunch service pretty promptly by then, so it was starting to look desperate when Len spied a gasthausbrauerei. They are likely to be open all day, and so this one, the Gasthausbrauerei Neckarmüller, turned out to be. We were given a lovely table overlooking the Neckar River, from which we could watch the swans and boating. After a while a couple of similar age, from the Mosel region, joined our table. Len had a good chat, including about Spain and how the Germans are propping it up! The food was okay – Sue has discovered that one of their traditional dishes putenbraten, turkey steak, works well for her. It’s usually panfried and served with potatoes rather than wheat noodles. Once again, it did the job.

Before leaving Tübingen we pottered a little around the old town and popped into the main church, the Stiftskirche (or Collegiate Church). It is late gothic style, built 1470. It had a familiar look with its more austere style.  It’s clearly not on the baroque route!

Long drive home

As we’d wandered rather far from home and it would take us 2 hours to get back, we decided to get on the road. Len wanted to use the big roads/autobahn so “tricked” the GPS by entering a destination that should force that to happen. Only trouble is that the GPS, with its  very nice English voice, tricked us back by rerouting us when it determined traffic problems on said autobahn. With a bit of “tricking” backwards and forwards we eventually got home but not without needing a toilet and rest stop at a raststätte or rasthaus, roadhouse, along the way. We were both pretty exhausted and decided to eat in, from the gasthaus’ small food selections.

A good day, but this driving around on unknown roads through lots of little villages can be exhausting!

Free parking, German style

In Riedlingen, Sue discovered an intriguing German parking system. We parked in a spot that was free for a set amount of time. Len produced a little cardboard dial. He pointed the dial to the time we’d arrived and put it on the dashboard. Voilà. Everyone knows when you arrived and when you should leave by. What a simple system!

Three-words

LEN: ‘ingen, Schloss, Altstadt
SUE: Villages, Wet, Cold

and the stills…

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

and the videos…

Boating on the Neckar, Tübingen

 

Panorama of Schloss Lichtenstein and environs