Walking around the small Schwäbisch town of Tübingen , Germany

I have always felt that the best way to explore a city is by walking around. Infact, this is a part of my routine whenever I move to a new place – just walking around and discovering small and big shops, landmarks, local eateries,supermarkets. Ofcourse, I have Google Maps to bank upon, incase I go too far and get confused while coming back! I also like doing the same thing when I am visiting a new town or city, although I end up asking people and not Google Maps most of the time.

So, this week, I attended a conference in a small southern German town called Tübingen, which is quite close to Stuttgart, and lies in the historical Schwaben region. Tübingen is primarily popular for the university and attracts several exchange students each year. I had visited the town once earlier in 2013, when a very close friend was working there for a while, and had found the most incredible dumplings with mushroom sauce in a restaurant called Neckarmuller. So, naturally, when I got to know that I would be re-visiting the city, I was really hoping to visit the restaurant again! And, well, imagine my surprise when I reached my hotel room and saw this:

Although we had a hectic schedule throughout the conference, my colleagues and I did not want to miss out on exploring the town. So, we set off walking around, asking people for directions and recommendations. Also, none of us had internet on our phones while roaming, so a preliminary research and then the local people were what we were banking upon.

Luckily, we were located quite close to the city centre, and did not take long to reach the old town. The old town or the Altstadt is quite intact,and gives a great feeling while walking around the narrow,cobbled lanes, passing by houses built several centuries ago.

A local recommended we visit the farmer’s market and gave us directions to the castle also.  After walking around for a little bit, I stopped to buy a postcard , one of my favourite travel souvenirs.

It was a sunny Saturday morning , just perfect to stroll around 🙂

After asking for directions once again, we reached the castle – Schloss Hohentübingen , which has been taken over by the University, and houses an archaelogical/historical museum, apart from offering a great view of the town. The Schloss is also an important location in the history of Science, as Friedrich Miescher (from Basel) had first extracted and identified nucleic acid,w hile working there. This was way back around 1869 and was a great achievement in the field of genetics.In his memory, several inscriptions can be found on the walls of the castle,including an indication of where his laboratory was located. A long time later, in 1953, Watson and Crick discovered the double helix structure of the DNA at Cambridge University, and a coloured replica can be found in the city, commemorating the work of all these scientists.

We went back to the castle in the evening, and watched the sun go down.It felt very soothing to just be sitting on one of the benches, watching the sunset and talking to each other. We would certainly do so every weekend, had we been living there.

One another day, we saw one more interesting piece of art, located at the Institute of Microbiology and Virology. Take a look at the image below.What do you think it is?

This sculpture is known as Pi–Chacán, and is a symbol of rebirth, made by the Peruvian artist Fernando de la Jara in 2001. We found a few news reports online, stating how a tourist entered the structure and got stuck. He had to be rescued by firefighters!

Overall, I would say that we had a busy but good stay in Tubingen. Honestly, none of us found the general food to be very good. But, the dumplings will always be fondly remembered by me.

What about you?Have you visited South Germany?What food or places did you like?Let me know:)