July 28, 2018
Rest Day in Tübingen
In the now unaccustomed state of being under a roof I slept very deeply. We arose rather late, to a leisurely day of sightseeing in the environs of Tübingen.
For lunch, we headed to the North, where the city petered out just outside Ben's flat and quickly becomes a sprawling forest reserve. After an hour or so's walk we came to the village of Bebenhausen, home to an ancient monastery which has seen a variety of uses over the centuries: from abbey, to royal hunting lodge, to hosting the post-war government of Württemburg. The village is charming and something of a tourist draw in itself - we selected a Gästhaus Ben recommended for lunch and looked around the abbey, including the slightly disconcerting site of a groundsman cleaning the stonework and sloshing water down on the rooftops, cobbles and visitors metres below.
Ben shares my enthusiasm for this kind of touring. We contemplated plans for tricycle touring, and the virtues of a trailer. Ben is keen to cycle one day down the length of the Danube - what a tour that'd be.
We walked back through the extensive forest to Tübingen, past a number of fountains (keine trinkwasser - I was still obsessed with water) and a hollow tree fitted with doors which is used as a lending library. Apparently there were lots of software books in there a couple of weeks ago, but someone had obviously had them, as it mostly dubious photography books now.
As evening came, we went back into the city centre for a night out with Ben's fellow tutors at the University. It was end of term, and many of them were making plans for their next placements, moving all over Europe, from Zurich to Reykjavik. We drank half litres of good German beer and swapped academic war stories. As the evening wore on we ended up at the appropriately-named and notorious Last Resort, which specialised in shots of tomato, tabasco and tequila know as "Mexicaners". We returned to Ben's flat, apparently had quite a cogent discussion of database structures, and then passed out.
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