Last Sunday the weather miraculously turned to a sunny 67 degrees F. It’s only February, people! Whatever, after living in Seattle for five years I have sworn not to question nice weather ever, ever again. So we made the most of it and went on a leisurely bike ride up to the neighboring village of Bebenhausen. (Side note: Since Curt and I are silly dorks, up until this point this town was merely a running joke for us: Every time we drove by we would say in our best Wayne’s World voice, “Dude, do all the babes live in Bebenhausen?” Yes, we really are that mature:) But seriously, we had heard from a few people that it was a nicely preserved medievel Schönbuch village with an amazing church and cloister, so we really felt like we needed to check it out. Well, plus I had two free tickets for the cloister from Tübingen city hall’s foreigner office—I guess they feel like they need to show us “auslanders” where to go to absorb the German culture! It was a great day; After this cold winter, my first ever really, it was so nice to be in the warm sun wandering through the cobblestoned streets of Bebenhausen (umm, note to cyclists who are newbies like me: be careful walking on old hilly streets in your clipless shoes!) The village is pretty tiny but it does have an impressive gothic church with some very well-preserved artifacts from when the monks were the only inhabitants.
I am sad to say, however, that after an exhaustive search we came to the conclusion that there are no Babes in Bebenhausen.

Well, We finally took the train to Paris on the last weekend we could use our railpass. We had some difficulty with the local Tübingen D-Bahn office, seems they don’t know how to book the TGV (the fast train) that leaves from the BIG city (ie. Stuttgart). Jamie finally had to go to the office in Stuttgart to do this, but that whole rant is a another [post that I’m sure Jamie would just love to re-live…

Yes, Paris, City of Lights, Romance and Poets. I had high expectations as this was to be my first trip to this legendary city. After watching Ratatouille I figured I had acquired enough knowledge about the local customs navigate the intricacies of French Cuisine so, Loney Planet Guide in hand, we stepped abroad the TGV at Stuttgart station and nestled into cozy First Class seats.The train is half the fun, once you get into the straight-a-ways areas of the French Plateau that sucker gets up to about 180 mph. They also include a nice boxed lunch (or brekkie) with your ticket, and there’s nothing like cruising along at high speed with a little food and wine to pass the time. With the new service it’s only 3.5 hours from Stuttgart to Paris and it’s much better than flying.

Suffice to say Paris wasn’t exactly how I pictured it in both good and bad ways. I really took about a day to get in the rhythm and the city and find our way around. It really is a beautiful place - even when it’s about 4o degrees F out. Wide streets, many places to wander and eat, great coffee, and the Eiffel Tower is actually WAY bigger than you would think from photos..

We had to do the tower to check it off the list but it really was fun. We had a sunny day so we did the stairs up to the second level then took the lift the rest of the way (it’s the only option). I have to say I really don’t care for heights and the last bit of steps was a little freaky but the view from the top was well worth the effort and line-waiting that we had to do to get there (travelers tip: go during the week if you can, the lines are supposed to be much shorter, esp. on a Wednesday).

I could write more but the picts say it better and faster. Just go, Paris really is a great place. Can’t wait to go back very soon. When it’s warm.

Have a look at our picts here.

And also for your viewing pleasure, is a video of Jamie getting her own freak on in the elevator on the way down. I like the lift, Jamie not so much:

Earlier this month we had a really fun weekend in Munich, using a couple more days on our now-expired (sigh) Eurail pass. It was a 35-minute train ride from Tübingen to Plochingen and then we boarded the 1.5-hour IC to Munich. The most amusing part of the journey was our run-in with a fasching (carnaval) witch club of sorts. It was only 9am and the whole gang were already in their bizarre costumes, booze-in-hand, looking ready for a serious party/parade to ward off the evil spirits of winter. The rest of the trip was a blast: Munich is one of our favorite cities, so beautiful and full of style and character. Of course we had to include a visit to the world-famous Hofbräuhaus which is why you’ll see us with liters of beer in front of our faces. Too much fun, despite the headache the next day. Click here to see all the pics.