Spielzeugsladen!

Tübingen's town center teems with great shops, but this seemingly endless toy store with room after room of toys epitomized how Germans KNOW HOW TO DO TOYS.

Seasonal tchotchkes in a felicitous presentation!

Smurfs and more smurfs . . .

Super soft stuffed toys in whimsical clothes . . . what's not to like?

Emily hams it up with a giraffe . . .

Quinn's chagrin that the Lego lollapalooza behind him cannot yield Xmas or birthday presents today.

The wonderful dolly hutch

Devilish fun!

I'm a complete sucker for wooden toys.

Ballerinas to the left of me, Pippi Longstocking to the right . . .

And this magnificent children's section in one of the local bookstores . . . and that was only the half of it!

Auf wiedersehen von Deutschland!

Ich liebe Tübingen

Every time we come to Stuttgart, we fit in a visit to this wonderful university town.  Somehow Tübingen is charming, bustling, cool, and romantic all at once.  We had benefited from warm(ish) weather all week, especially an almost balmy day at the zoo on Thursday. Friday, though, presented a precipitous drop on the thermometer and steady wind gusts so stiff that my Neapolitan children were weeping from the freeze.  Our first stop was to duck into H&M to procure some highly reduced hats and mitts (cold-weather gear that we had forgotten to bring along and almost got away without needing).  

Newly outfitted against the cold, we entered the Marktplatz serving its time-honored purpose: picturesque setting for the weekly market.  At turns, we savored the smell of cheese and bread and then fragrant spring flowers from various stalls we passed.  I loved seeing the big bushels of pussywillows and branches ready for forcing.  The kids crowded together for warmth for this shot before the impressive Rathaus or town hall.  

All those delicious smells inspired plaintive cries of hunger from my brood.  So we found a little stube close by with an extremely friendly waitress (one in an uninterrupted series here).  Quinn decided on soup: lebenspåtzlesuppe, to be exact.  We both thought that would mean a soup with spatzle dumplings in it.  When the soup arrived, I remembered that leben means liver. The dumplings were little meat, um, liver dumplings. Motherly discretion meant I said nothing, and Quinn thoroughly enjoyed it, exclaiming over how delicious it was.  

Lily and Emily ordered käsespatzle (miniature dumplings in a cheese sauce) and salad, and I chose maultaschen (large raviolis) in broth.  Everyone savored the warm environment and the hearty food.  I could have sat there for hours and had a beer or two more.  But somehow I pushed against my contented inertia and got us chugging up hill to the castle. Fortunately, the waitress fortified my children with Chupa Chupas for the steep climb up the wooded trail to the back entrance of the castle.

Tübingen's castle belongs to the university's archeology and classics departments.  It houses their extensive collection of antiquities, both genuine and reproduction.  They had a few rooms of local prehistoric remnants but the majority of the collection contains Egyptian, Greek, and Roman artifacts.  There are small statues, urns and amphora, coins, jewelry, and then a cavernous room crowded with plasters and even bronze reproductions of classic statuary from the great museums of the world.  

You can see the Louvres's Nike, one of the Parthenon horse heads from the British Museum, a fantastic Hermes from the Naples Archeological Museum . . . it is an impressive treasure trove even if most of it is cast from plaster.  
Emily plopped right down and started sketching, so I tried my best to keep Lily and Quinn interested for longer than I should have.  My scheme of taking Quinn's picture with his finger in the nose of every bust . . . well, it got us into trouble.  Though the guard was holding back a smile when she reprimanded us.  

We found the "Ausgang" and stopped to enjoy the panorama of cheerful red roofs filling the valley.


Then we headed back to the town center through the main gate . . . and what a main gate it is!

The kids were at their usual chatter and hopping from stone to stone, so I oggled the delightful half-timbered houses and surreptitiously glanced into uncurtained windows to see the interiors (statuary nosepicking, spying in windows -- what kind of mother am I?).  Then we happened upon the first of two toy shops.  Those visits and the bookstore that capped off our trip deserve a separate post.  Read on!

We are in GERMANY!

Seizing opportunities is what it's all about here . . . so we all piled into the car Sunday morning to join my husband on a week's business trip to Stuttgart.  Yesterday was a fine afternoon at Hohenzollern Castle in Baden-Wurttemberg.  It is a romantic castle construction along the lines of Neuschwanstein Castle.  Interestingly, both 19th century royals with romantic ideas never got to see their dreams realized.  Though, at least Prince Friedrich was able to see Hohenzollern castle almost completed.  Mad King Ludwig was another matter entirely. In fine German tradition, you must hoof it up the mountain; I'm guesstimating about 3/4 mile uphill to reach the castle.  It is completely worth it! (Of course, there are shuttles during the tourist season -- but then you don't get the private English tour with Dieter that we enjoyed!)
We were not allowed to take photos inside the castle, but I took many outside and also in the chapels.  Here's a selection, including kid shots:

Here is a view up at the castle from the road of hairpin turns we trekked. Clearly, no skimping was allowed on castle architectural features when this was built!

Indeed, no skimping was allowed with any feature -- including door hardware.  This was the handle to the Lutheran church.  I specify that because there was also a Catholic church across the courtyard.  I didn't receive a satisfactory answer on how that happened.

Saint George killing a dragon -- a favorite icon -- stands in a small, entryway chapel of the Catholic church.  But compared to the Lutheran church, the Catholic church was very plain.  Not what I expected. 

Check out the ceiling, for instance, in the Lutheran Church. I could have stretched out on the floor and spent the afternoon staring at it.  For a small family chapel, the stained glass windows could have stood their own against Paris' St. Chapelle.  It was an exquisite jewel-box of a place. 

Another question . . . why were the impressive knockers on the inside of the doors of the Lutheran church?

What "stands" for family photos for this crowd! Interestingly, the more recent the King/Kaiser, the older he looked.  The one at the far end is Friedrich the Great (ruled 1740-1786) . . . and he looks about 30 and very dashing.  Down at this end was a Kaiser Willhelm I  (ruled 1861-86), and he looks more timeworn than the robust dude in the middle. Who was he again?

And here's how we do family portraits. This was after a trip to the gift shop . . . a wooden sword for Quinn. (What was I thinking?) Lily chose her own protection -- a magic wand.  Emily selected two bottles of gold ink for an art project.  Moi? Postcards and a Christmas ornament -- my usual. 

Stopping at the stone sentinels to take in the impressive view before we started back down the hill.

If you feel a hankering for more things Hohenzollern, they have some great panoramas of the interiors, including the ancestral room with all four walls painted with the entire family tree from the 1100s until now. Now = a 33-year-old prince who threw a three-day hoedown at the castle for his 30th b'day party -- why do we miss all the fun?  There was a 24-hour disco in the des Grafensaales or the Grand Salon. Have a gander and imagine it with several spinning disco balls added.  Are you smiling, too?  I'm also very partial to the Queen's hangout: des Blauen Salons.  

More German destinations to follow.