karlindeutschland: Sommer in Deutschland (Teil III)

So, after a 4 month hiatus from blogging, I am at home, slightly bored and have realized how my OCD won't allow me to keep the summer prequel to my blog unfinished. So as I promised the one reader of this blog, the gregarious Queen of Lalaland, sometime in September, I am now writing part III! Yay!

I am not so sure where I left off, and the whole trip is starting to blur with less pleasant memories of leather clad dominatrix women in the elevator of my sketchy apartment building this semester, but I'll try to make this less wikipediaesque than my last post.

So, remember last time when I mentioned the Stocherkähne? Well our German class got to skip half of our class one day to go for a ride in one! Basically, they're these funny little long boat that are controlled by long wooden shafts that push along the bottom of the shallow Neckar River. The whole thing reminded me of pictures I've seen of Oxford (or is it Cambridge???) where they have similar boats. Our driver let us all try driving. My performance at this task was a bit of a letdown given my maritime origins, but then again, I don't have the best track record of safe boat driving...

Here is our Stocherkahn driver, who reminded me of Daniel Brühl from Goodbye Lenin, and one of the South Korean girls from our class getting ready to try and drive.

About halfway through our month in Tübingen we made an excursion to Konstanz, Germany's southernmost city on Lake Constance. To me, Konstanz had a very 'Swiss' feeling in its architecture. Fittingly, we found a chocolate shop that was selling 'Gruezi' cookies ('Gruezi' is a typical greeting phrase in Swiss German).

Konstanz from the harbor.

Idyllic side street.

Nice use of pastel tones.

Gruezi cookies!

Konstanz lies right on the Swiss border, so we were able to walk right on over into the good ole' Confoederatio Helvetica. Used to the excruciating wait that is US-Canadian customs aboard Amtrak, it was bizarre being able to walk freely from Germany into Switzerland and vice-versa. Switzerland was a bit of a let down though. The only thing of note on the Swiss side of the border was a creepy carnival. I guess you have to walk more than ten minutes before you get to the good stuff. But at least I can say I've 'been' to Switzerland now.

Swiss license plates.

Crossing back into Germany. Quite welcoming actually.

We spent the rest of our time in Konstanz in a particularly welcoming beer garden alongside the harbor. :D

Many items to order at the beer garden!

I also saw a regal Jack Russell in Konstanz's altstadt. It definitely knew how to work its angles.

During my time in Tübingen, I also traveled back to Owen a couple of times. My first return was a bit of a surprise. I had gone with friends to Stuttgart, but I didn't have any cell phone, and hadn't told the Gruels if/when I'd be coming. Feeling confident in my ability to navigate mass transit, having spent much time aboard the LIRR and living in Montreal, I decided I would just hop on a train in the direction of Owen and hope for the best. (I had already gone with Miriam once to Stuttgart via the train, so I wasn't being so brazen as to board a random train!) It was actually a quite straightforward trip, but I think I surprised Miriam's family a bit too much!

Before I knew it, my time in Tübingen was at an end, but not before beholding the great wisdom of these words:

Contemplating my return to McGill, and unaware that I would soon be banished to the wild eastern frontier of Montreal, I was looking forward to being at home for a couple of days before the start of term. Buuuut, at that very moment, somewhere off the coast of North Carolina Hurricane Irene, a bundle of tropical air gone wrong, was gathering in strength. By the time I called the airline to move my flight, they informed me that I wouldn't fly home until September 2nd, after the start of semester at McGill.

It was an inconvenience, but not the end of the world, and I got to spend a bit more time in Owen.