Tuebingen

Thursday June 26

After a pretty good sleep Dieter woke me up at 7:15 am to get ready for brekkie at our hotel (in Rothenburg) at 7:30. The breakfast was not too bad but won't win any Schafer plaques. At least there was plenty of coffee. 

After brekkie we packed up and headed off around 9:30am - first stop some 1h30m away was to pickup Lori for lunch. It was another scorcher so the drive was very unpleasant but a least we could look forward to changing the car over at SIXT in Tuebingin. The lunch with Lori was a bit of an ordeal - she is very frail and not really with it - while I can't  converse with her due to the language barrier, Dieter can't either as they have nothing to talk about. Much like our visit last year Lori did not eat anything - the restaurant did not have its air-conditioning turned on so it was not particularly pleasant.

We dropped Lori back at her aged care home and continued onto Teubingen - the drive (another hour) was very tiring - it must have been 40C in the car and the traffic was heavy. We finally reached Sixt and were told by the most unhelpful agent that they had no cars and there was no way he could help us as he could not even get a car the following day and his system was down - he suggested we go to Stuttgart where they and "plenty of cars". 

Even though it would have been about half an hour drive to Stuttgart, we elected to pick up a few groceries and proceed to our hotel. The Hotel La Casa was disappointing - at least a 25 minutes walk from the old town with nothing else around (not even a pub or shop) - our hotel room (a 1 bedroom apartment) was not air-conditioned and very average - when Dieter queried this he was advised NO hotels in Tuebingen were air-conditioned. On checking the apartment out I found even though there was a filter coffee machine there was no coffee - Dieter asked reception about a "starter kit" was but told to go shopping.

We were both tired, hot and cranky - so while I unpacked Dieter called Sixt about getting a replacement car and was given the run around - supposedly someone will call us back (which they never did).

So we went back to the Kaufhall grocery shop to buy some coffee and decided to also buy some ham, cheese, bread, beer and wine and just stay home for dinner. We were even able to buy a small bag of ice - in fact this Kaufhall gets a honourable mention as the most amazing grocery story on the planet - a shining light amid a grey outlook.

Anyway back at our un-airconditioned hotel - it was now 5pm and the sun was long over the yardarm so we had a drink to drown our sorrows then had sambos for dinner.

Friday June 27

First full day - after a very restless night I got up at 5am and tried booking a car from Sixt (Tuebingen) online and surprise they had cars so at 7am we went back to Sixt and after some more argy-bargy the most unhelpful agent (same one as yesterday) said we could change our car on Saturday at 11am. I was ready to go full-on ballistic but Dieter accepted our fate. So in our hot as Hades car - we drove to a fortress (Burg Hollenzollern) and walked around but decided it was too early to have lunch at their beer garden - so we drove back to our hotel and took the local bus to the old town. The bus (which runs every half hour) worked out fine - 10 minutes to the center of town. We had a light lunch at the most famous pub overlooking the river - a shared salad with 'Pfifferlinge' (chanterelle mushrooms) and a yummy pretzel - washed down with a beer and a 'schorle' (wine and mineral water). Then it was back to our hotel for showers and a rest. We went back to town for dinner at one of the better restaurants - which had a lovely setting and good food.

Saturday June 28

We did some early shopping since shops are closed on Sundays to stock up on food for the next 3 days and re-fuel the car. Then we went to SIXT to exchange our car - it wasn't as good a car but the aircon worked which was great as it was the hottest day so far - 32C and sunny. We drove to a castle for a tour then had another light lunch in a beer garden. Back at the hotel we showered and rested before heading into the old town for dinner and a walk around - half an hour was plenty given it was still 30C. The restaurant we had booked (a pizza/pasta joint) gave us the heebie-jeebies so we gave it a miss. We then rang our second choice (a wine cellar) and made a reservation - while we had to sit inside due to our late booking - was the food was excellent (particularly my veal).

Sunday June 29

We drove to Stuttgart to meet with Mechtilde for lunch. Unfortunately the good restaurant we were planning to go to had closed so we had lunch at a local Italian joint. We sat outside in the hot weather and had a very ordinary meal.  We went back to Mechtilde's for cakes - on leaving Mechtilde gave us 3 bottles of local wine to take along - oh dear !!! On returning to Tuebingen we returned the car to Sixt and walked back to our hotel (a hot 20 minute slog). We stayed home for sambos and hit the sack. (We later gave the 3 bottles of wine to the hotel staff who seemed to really appreciate it).

Monday June 30

Our last full day in Tuebingen - we did a self-guided tour of the old town and had a light lunch. We went to the main pub in town for dinner - again it was hot and crowded and the food was fine (a salad with pfferlingen and a flammen-kucken). Then back home to bed.

Tuesday July 1

Off to Zurich today - final packing - Dieter was able to offload Mechtilde's wine on the cleaning lady who was most appreciative.  We had trouble getting a taxi to the bus station mainly because Uber kept saying it was looking for a car - the lady at reception advised us that there was no Uber in Tuebingen so she rang for a taxi. We made it to the bus station in plenty of time for our 9:20am Flixbus to Zurich which in fact was 20 minutes late. The bus ride was uneventful except for the border crossing into Switzerland which took an hour - they took one lady away for 'additional screening' but she was eventually allowed to carry on - no announcements were made to let passengers know what was happening.  We arrived in Zurich around 1:20pm and took a taxi for the 3k ride to our hotel (Central Hotel Zurich) - it cost an eye-watering 26CHF (over $50) for a very short ride.

We checked into our hotel - a (very) junior suite which was nice as it was air-conditioned and pretty comfortable - the only issue was that it had a shower over the bath - the climb in and out was not for less agile persons.

After some very minor unpacking (as we were only staying 2 nights) we did a quick reco of the local area (right at the main train station and old town) with a very nice Coop grocery store right across the street. The lady who checked us in was very unfriendly which was surprising as all other staff we interacted with were super nice.

After showers (where we managed not to break our respective necks on the bath) we had dinner on the hotel's terrace bar/restaurant which was very nice. 

Prices in Zurich (and all of Switzerland) are extremely high; e.g. what costs $1 in Australia is 1 CHF here (e.g. close enough to $2) - there are some exceptions; e.g. some grocery items and beer.