Yesterday, my mom flew from Detroit-Amsterdam-Zurich to come visit me for a few days before she flies onwards to Moscow.
I went to Singen, the town next to Radolfzell to pick up our rental car (a VW Golf). This car is pretty weak and I'm not sure I can show my mom the full experience of driving on the autobahn. I picked up the car without any problems, and after about an hour driving, I made it to the Zurich Airport. However, I was yet again stopped on the border with Switzerland, but luckily got a perplexed border guard wondering why I have this Russian/American/German mixture. He later waved me through.
At the airport I parked the car. The Euros that I had exchanged into Swiss Francs were of no use for parking unfortunately. There, unlike in Germany, everything is done my credit/bank cards. There goes all the work in getting the 20 Swiss Francs for the parking.
I go into the airport only to find out that the flight is only landing. I decide to go spend the Swiss Francs. I buy some Gruyere Cheese (the cheapest thing in Switzerland) as everything there is so ridiculously expensive. I happened to walk by McDonalds, and the BigMac value meal costs 12 CHF! That means 12 USD. At the Magic Wok at the other end of the food court, the cheapest thing you could get was 19 CHF!
Anyways, I met up with my mom, load the luggage into the car, and we decide to go into downtown Zurich. It was my mom's first time in Switzerland and luckily the weather was really nice. We walked through the old town and did some window shopping. The most interesting thing we saw was Chagall's stain glassed window in the Evangelical Church. We spent about an hour in the city.
Afterwards, we drove back to Radolfzell. Surprisingly, the whole ride was about 50 minutes to the border, and another 15 minutes to Radolfzell. Almost the same amount of time that it would take us to get from our house in Bloomfield Hills, to Detroit's airport.
Upon arriving in Radolfzell, I took my mom directly to Lake Constance to see the water. We saw the balancing rocks, an art project done by some local where he balances different sized rocks vertically. It's really amazing to see. Then we drove home where my mom met Birgit, my guest mother. There we had some tea, I continued to pack my things and then we went out for dinner.
We went to the Alt-Baden, a typical German restaurant. It was totally empty when we got there, and 5 minutes later a whole group came and filled the restaurant to its capacity. I order Wiener Schnitzel and it was nice to see my mom meet at talk with Birgit.
This morning, we drove from Radolfzell to Tübingen, where Jutta's parents live. On the way, we stopped at Riechenau, and Unesco World Heritage Site with a church dating from the 10th century. The we drove to a town, Sigmaringen in the middle of the Schwäbischen Alb with one of the castles from the Hohenzollern Castle. Afterwards, we continued on to the Berg Hohenzollern, the castle that was rebuilt three times and is the seat where the Kings of Prussia were originally from. We walked up the quite steep climb to the top of the mountain. The views were stunning and the weather fortunate. Even Stuttgart, at 40 miles away was visible.
Then, I took my mom to Metzingen, a very large outlet mall town which is the home to Hugo Boss. She needed to pick up a couple of things for friends in Russia. Then we drove to Tübingen, and met Jutta's parents. We had dinner and then took a walk through the town. If anyone has the change to come to Germany, Tübingen should definitely be a place to stop as Tübingen is one of the most representative towns in all of Germany. It's worth seeing.
No pictures since I can't find my camera. I think it's packed somewhere, but I have absolutely no recollection where. I hope I didn't forget it in Radolfzell.
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