Ritter Sport macht leckere Schokolade und es ist ein Fluss in Tübingen.

On Saturday I organized a day trip for 15 people to the Ritter Sport Factory and Museum in Waldenbuch and to Tubingen, the college town nearby. We took 4 cars and had people traveling from all over the suburbs of Stuttgart. I had an itinerary typed up with directions, addresses, times, and activity options. You know me...

We started in the late morning and headed about 15 minutes West to Waldenbuch. The chocolate museum was somewhat interesting and luckily at least half of the displays were in English. The most popular exhibit was one that gave you free chocolate, kind of like a vending machine. The line was long to wait near a glass box filled with a miniature factory. When you pressed the green button, the factory shook violently, the lights illuminated, and a small truck traveled down the road around the box to dump out your sample size piece of candy. You don't have to speak German to appreciate free chocolate!

Then we headed to the chocolate store downstairs where we searched the aisles for our favorite delicious squares. They were slightly cheaper than at the local grocery stores and they even had a discount section of trial and test flavors and chocolates packaged with imperfections. Ryan and I picked out a decent selection. Then we all headed 30 minutes South to Tubingen.

Unfortunately it was a cold and snowy day, but that has not stopped us yet from enjoying our time traveling around Germany. We had a very American lunch at a restaurant called Saints and Scholars on the Tubingen University campus. The menu included club sandwiches, burgers, barbeque sauce, and chips. We also walked around the city center, the church, the historical Rathaus (town hall) and down the Neckar River. I was excited that the city had a Schloss (castle) but the museum inside was actually ancient cultures. It was not quite what we were expecting but interesting to see such old things in a museum. You think museums in the States have old artifacts...

The picture below is of the Rathaus in the city center. Like most things in Germany, I'm sure it would be prettier in the summer with the sun shining, the construction cleared, the fountain running, and the square filled with tents and booths of delicious smelling food. We will also have to come back here in the summer. There is an annual boat rowing race down the river that turns into a community festival.

At the castle, I took a picture of all of the Bosch interns here in Germany at the same time as us. Two of the women pictured are spouses here with their intern husbands. The group is American except for one intern from Bosch in Liverpool. We had an enjoyable day traveling together and I plan on making the arrangements for future day trips.

Dinner was served at the Neckarmuelller, the best restaurant in town and local brewery. We were joined by an American intern and her German fiance that both work for Bosch. Having at least one native speaker around helps a little when dining out on the town. We ended the night with drinks near Schonbuch in Boeblingen, where we are becoming regulars.