Tübingen is a traditional university town in central Baden-Württemberg, on the river Neckar just south of Stuttgart. Its Eberhard Karls University, founded in 1477, is one of Germany's oldest and gives the town its youthful, scholarly character.
The well-preserved medieval old town climbs the hillside in a maze of cobbled lanes and half-timbered houses, crowned by Schloss Hohentübingen. Below, the colourful Neckarfront rises straight from the water, where traditional Stocherkähne punt along the river past the plane-tree island and the yellow Hölderlinturm. Tübingen has a population of about 90,000 people.