The Stocherkahn — a long, flat-bottomed boat propelled by a punt-pole — is Tübingen's signature image, and a ride along the Neckar past the Platanenallee and the Stift is the most enjoyably touristy thing to do here. The boats are run as a student business, with the punters mostly in fraternity colours; trips of around an hour start from the bridge by the Hölderlinturm in spring and summer.
If you happen to be in town in June, the annual student Stocherkahn race is a spectacle worth catching — Tübingen's fraternities compete to ram and sink each other's boats, with the losers obliged to eat liver dumplings.