STUTTGART
2013
I had not seen Steve in years, so
it was quite a shock when at the Stuttgart airport, he recognized me but I not
him. There he was, a handsome,
intelligent adult who whisked me off in a brand spanking new cozy red Porsche
convertible. Wow! This old lady
was riding in style.
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| Wine Festival Candy Stall |
During my first evening, Steve and
Sandy, his fiancé, taught me the Stuttgart underground system. Then they
squired me to an exciting annual Wine Festival right in the center of downtown
Stuttgart. Whole restaurants were
constructed, creating dining alcoves decorated with pseudo vines and hanging
grapes that snaked around throughout the numerous streets just off the main
square. There were easily a
thousand people or more eating and drinking to the music of occa Laughter and
fun filled the narrow streets. It
took us a while to find an empty table, but eventually we settled ourselves to
eat traditional fare; I was a bit pickier than my hosts, as I am not a
meat/sausage eater, which makes most menus a bit harder for me to traverse.
However, everything was tasty, particularly the wine.
sional
musicians, who had spaced themselves throughout the festival restaurants, bars,
and sweets stalls. |
| Wine Festival Food Stall |
Stuttgart is an easy city in which
to get around. I was extremely impressed how dutifully the locals followed
rules, which they obeyed in an almost saintly manner. Take stoplights at corners, for example. The light is green but there is no traffic
anywhere in sight. Would most
Americans cross the street? Of course.
But a German, never. I watched Germans stand on the corners of
silent streets in which there is no traffic in any direction waiting for the
light to change, never crossing, until they were directed by the flashing sign.
Also, all the Germans I saw get on the underground always bought a ticket to
ride or had a pass. They would
even stand in great long lines to get their tickets, yet there was no turnstile
or other mechanical device in which to slide the ticket when they entered a
train platform. Nor were there any ticket conductors checking or punching the
tickets to guarantee that passengers had actually purchased tickets to ride the
underground transport. It was
amazing as well as refreshing to see a city of people functioning on the honor
system. Let that be a lesson to
the world, I thought.
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| Gazebo in Schlossplatz |
My hosts had to go to
work, so I had each day free. Some
days I wondered the city, its museums, and revisited the wine festival area
where, although not as crowded as it was in the evening, lots of people were lunching
and drinking wine. One day I
lunched outside on the main Schlossplatz (square) at one of the museum
restaurants. It was lovely to sit
at my table under the trees and watch the locals bicycling by, lunching on the
grassy square, and even eavesdropping on my neighbors’ conversations, none of which I could fully
understood. This actually made
their conversations all the more interesting, as I filled in the untranslatable
bits with my own sentences of what the people might actually have been saying. That, of course, made
many of their exchanges often nonsensical, very funny, sometimes somber or
scary. For me this added up to an
interestingly fun filled lunch.
Another day I took the train to
MercedesstraBe 100 to visit the Mercedes-Benz Museum. I am a museum haunt. So I am extremely
discriminatory when it comes to Museums ‘round the world, and I found the
Mercedes Museum absolutely wonderful.
It is designed much like the Guggenheim in that patrons go to the top
floor and work down from floor to floor on a circular ramp walkway. The oldest vehicles are on the upper
floors, and displayed along the circular walkways are photos and descriptions
of the eras in which they were built.
So after surveying the cars from one historic period, then you also view
a time line of events of that historic period - everything from WWI to talking
movies, the Russian Revolution to FDR, Vietnam to Elvis and on and on! It is so well done it’s astounding. I grew up visiting the Henry Ford
Museum in Dearborn, Michigan, so I am somewhat of a car buff. Even if one is not, I believe that most
visitors could spend two or three days at the Mercedes-Benz Museum, it’s so
interesting. Oh! And the museum also has four restaurants, one outside, which
is very pleasant, another on the mezzanine (great place to stop for tea/coffee
and a snack). I also saw two more restaurants on the ground floor that looked a
bit more impressive. Last but not
least, there is also a showroom for purchasing a vehicle if one is so
inclined. All in all, it is a
grand museum.
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Examples of Mercedes-Benz of differen Eras.
There is also a Porsche museum in
Stuttgart which unfortunately I did not
have time to visit.
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| Guess who? |
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| Steve and Sandy |
On Saturday, Steve and Sandy had a
big surprise, a day trip to Strasbourg, France, the seat of the European
Union. Wow! After about an hour and half train
ride, we stopped for a ride on a carousel, then we headed for the town square with many wonderful, very narrow old
buildings, some with as many as eight stories. Then it was off to the old cathedral.
Because of time constraints, we had to
decide if we would walk up the Church tower and see the view of the city or see
the mechanical clock inside the Cathedral. The long line of visitors waiting to see the clock colored
our decision, and we opted for the walk up the 330 steps to the top. Like the wolf in Goldilocks I huffed
and puffed my way up. As I am asthmatic, upon reaching the top, I was proud of
my accomplishment. The stairs were a real feat for me, but I made it and the
effort was worth it (see Pictures of the view).
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| Sandy and I on the top of the cathedral |
After, we had an excellent lunch at
the La Cloche a Fromage. Steve and
Sandy had the restaurant’s signature dish, cheese fondue, there’s with a touch
of sherry, while I ate a lovely local whole fish, roasted potatoes and a
vegetable ragout.
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| Sandy and Stve at La Cloche a Fromage |
After sumptuous
desserts, off we went for a tourist boat ride on the canals, seeing lovely old
buildings and also the EU offices.
Enormous! I couldn’t quite
fathom the need for such large office buildings. To me, it appeared to be bureaucratic overkill, but what do
I know about running the European Union.
However, it is much better to see countries working together than at
war. So as I say in my family I
also say to Europe; good job!
Steve and Sandy continued being the
hosts with the most. On Sunday off
we went to a Pumpkin Festival, another yearly event held on the grounds of the
beautiful Ludwigsburg Palace on the outskirts of Stuttgart. There is a yearly
theme; this year it was Sports.
Not only were there great displays of multi-colored pumpkins throughout
the grounds, there were also statues of skiers, swimmers, basket ball players,
and various other sportsmen performing their sport and all made out of
pumpkins. There was a large food
tent serving everything from Pumpkin soup, Pumpkin Quiche to Pumpkin Prosecceo. Delicious! What fun we had and good eats too.
Sandy and Steve are a delight to be
with. Not only are they great
hosts, they also laugh a lot.
Sandy is constantly taking pictures. Whereas I take pictures of places and events, she takes
laughing smiling pictures of the two of them wherever they are. When I mentioned this, she explained,
“I know, it’s a bore, but you gotta have a record.” And I knew she was right. So far Sandy’s ‘record’ is awesome!
The next night it was a flight off
to Greece and the exploration of the Island Ikaria, one of the world’s five
Blue Zones. Bring it on!
