Click here to go to the main Germany web page. Click here to go to the Munich Octoberfest page. Click here to go to the Heidelberg page.

A Whirlwind Tour of Stuttgart

I spent a day running around Stuttgart. Stuttgart seems like a nice town, although it has a post-war, "Marshall Plan" feel to it. What I mean is, most of the city looks like it was rebuilt after the war. The city was probably bombed flat during World War Two. The architecture has a buisnesslike look with an uninspired, efficient layout.

I got off the train and had a quick look around. There was a Tourist Information Center right across the street, so I hustled over there. The girl I talked to set me up with a hotel room and I asked her where the "old town" was. She told me that Sturgart doesn't really have an old town. I expected her to finish the sentance with "anymore" or "since you Americans bombed it into rubble", but she didn't. She didn't even seem reflective or sad about it and I, in one of my rare moments of manners, didn't ask why there was no old town. She did show me where the big city park was, and I headed there after I dropped off my bags at the hotel.

So, I hopped a trolley to the hotel. The owners had a mac-daddy, monster dog. He was like a Saint Bernard, but colored differently. I went to pet him and he flopped over on his back like a toy poodle, but a toy he wasn't. I bet he was a couple hundred pounds, or nearly a hundred kilos as the Germans would say. I checked in and hit the street.

I had noticed that the trolley ride wasn't very long, so I decided that the city park, which was near the train station, was within walking distance. After storing the location of the hotel in my handy-dandy GPS so I could be reasonably sure of finding my way back, I took off for the park. The walk didn't take long. I strolled around the park and checked out Wilhelm's Palace and other sundry tourist locations. There was a nearby pedestrian mall. Having been on the road for a while in a country where I couldn't read the menus, I checked out the local Mc Donald's. I didn't want to eat there, but I wanted to make sure that I had a backup just in case I couldn't figure out any of the menus I saw at other resturants. However, I noticed that at the Stuttgart Mc Donald's you could get a Big Mac and a beer. I found this to be such an intriguing concept that I went inside to order. The local brew is Dinkle Acker, which is a pretty fair beer. Alas, I should have "super sized" the order, but my command of the German language isn't sufficient to include such idiomatic expressions as "super size".

I goofed off for a little longer and then called it a night. I got back to the hotel tired form my wanderings. The reception area was closed, so I let myself in from the side door and tramped up the stairs to my room. As luck would have it, the management had placed a vending machine on my floor, stocked with sodas and beer. I put a half liter of Dinkle Acker in my fist and settled in for the night.

The hotel includes breakfast with the room rate, a common practice in Europe. So, I found myself down in the reception area the next morning eating breads and fruits, while swilling coffee. After a while I hear voices in english and I introduce myself to Bobbie and Willie, a couple from Tucson. We ended up travelling together for a couple of days, after we took a quick look at the Opera House in Stuttgart. But that's another story.

The Opera House. No tours are given, much to Bobbie's dismay

Next: A trip to Munich, Octoberfest and the Alps