You’ve seen the photos, now here’s the blog. Yesterday, Steve and I went with a group of people on a tour of downtown Stuttgart. We started the day at 6am, breakfast at the hotel and a 15 minute walk to Kelley Barracks to catch the bus to Panserkaserne where we met the group. We got to Panserkaserne around 7:30am, we were early so we grabbed some super coffee from the bakery. It was happy coffee! I woke up with just one sip!

At 8am the grouped headed out the gate to begin our journey through public transportation. We got on the 721 bus to Böblingen. Then from Böblingen we get on the S-Bahn S1 to Plochingen which will took us to the Stuttgart Hauptbahnhof. The Hauptbahnhof is the main station for the trains; we spent about an hour there because the tour guide wanted to explain every little bit about purchasing tickets from the kiosks and also the ticket center. Argh! I was so frustrated, it was a waste of time for us because we knew enough to get around.

Finally, we moved on to go outside where she took us to an information center. Holy crap! She kept half of the group there for 30 minutes! WTF? Was she telling how to ask for information or something? Any way, once she finally started to walk us around we had a good time. Downtown Stuttgart is awesome there is so much shopping and food! The best part is that everything around is so beautiful and clean.

We walked past all the shopping and went to a museum where I experienced the strangest elevator. You can see in the photo album (the photo that looks like some guys are in a coffin because the photo displayed landscape instead of portrait). Any way, the elevator just kept going, we had to hop on and off just perfectly or else we’d get caught. It went in a loop so when we reached the top it just slid over to the side to go down and vice versa. Insane! I was totally claustrophobic.

We went to lunch at Gaststätte zum Ochs’n Willi where Steve had the Stuttgarter Kräuterpfännle and I had the Hausgemachte Käsespätzle. They both had cheese-Spätzle (cheesy noodles), mine had small slices of fried pork and beef and Steve’s had pork medallions. Yes, I’m disappointed too… we’ve kicked the vegetarian lifestyle… for now.

We walked through this open market where they sold flowers, plants, herbs, fruit, and vegetables. It was amazing, the photos I posted didn’t cover half of it. The open market was only for mornings, they packed up around 1:30pm. Around this time Steve and I decided to break off from the group to walk around and explore on our own. We went back to the indoor market and back to the Schloßplatz where all the United Buddy Bears were.

We walked around and took photos all day and by 3:30pm we were beat. It was time to head back to the hotel. We stopped at a bakery to get some pretzels and pastries for dinner. Then we were off to catch the U-Bahn U6 to the Möhringen Bahnhof where we jumped on the U3 to take us to Salzäcker, the stop right behind our hotel. Ahhh, finally back in the hotel. My legs were burning! I needed a shower to be refreshed to post the photos.

We had such a great time that we went back to the Schloßplatz today to share the experience with the kids and the puppies. The experience today was as good as yesterday’s, I took more photo (click here to see). Saw more and  yet it still wasn’t enough… we’ll be back.

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Meldeine Sipes