Oct. 28 – Second Travel Day to Munich: Stuttgart

When we went to breakfast in our minimalist hotel this morning, we noticed the old woodwork in the dining room. There was also a lot of stained glass in the public areas, so we asked at the front desk if this was an old building. I was thinking a couple hundred years old, but the receptionist said it was built in the 1200 or 1300s and functioned initially as a brewery. Before it became today’s hotel, it had also been a bordello. Quite a transition: brewery to bordello to college-dorm style hotel!

Road to Heidelberg Castle

We headed south towards Stuttgart in a light rain, but soon drove out of it. It was very windy however, so when Jim got the car up to 125, he decided it took too much effort to control it in the wind. I added the Heidelberg Castle to our route since the Streckenbach ancestors came from Heidelberg and I figured a drive into the old town might be fun. Liesel’s directions were a challenge again, we missed a turn and drove up to the castle the back way on roads that were a lot like those at home: Steep, twisty, and narrow. The bad part came when she directed us to turn into a parking area that she also announced was restricted. Oh yippee! It was for buses only, and so we parked along the street (probably illegally) and I hiked back towards the castle to take a few photos while Jim guarded the car. Back in the 80’s, Kristen and I had come here and I distinctly remember having to hike all the way up, so at least back then, the parking lot was down below. On our way out of town, we stopped at a little park for our packed lunch and made it to Stuttgart before 2pm.

Heidelberg Castle -- mostly missing

Old town Heidelberg and the Neckar River

Modern Heidelberg in the distance

 After lunch, I drove and eased the car up to 105 before I had to slow down for yet another construction project. It is hard to believe how many little projects the Germans have in progress on their fast roads. I also noticed a couple signs that said “Take your time” and “Don’t drive so fast” and wondered if maybe the predilection for speeds well over 100 is causing problems (though to be fair, we have only see one accident in Germany). Maybe all the spread out little construction projects where you have to slow to 50 or even 38 mph is a subtle way of getting them used to slower speeds. We only have one more day to try driving fast, and I was pleased to see that 105 was not a strain for me. I think it helps that we have been driving over 90 regularly, unlike 12 years ago, when we drove only a bit in Germany and hadn’t really gotten a chance to adapt to 90 as a starting point. Sad to say, 75 and even 80 now feel very poky.

Cruise ship on the Neckar River in Stuttgart

Tonight we have another minimalist hotel, run by a Chinese gentleman and a young woman who may be his daughter. Neither of them speak a lot of English and in a week away from Germany, my German has declined from unexceptional to worse than that. When I asked for help locating a self-service laundry, our host volunteered to do it on site and have it ready in the morning. Then we tried to ask where there was a bank to cash in some dollars and resolve our ‘down to our last 20 euros’ problem. He gave us directions to walk about 10 minutes away from the downtown, and when we were totally unsuccessful with that plan, we decided to hike into downtown instead, about 1.5 to 2 miles away. I thought we could take Liesel and make her tell us where there are banks AND give directions (she finds gas stations on the fly quite well) but Jim pointed out that we had a primo neighborhood parking spot and it was unlikely it would still be available when we returned.

Stuttgart fountain. We think the city may be heated
by hot water from a central source and this is a vent.
There were several on little hills,mostly inactive.

Mercedes Tower at the Main Train Station.
This is a major center for both Mercedes and Porsche.

So we hiked. And hiked. And stopped for directions at a Marriott a lot closer to the city center where the staff spoke very good English. And hiked some more through the main train station to get to the promised pedestrian area. The exchange rate and commission were nearly as bad as the exchange house we had seen earlier, but better than the $5 Bank of America takes for each ATM transaction. Then we looked for a battery for my pedometer. It had died while we were in Transylvania and I got another in Brasov that should have lasted me at least 3 months, and here I am 3 weeks later and its dead. Not fair. I did find one at an exorbitant cost. I’ll have to add spares of this lithium battery type to my packing list for future trips. Then we wanted to eat. Our lunch sandwich was starting to wear off, but we discovered that most of the nice restaurants are closed on Mondays. We found a food court at a mall in the pedestrian area, and the only thing that really looked good was the ice cream. When we got back outside, the sky had darkened, the wind had picked up and we thought we might get wet on the way home and hustled back in record time and settled in for the night. Our power walk did save us from getting rained on, and added enough calorie credit to my daily exercise that we had a half a chocolate bar each for dessert.