Germany: 18 Dezember 2009

Hello Fruenden! (Today’s German word of the day – Friends)

Today we headed from Cologne to Stuttgart. Stuttgart is an interesting place. Not necessarily worth a visit for any specific reason other than the Christmas Market, we made a go of the town nonetheless.

Our first activity was finding a locker for our baggage. Not normally a big deal, but our pals in Stuttgart had provided special "holiday" pricing for the luggage and what normally would be about 2 euro was now going to cost us about 12. (Not my favorite thing.) But, we lucked out and found an all-day option just off the trains for 6 euro. Not bad.

With our luggage tucked safely away, we headed just outside the town area to visit the Porsche Factory and Museum. This turned out to be okay, but just a little disappointing because they'd stopped doing factory tours for the holidays but hadn't mentioned this until we arrived. We stayed and enjoyed the "Boxster Cafe" instead. (They have a sandwich named after the Indianapolis 500 which I thought was so telling in Germany - at the Porsche museum.) Here 's a photo of me in front of the museum with the display car of the day.

Bouncing around town on our way to the next adventure, we ran across this Meine Tracht uniform shop and couldn't help but snagging some photos of the traditional German options. Lederhosen uniform anyone? (By the way, "trache" is a general term for costume or uniform and covers anything traditionally Bavarian including lederhosen and dirndls or so the Internet tells me.)

We made our way back to the train station (Hauptbahnhof) to view the city atop the Mercedes-Benz 12-story tower. Here is a view from the top. (There is also an enormous MB rotating symbol as well, but I am sure you can gather what that might look like. (not blog worthy))

Our next stop was in the city at the Christmas Market. Stuttgart's market provided an interesting juxtaposition of old traditional and new gaudy. I skipped the gaudy for the the photos, but did want to show you the roofs (what I called "toppers") of their vendor stalls. These were the best we've seen yet and had a variety of scenes to offer and stories to tell.

Check out the elaborate toy scene atop this roof. Quite the effort for this vendor!We felt this particular stall was really photo worthy with its ornamental display peak.I ended up buying a plate from this vendor because his items were so unique and tasefully done. (A rare find in Stuttgart.) He was near the "super chopper" demonstrations and the "mega smoothie blenders" and the flea market-style "low, low price of 50 euro this gizmo could be yours" types. (R.I.P. Billy Mays -- would have been a fitting addition to the Stuttgart market.)

We just thought these stars (available in every market we've seen so far) made for a beautiful photo. They are really quite lovely at night amidst the shopper hustle.

After the market we headed over to one of Stuttgart's largest toy stores,
Spielwaren Kurtz. This was like a dream come true. Five stories of magical play including games, toys, model cars and trains, books, dolls and a fully working outdoor model train you could operate yourself. A photo of the train is included below. (We also noticed there seemed to be an odd fascination with putting inappropriate sex scenes in your model train cities, as the store had an entire display case devoted to such things. You could see the scene elements - desk, chair, bed, couch, etc., but they left the actual figurines hidden. Imagine all these German men tucked away in their basements, adding these little internal jokes along their private train routes - toot toot.)

On our way out of the market we also went by another life-size train for children and their parents. There was an entire miniature city devoted to this fun activity for Christmas. Here is a photo of that little city for you to enjoy.

As we headed out of Stuttgart, we made our way to the train station and had the luxury of enjoying this private first-class cabin thanks to our handy dandy Eurail pass. This thing is great - it allows us first-class travel on all the national trains between the three countries we are visiting, plus free local trains while we're in each place. Since we are traveling together, we also save more (this is a special saver pass in case you're ever looking into this yourself). It is really enjoyable and we wish that we had such an amazing train system in the U.S. (Here you just walk up to the train 2 mintues before it arrives, hop on and away you go. No baggage, no security checks, no ticket takers, nothing.) They check your ticket on the train as you ride moving from car to car and save time for all travelers this way. Seems like a better system to us all around, but what do we know?

When we arrive in Munich, we enjoy the Hotel Royal. (This is now our favorite room and has outdone the one in Cologne.) It is literally a three-minute walk from the train station (a real time saver) and is wonderful inside. We have a private bathroom, hardwood floors, private entry door and a wonderful desk space so I can sit and write this blog for you. I'll have to tell you more later though because we are off to enjoy one of Munich's best treats - the Hofbräuhaus. Auf Weidersehen!