Tag Archives: Stuttgart

Vacationing in Germany: Part 9 – A Day in Stuttgart

As our vacation was nearing an end we decided to skip the day trips and just spend the entire day in Stuttgart. We were supposed to be heading back to Munich on this day but we bought another day at our hotel in Stuttgart, The Park Inn. Actually, we decided we liked it better there the day we arrived and asked about extending our stay that afternoon but we were told that the hotel was booked for that extra day. That evening my wife, Rose, saw that there were rooms available on the internet and at a rate that was a little more than half of what we paid by booking eight months in advance. We talked to the manager the next day (who was very nice and helpful during our stay) and booked the extra night even though we already paid for the same night in Munich.

After breakfast, which was free in the hotel, we went across the street to Marienplatz and bought an all day ticket for public transportation, which cost around 13 euros each. We were a bit unsure about which train to get on but since it was an all day pass we figured it didn’t matter. We ended up getting on what I later learned was called Zahnradbahn.

Since learning the German language, or at least trying to, I have been interested in why things are called what they are called. I knew Zahn means “tooth” but later learned it also means “cog.” I also knew “bahn” was a track or railway. I was not sure about “rad” but I knew “fahrad” means bicycle. I looked it up and found out it means “wheel.” Put together we get cog-wheel-railway. Okay, I can kind of unterstand but that was the only line with that name. Most everything else was called “stadtbahn” (city railway).

We road the train for about ten or fifteen minutes until it reached the end, a station called Dergerloch. We wanted to go to Konigstrassa but it was clear pretty early that we were on the wrong train. We didn’t care because we wanted to see the city and going to Konigstrassa was just not that important.

The area where we got off had many stores. Rose found a nice store that sold chocolates.

We walked on a little and came upon a little farmer’s market.

There we bought some grapes and a few other things to take back to our room.

We also bought some specialty olives.

We skipped the pasteries because we didn’t want to deprive the bees.

The train went uphill to get to Dergerloch so we had a good view of the city on the way back, even if it was through wet glass.

When we got back to Marienplatz we took the elevator down to the stadtbahn station and found the right train.

We got off a few stops later near Konigstrassa.

Rose did buy a few things there but there were not many stores that interested us so we headed back to Marineplatz. Since there was a constant light rain, it wasn’t a great day to walk around.

After we got back, we went out for lunch to a place called Onkel Otto’s. It was a nice place with very good German food and good service. Rose took a photo of me there but it came out blurry The only other one I have is below. I wish I had thought to photograph the food.

Later we went back to the hotel and repacked our luggage for our trip back to Munich the next day. Instead of going out for dinner, I bought some bread and bologna at the store and a few other things and we ate that and the grapes we bought earlier.

On my next post we will be heading back to Munich. I hope you will look for it.

Vacationing in Germany: Part 8 – Finding a Cuckoo Clock in Triberg

Our last day trip in Germany was to a town in the Black forest called Triberg im Schwarzwald. We wanted to buy a cuckoo clock and my research indicated that Triberg was the best place to look.

The drive from Stuttgart to Triberg was pleasant with a lot of beautiful scenery .

I even got out of the car to get a photo of the Black Forest from the inside.

When we arrived in Triberg we were impressed with how beautiful the town looked.

Finding a parking space was not easy but we got lucky. It was a bit of a dreary day but it wasn’t raining yet. When we got out of the car I noticed a sign that said “Max. 30 Minuten” so I thought I would just come back and move the car to another spot after 30 minutes, if possible.

Triberg is a very pretty village with lots of shops that sell cuckoo clocks and other locally made gifts. We stopped at several stores including the well known Haus der 1000 Urhen (House of 1000 Clocks). On the outside of the store is a huge working cuckoo clock.

Inside there are cuckoo clocks everywhere.

We eventually found a clock that we liked, with the help of a young lady that was very knowledgeable, but we wanted to look at other stores before deciding.

The store sold clocks but did not make them and I thought we should at least check out a store that actually made their own clocks. My wife is a big fan of unique stuff and where better to look for uniqueness than a place where things are custom made?

I read about a place called Oli’s and we decided to check them out. They were about a block up the hill and around the corner so we started walking that way. We reached a point where I felt like I should go back to the car to check on it and get our umbrellas because there was a light drizzle. Rose saw a store that she wanted to check out so she said she would wait for me there. I saw a photo opportunity next to the store.

When I got back to the car I actually read the entire sign that I just glanced at earlier when I focused on the time limit but not the rest of the text. The text under “Max. 30 Minuten” said “Gebuhrenpflichtig, nur mit Parkschein.” I didn’t know what “Gebuhrenpflichtig ” meant but I knew the rest of the sentence meant “only with a parking ticket. That’s when I realized I had to pay for a parking ticket at the machine. Oops. I did eventually look up “Gebuhrenpflichtig” and it means “Charges apply.” Put together that means “Charges apply only with parking ticket.” Does that mean if I don’t have a parking ticket there will be no charge? Anyway, back to the story.

I put money in the machine but could only get a ticket for 30 minutes. I put that in the window, grabbed the umbrellas and headed off to meet Rose. I was a bit worried that even with a valid parking pass, I was probably violating some law because my car was parked there too long. The last thing we needed was for our car to be towed but I doubted that merchants would complain and since it was raining I didn’t think the Polizei would be out looking for parking violators.

I caught up with Rose and we found Oli’s and went inside. We didn’t see a cuckoo clock that we loved but Rose bought a couple of things to give as gifts.

We then walked outside and into the next door. At the time I thought it was another section of the same store but realized later that we were in a different store called Kuckucknest.

There were a lot of interesting things in the store besides clocks and the owner was very nice about showing us around and explaining things. Rose found a cat nutcracker that she really liked. It was not made there but that didn’t matter. She also found some “smokers” that are designed to burn incense. The front smoker in the photo below blows smoke out of his pipe. The nutcracker, and I believe the smokers too, come from a company called Christian Ulbright.

We eventually found a great clock that was more than we were planning to spend but Rose loved it. It was his wife’s favorite, the owner told us. He also said that he only makes ten of each design and he listed all the places that he could remember shipping that clock to and none of them were in the United States so it certainly qualifies as unique for us.

I think it was 1258 Euros before the twenty percent “Value Added Tax” that is common in Europe. The nice thing was that the tax did not apply if the item was being shipped out of the country, or the EU, one of the two.

We also talked about the owner’s son going to cuckoo clock making school. He might have said clock making school but I don’t remember because I was thinking cuckoo clocks when he brought it up. If there is a school specifically for making cuckoo clocks than I think that is very cool.

By the time we got back to the car thirty minutes were long past but the car was still there and we had no ticket. We thought we should push our luck so I bought another thirty minute ticket and we went across the street to have lunch at a pizza place while it was raining.

I wish I had researched Triberg better before going because one of the tallest waterfalls in Germany is there and I would have loved to see it. I even photographed the stadtplan when I was there which showed the waterfall at the bottom left but I just photographed it, I didn’t look at it.

When we returned to our hotel in Stuttgart we bought some food at the market next door to the hotel and then I went down to get ice. When I reached the lobby the alarm went off and everyone was made to leave the building. I stood outside with many other people. I had no jacket and I was holding an ice bucket. I felt a little silly. I waited for Rose to come out but she never did. I couldn’t call her because we only had one phone that worked in Europe and Rose had it. After five or ten minutes the police arrived followed several minutes later by ambulances and a fire truck.

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I think I stood out there for at least twenty minutes before they let us back inside. I found out when I returned that Rose didn’t even know anything happened. I was told it was a minor kitchen fire but I think they need to work on their evacuation plan before a more serious emergency comes up.

Vacationing in Germany: Part 6 – Driving Through the Black Forest to Baden-Baden

On our first full day after arriving in Stuttgart, we wanted to go to the black forest to look for a cuckoo clock. I found that Freiburg seemed to be the place to go for cuckoo clocks but my wife heard of many towns in the Black Forrest and thought we should look for one or two that were closer. I looked it up and found a list of towns that were closer. She remembered hearing about Baden-Baden and thought that would be a good place to visit.

The hotel gave us a card for the parking garage and we conveniently got into the elevator and took it to the basement where our car was parked nearby. It was so much easier than our last hotel in Munich.

Rose wanted to drive through the Black Forest and see the scenery so I set our British navigator to the scenic route which took us through the northern part of the Black Forest. It certainly was a great drive with some beautiful views. We would see beautiful scenery followed by a small town and then more scenery.

We did run into some problems, mostly from our navigation system which seemed to be plotting against us. It started by taking us off a main road, bringing us around in a big circle, and the putting us back on the road again. I thought we misunderstood her so we paid close attention and followed her instructions to the letter but ended up doing the same loop. It felt like a Star Trek episode and we were caught in a time loop. On the third loop I told Rose to ignore her and stay on the main road and the navigator seemed happy with that choice. At least she didn’t complain about it.

Another time she took us off a two Lane road and onto a road only wide enough for one car.

This road had some steep inclines and when it ended we had a choice to go left, down to the main road,  or right up to who knows where. The navigator said to turn right. Eventually we ended up on a road so narrow and steep it was foolish to go any further so Rose had to carefully back up to a place where we could turn around.

After that we were taken to a road that was closed. It was actually closed on one end but open so people could get out. Rose wanted to go through anyway but I figured it was closed for a good reason and said I would find a way around so I opened Google maps and guided her around a very long loop in the other direction. It connected to the road we needed to be on several miles ahead but when we got close to the connection point, that road was closed too. This time it was completely blocked off.  I then had to find us a way out of the mess we were in. Eventually we got fat enough away for the navigation system to change the route.

The other things that would happen is the navigator would suddenly stop talking and we would miss a turn. I would then have to fiddle with the controls or reset the map to get her talking again. I also tried to turn off the radio once because of bad reception but couldn’t figure out how to do that without also turning off the navigation. Finally she would sometimes tell us to turn were there were no roads, even though the map on the screen showed us continuing straight. If there was a road, we would turn on it and then be told to make a uturn back to the road we were just on.

Dispute all the navigation problems, the drive was very beautiful and well worth the trip. We are blessed with beautiful beaches where we live in Florida but there is nowhere in Florida that I know of that has countryside as beautiful as I have seen in Germany.

When we arrived in the town of Baden-Baden, I was reminded of a college town, and I learned there are several colleges in the area but I didn’t know that at the time.

We drove around but we couldn’t find a parking spot. After awhile we found an Italian restaurant we wanted to try so we drove down the side street next to it and up the next street before finding a spot to park.

We walked down to the restaurant which was also a hotel. The lady inside said the restaurant was closed and then added “It’s Wednesday,” like that was an obvious reason for closing a restaurant. After that we decided to go back to Stuttgart.

When we got back we made a reservation and then had dinner at our hotel’s Italian restaurant which was very good and more reasonably priced than the restaurant at our Munich hotel.

I will talk about our trip to Heidelberg on my next post. I hope you will join me.