Stuttgart

Stuttgart was always all about the cars. We only planned a weekend here - Saturday afternoon til Monday morning - but that was all that was needed.

We stopped off in Heidelberg to look around the castle and old town on the way.

It was surprising to suddenly be surrounded by so many 'foreign' tourists after a week being surrounded by Germans and German speakers. Although only a whistlestop tour, we were glad to see the castle - definitely not to be missed. 

We arrived in Stuttgart and headed on the UBahn into the city centre. Zach declared it to be the best UBahn ever and it would be hard to disagree. Comfy seats, plenty of space, clean and a surprisingly fresh smell - not the usual UBahn experience for sure, either in Germany or elsewhere. By the time we'd reached the city centre, the rain was pouring down so after standing looking at it for a while we ran to Müller and bought 2 very cheap umbrellas. Frankly they could have charged 10 times the price and we'd still have bought them. A meander through the city centre, a delicious burger restaurant and then back for a good nights sleep before Sunday morning's excitement. 

Porsche or Mercedes? What a decision. The boys decided on the Porsche museum in the morning and the Mercedes-Benz museum in the afternoon. I fear my blogging here will not convey the excitement but there were lots of cars and it was exciting (according to the big boys). As a non-car lover (is that even allowed in our family?!?) the Porsche museum was pretty cool. The museum kind of spiralled upwards from the earliest models to the latest, including a special exhibition on Le Mans. Everyone had audio guides on (they even had a kid-friendly version for Zach) so it was very quiet and people were kind of whispering. Almost like going around a church which was quite apt for a Sunday morning.

After a quick stop in the shop (1 car each), we drove to the Mercedes-Benz museum. Lunch in the restaurant (delicious) and then headed for the museum. Apparently everyone else had the same idea and they had closed the cash desks for a while as there were too many people in the museum. After being second in the queue when the Porsche museum opened at 9am, this was quite different. We only ended up waiting for 30 minutes before taking the futuristic-looking lifts up to the 8th floor before spiralling back down again.

Much bigger than the Porsche museum - any better? I have no idea. One car pretty much looks the same as another after a while ;)

We finally arrived back at the hotel at around 5.30pm. A very car filled day and very happy boys who were still discussing their favourite cars at breakfast on Monday.

Relaxing at the hotel

Next and last stop: Munich.