Enjoying Stuttgart, etc.

 Barbara in the center today.

 

Well, it was an uneventful trip from Boston to Rome to Paris and then on to Stuttgart via train....Barbara met me at the main Stuttgart station. After 18 hours in transit, I was delighted she suggested a short walk around Stuttgart. We had started communicating via email, when she joined www.couchsurfing.org last January about the same time that I was organizing my Alitalia flight to come to Europe. My mother's family was from Stuttgart by way of Metz. (Interestingly enough that is where Marcel and Renee live, and I will visit them in October.)
Last n ight we had a wonderful dinner of German specialities, which Barbara and her husband Alf prepared. They served a wonderful Secco, a VERY tasty German champagne similar to, but NOT Prosecco.

You hop on the left, ride up and around to get off on the right...

This AM we both slept in. She had just returned from a two day trip back from Croatia, and I, of course, was tired....I was downstairs by 10...she was down shortly thereafter. So today's activities were somewhat shortened by our late start...Nonetheless, we went back into the center, where we visited the Townhall and revisited the Wine Festival, which we had seen last evening. (NO! We had not stopped either time. Last night it was unbelievably crowded, given how early we were there.) In the Townhall we had gone on the Pater noster, which is now outlawed everywhere, but seems to have been grandfathered for this building. It is like an elevator which operated like a small sidewards ferris wheel. The picture explains it better than I can...you hop on and hop off....Interesting, but it is clear why they are no longer allowed!
Then we took public transportation, which was a tram, underground subway, and a bus up to a tower, overlooking Stuttgart. On a clear day you can see to the Alps....which was not today, as they had predicted 50% chance of rain. I saw pretty far anyhow!

The

Pink Pig

Next stop was the Porsche Museum, which was only built maybe 2 or so years ago. As a person who thinks cars are "4 wheels that run", it was very interesting....The "Pink Pig" is pictured, which shows the parts of the car as they would be named on a pig! While we were only there an hour, we missed the rain! Back to Barbara's house for another wonderful dinner of German specialities!
Tomorrow we are off to Lake Constance and perhaps into Switzlerland, where I've never been....Gute nacht!