We had researched out all the museums we wanted to hit and thought we were set. We saw a "harbor" tour mentioned that looked interesting, especially since we had no idea Stuttgart even had a harbor. We get down town, get our bracelets, then we see it...the HUGE line for the buses that were heading to the harbor. Apparently everyone else had the same idea as us. I noticed on the map that the first bus stop was less then a quarter mile from us, so we walked there thinking the first round of people would get off at that stop, and we could hop on. We waited there for 30 minutes and watched as bus after bus drove by us. We then decided to head back to the first stop and got lucky...we made it on the first bus that stopped there by pushing ourselves on. Once we got to the harbor, we were in another line to get in. We said we'd wait 15 minutes, and if the line didn't move, we'd just leave. 5 minutes later, the line moved substantially. The problem is then it didn't move again for another 30 minutes, but we felt like we had committed so much time already that it'd be a waste to turn around now. We got down to the initial bus station at 7pm, when the whole thing started. We didn't get on the harbor boat for the tour until almost 10 pm. The harbor tour itself was also a huge let down. Basically you sat on the boat and as it took you through a series of canals. They had some light show effects on the buildings you went by, but that was it. Afterwards, we had to wait in another line and got packed into a bus going back. We were finally back at the beginning at 11pm. So 4 hours just to take one short harbor boat ride. At that point we had no desire to go through that again for a museum, so we headed home.
Sunday was a much more relaxing day. After we ate lunch we got a call from one of Shanna's co-workers. He was in the city and wanted to know if we wanted to meet somewhere to grab a bite to eat. We had already eaten, but we met him up because the place he was going sells some great beer. It was a warm sunny day, so perfect for sitting outside and enjoying both the nice weather and good beer. Yes..we went to our favorite place, Zum Paulaner.
We were there most of the afternoon, then we took the train back to our house. We've been talking forever about trying this Turkish place by our house, and we figured now was finally the time to do it. It was DELICIOUS. To any of you reading this who visit us, if you're feeling adventurous and want to try Turkish, we are definitely taking you there.
Before Shanna's co-worker called us, I had thrown out the idea of going for a drive through Der Schwarzwald, or The Black Forest. It wasn't too far from the house. We'd have to first drive to Baden-Baden, which is a little over an hour away, then we could take the Schwarzwaldhochstrasse, which is the road that runs through the Black Forest, up a mountain. When you get to the top you have an amazing view. Shanna has a tendency to go to sleep as soon we start long car drives, so that got shot down. But Monday was another beautiful day, so I decided I'd just go by myself. I loaded the dogs up in the car, and we went for a drive. The first stop was in Baden-Baden so I could adjust the GPS to force it to take me the scenic route home. The town itself was neat little town. Every one was out because of the nice weather, and it had an authentic medieval feel to it. I definitely want to go back there. Once that was done, I hit the road.
The drive was, simply put, amazing. It reminded me of driving through Austria in the sense that it was hard to focus both on the road and the scenery around me. There were several points along the way where I could pull over, get out, and take pictures. There weren't many places to pull over for the dogs that also had a view, but we stopped at a few along the way. I can now say our dogs have gone to the bathroom in the Black Forest.
On my way back to Stuttgart to pick up Shanna from work I went through another town I'd like to come back and visit, Horb a.N., or the long version, Horb am Neckar, which means Horb on the Neckar (river). It looked like fun small German town that would be a fun day trip.
The timing worked out perfectly, and I pulled up at Shanna's office 10 minutes before she got off work.
And finally, a note about today, April 12th. Today marks the 1 year anniversary of us landing in Germany. It's hard to believe that an entire year has gone by. We are mini-celebrating it tonight by going to the hotel we stayed at when we first arrived for dinner, brining the dogs, and meeting our friend Penny who we first met because she was also staying in the hotel a year ago after having just moved here.
As Spring warms the area up, Shanna & I have some travels planned for the next month, so you'll see plenty of blog posts about it. The first weekend in May we are driving to Maastricht, NL, for Queens Day weekend. We were in Amsterdam for Queens Day a few years back and had a blast, so we're both looking forward to this. I'm going to Rome a week & a half later to visit some friends of ours who are vacationing down there. Shanna can't get the time off, but since she's been before and I haven't, I'm going. And finally, at the end of May for Memorial Day weekend, we had talked about visiting our friend from DC who was going to be in Lithuania that weekend, but the airfare prices were astronomical, so we had to pass. With that being the case, Shanna is going to take a few extra days off and we're going to drive to Vienna, Austria and spend two days there, then drive on to Bratislava, Slovakia, and spend 3 days there.
So a busy month coming up! On top of all that traveling, Frühlingfest starts at the end of April.
The Zum Paulaner picture above will take you to a higher res version if you click on it, the other two pictures will take you to the album with the Black Forest pictures. I wish I could have gotten some pictures of myself, but with two dogs and no where to really set the camera up for a timed shot, it just wasn't possible. Alternately, you can click here to see the pictures.
No comments:
Post a Comment