The day before their arrival I took the car & the dogs home while Shanna got a train ticket to get home the next day. Thursday morning I was at Stuttgart Airport at 9am to pick them up. Once they came through customs we headed to the car & back home.
If any of you have made an international trip you know how dirty & grimy you feel once you land, so the first thing they did was take showers. Once they were all cleaned up I took them to downtown Stuttgart. I showed them all the same places that I had shown Kimber & Josh a month ago, including the Koenigstrasse, Schlossplatz, and there happened to be a fresh produce market that morning, so I took them through that. For lunch I took them to our go-to, Zum Paulaner. I wasn't sure what types of food they liked, but thankfully they were both big fans of German food. The loved the food we had all week. After lunch the jet lag was starting to catch up with them, so we headed home. They took naps that afternoon, and around 5:30 Shanna called to let me know her train had arrived, so I went to get her. This isn't related to their visit at all, but Shanna had a "small world" encounter on the train ride home. She was sitting there on the train when a few kids that were college age walked on. She heard them talk, and heard their American accent, so when they couldn't find a seat, she invited them to sit by her. They started talking and Shanna noticed one of them had a University of Maastricht shirt on. She asked if they went to Teikyo University in Maastricht, NL, and it turns out they did. They were doing a study abroad program, and went to Baylor University in Texas. The study abroad program they were doing was the same one Shanna did in college. They were talking about the places they liked to go, and it was all the same places Shanna & her friends went. She had a blast talking with them the whole trip home. Who would have thought, 8 years after she left the school, she'd be on a train to Stuttgart talking with current students doing the same program she did. Once we got back home, Shanna threw in Manicotti that she had made earlier in the week & frozen, and we had dinner. At this point her parents were exhausted, and called it a night.
The next day, Friday, we headed to Tübingen first to show them around that town. This was mostly a shopping trip, so Billy & I spent most of the time outside the stores chatting while Shanna & her Mom looked around the various stores. Eventually it started to rain, so we took them to the Neckar Müller brewery for lunch. We'd been there last year with Jenny & Chris for dinner & drinks, and really liked their food & beer. Their outdoor area was covered and right next to the Neckar River, so we ate outside for lunch.
After lunch the rain had subsided, so while Shanna & her Mom went into more stores, I introduced Billy to the lack of open container laws in Germany. We grabbed a few beers and sipped on them as we walked from store to store. After they were done, we headed up (with Shanna driving, of course) to Schloss Lichtenstein. We took them through the same tour that Kimber & Josh went through.
After the tour, we headed back home. That night we took them to our favorite Italian place, located near the hotel we stayed in when we first moved here.
On Saturday we had plans to head to Heidelberg. That night they had a big fireworks show planned. They do it three times a year to commemorate when the French tried to over take the city, eventually destroying the castle. They light the castle up in all red light to symbolize it burning, then shoot fireworks off to commemorate the battle. We relaxed around the house that morning, then that afternoon headed to downtown Stuttgart for the Wine fest. Our friends Kate & Charles had reached the end of their tour, and were heading back home to DC. We had wanted to see them one last time before they moved back. We got down there, found them and ordered a bottle of wine. Shanna's Mom enjoyed meeting the people she'd been reading about for the past year & a half.
We stayed down there for a bit, said our goodbyes to Kate, Charles, and of course, their dog Pixel. We hit the road and started the drive up to Heidelberg. We got there, parked, and were hungry at that point. Shanna & I had been to this place in the old town area that had amazing pan dishes. They literally brought the food out in the pan it was cooked in, and it's some of the most amazing food I've ever had. They serve beer there from a local brewery in Heidelberg that's fantastic...if we lived in Heidelberg, this place would definitely have us as regulars. After dinner Shanna & her Mom wanted to walk down the main street part of Old Town, so Billy and I bought a six pack of beer, grabbed the blanket, and headed to the bridge to cross over and find ourselves a spot to watch the fireworks. When we got to the bridge, it was closed off because of the fireworks show. We couldn't figure out why, but we were stuck on this side of the river. We made do and found a place near by that had a decent view of the castle and laid out the blanket. A short while later Shanna & her Mom found us. When the fireworks started, we found out why the bridge had been closed. They were shooting the fireworks off FROM the bridge. So, without realizing it, we'd gotten a great spot right in front of the fireworks.
I like the shot above because it shows the old bridge with the fireworks going off, the reflection in the Neckar River and the German flag flying in front of it. Yes, that's the same Neckar River that also runs through Tübingen. The show was beyond amazing. I've come to the conclusion that the Chinese may have invented fireworks, but the Germans have perfected it. I thought I'd outgrown being impressed with fireworks, but after this display and the display we saw this past New Years, I can definitely say I was wrong. We were so close to these fireworks that we could feel the debris falling on us from time to time. One of the neat things they did was shoot these things in the water, then it got dark & quiet for a minute, and suddenly the water exploded. The firework explosions you'd normally see in the sky were exploding on the surface of the river. I wish I had known it was coming, but it was over before I could even pull my camera out to take a picture or video. I did get some video, though, and it's on the pictures page that will be linked to at the bottom of this post. The show lasted about 30-45 minutes, and when it was done we headed to the car and drove home.
The next day, Sunday, jet lag was really wearing on them and we had been up until about 1am the previous night, so we decided to make that just a day of rest. Shanna took her Mom to the Exchange on base do some shopping, and then the Commissary to get food for dinner. Billy and I stayed home and alternated between napping and watching College Football from the day before. When they got home we grilled out and cooked a huge meal. It was a nice change of pace from the go go go we'd been doing with sight seeing.
Monday we had planned on taking them to a nearby town of Baden-Baden. It's a ritzy town famous for their bath houses and spas. Shanna had the great idea of taking the scenic route. She remembered the drive I'd done a few months back through the Scharzwald (Black Forest) and wanted to take her parents through it. We drove to Freundenstadt, where the Scharzwaldhochstrasse starts and runs through the Black Forest, up into the mountains, and ends in Baden-Baden. It's a beautiful drive, and one I could make every day and never get tired of it. Her parents absolutely loved driving through the country side and seeing the valleys & mountains through the Black Forest. Along the way you pass various resorts and ski lodges. There was a big hotel with gift shops outside that Shanna said we should stop at as we passed. I pulled over into the parking lot & we got out. The first thing we saw was a big stone with various mermaids carved in it and the word Mummelsee. "See" means lake, but I didn't see any lake there. We walked over to the hotel, around the corner, and immediately saw the lake. I had driven by this hotel back in May and had no idea a huge lake sat back there.
I picked up a neat Stein at the gift shop with a picture of the Mummelsee and it has "Schwarzwald" written on it. Some of them said "Black Forest", but I wanted one with the German word on it instead. There was a deli, butcher, and bakery right there at the hotel, so we got some pretzels, cured bratwurst, and smoked cheese and had a "snack lunch" there. It was DELICIOUS...the cheese & sausage was the perfect mix with the pretzel.
After lunch we continued on and eventually got to Baden-Baden. The temperature difference was drastic...in the mountains it was 55 degrees. When we got to the bottom in the town, it was 70 degrees. We found a place to park then headed to the tourist information center. This place looked more like an old Roman government building then a tourist information center.
Once we had the information we needed, we walked around the old town area and headed to the Roman Bath house ruins. They had built a brand new bath house on top of where the ruins used to be, but had built it above the ruins. They built a museum around the ruins, then the new bath house sits on top of the museum. When we got to it they had strange hours. They were open from 11-2 and 3-4. We got to the museum at 2:30. You could look in the window & see the ruins, though. At that point, Billy & I found a Czech pub to sit at and enjoy some Budweiser (the original one from Budvar, not Anheiser-Busch) and Billy was an instant fan. He has always been a Miller Lite guy, but he really enjoyed this Czech beer. When 3pm came, I decided to just sit at the pub and keep chatting with Billy while Shanna & Pattie headed to the ruins. They came back about 15 minutes later. Apparently what we saw from the window was all there really was. We stayed for a little bit longer, then called it a day & headed home.
We had checked the weather forecast right before her parents came and saw that Tuesday was supposed to be beautiful. We saved that day for the trip down to Lake Konstanz. The lake is a huge glacier lake, and surrounded by Switzerland, Austria, and Germany. You can even see the Swiss Alps from the lake. It took about 2 hours to get down there, and we arrived in the town of Konstanz. We got in line for the ferry, drove the car on, and took a ten minute ride across the lake to Meersburg. Once we got in Meersburg, there was NO where to park. We drove around what appeared to be the only parking lot around for 10 minutes before we decided to try & find somewhere else. We saw signs to parking, and followed it, but it was definitely a hike. We parked, and got lucky, finding a bus stop right next to parking that took us directly to the old town area. The parking was cheap too...only 4 Euros for the whole day. We walked around the old town area and eventually found a seafood place to eat at. Good seafood isn't easy to come by in Stuttgart, so we were excited about eating fresh fish from the lake. It wasn't bad...not the best I've ever had, but I enjoyed it.
After lunch we walked around a little more, then headed down to the dock. Shanna had really wanted to visit the flower island of Meinau (pronounced 'my-now'). We got our tickets, and eventually the ship pulled up. It was a beautiful day on the water as we headed to the island.
After docking, we headed up to the palace area and the flower gardens. It was peaceful there...very quiet, with gardens everywhere, a ornately decorated palace, even a chapel. They had a greenhouse cafe with palm trees growing inside. They had one tree I thought was fascinating...a Cactus tree. It looked like a normal tree from a distance, but as you got closer, you could see that the branches & leaves were hard & sharp, just like a cactus.
We walked around for about an hour, then headed down to the dock to get back on the boat which would take us back to the mainland. When we were riding back, a flock of seagulls followed us for a large part of the way. We were on the side of the boat, looking back, and there were 20 or so sea gulls chasing the boat. Some would get up almost parallel with us, then have to break off because they couldn't maintain the speed.
Once back on the island we took the bus back to our parking area and figured out that it would be faster to drive home from there then taking the ferry back to the other side.
On the way home we stopped at the Rittersport Chocolate factory so they could get some chocolate to bring home, then headed back to the house to get the dogs. For dinner that night we took them to the Dinkelacker brewery that's about 10 minutes from our house at the bottom of our hill. I had this delicious pork dish served in black beer sauce with skillet fried potatoes.
The next morning we got up early and took them to the airport. Like most trips to the Stuttgart Airport, it was empty and they flew through check in and security. We said our goodbyes and headed home.
It was fun having them out and it was over way too fast.
It's going to be quiet for the next two weeks, then we have some friends from the U.S doing a European vacation and they are stopping twice in Stuttgart, once to ride with us to Münich for Oktoberfest, and again a week later to go to Stuttgart's version, Volksfest.
To see the pictures, click here or any of the pictures above.
