Ein Prosit!

Today was a perfect day. Apparently there is some kind of travel advisory for Americans in Europe, but we haven't heard anything about it here, and we haven't had any trouble with trains or public transportation. (Only hotels...) And before we left Munich, Sandra (our apartment host) told us about a protest going on in Stuttgart. From what I gather, they are building a new train station in Stuttgart and are cutting down 21 trees to do so, and there is a huge protest over it. We saw a big fence by the main train station covered with protest signs, and everyone seems to have a sticker that says "Stuttgart 21" with a red line across it. Other than that, though, we've seen no protests or violence.

We had a leisurely breakfast and headed out to the Volksfest around 10:30am. The weather was absolutely gorgeous, but a bit warmer than we were expecting. Not a problem really, but we both spent the day with rolled up sleeves. The plan was to spend half the day at Volksfest and half the day exploring the city - likely at the Carl Zeiss Planetarium. That was the plan.

From Germany-Stuttgart-2

The Volksfest is similar to Oktoberfest, but more German tourists and fewer non-German tourists. And, Wednesdays are designated as family days. Since Wednesdays are also work days, it was fairly empty when we arrived after 11 am. The fairgrounds are near the Mercedes Benz Museum outside the city center, across the Neckar River. There are still many people in lederhosen and dirndl, but there seems to be some variation based on locale in Southern Germany. Most of the lederhosen we saw today had vests rather than the suspenders we saw in Munich. And the men wore a wooden soled shoe - kind of like Birkenstocks, but wood and hide. There were many more women in lederhosen as well. We saw a few women in Munich in lederhosen, but it seemed to be more of a fashion statement. Here it seems more like an acceptable norm. I'll say this though, you have to have nice legs to pull those things off. No lie.

From Germany-Stuttgart-2

We took a walk down the length of the fair before we decided on a beerhall. Our first stop was Schwaben Welt.

From Germany-Stuttgart-2

We sat on the top deck and watched the band and the spattering of people in the hall. Our waiter was kind enough to pose for a photo - his only request was that I not cut off his head. :-) The rafters were festooned with heart-shaped pretzels and hops. Fitting. We decided to "bar hop" since there were several other beer tents to explore and the fairgrounds were still fairly empty.

From Germany-Stuttgart-2

Our next stop was Sonja Merz. Or Sonja Renz, depending on which beer glass you got. We're still not sure of the distinction. We spent the most time here - mainly because of the band. Let me be the first to tell you: you haven't lived until you've heard an Oompah band cover Tom Jones ("Help Yourself"). The band covered quite a few American songs including "Take me home, Country roads" (John Denver, I'm not kidding) and "YMCA" (Village People). That band was hilarious. There was a table full of American tourists nearby that danced to YMCA as well as a table of European kids who were hamming it up, even though they apparently didn't know the Y-M-C-A arm movements. The whole thing was brilliant.

From Germany-Stuttgart-2

Once the band took an extended break, and we finished our second beer and radler (respectively), we decided to meander over to our last stop, Furstenberg Festzelt. The beer tent was mostly empty, except for a knot of people around the band stand, but most of the tables were reserved. We finally found a free table a bit behind and to the right of the band. We couldn't see the band so well, but we *could* see the people dancing to the music, which is all you really need... A personal highlight for me was when the band started a medley of music with "Highway to Hell". Worth the price of admission, alone. (It's actually free to get in, but still.) Allen ordered his third volksfest bier, while I ordered the local specialty: a wine spritzer. I know you are thinking wine cooler, but it isn't that. It's a dry red (or white or rose) wine with seltzer, and it's extremely popular in Stuttgart, apparently. It was a welcome break from beer. I think I might make these for myself when I get home, actually. It was quite good and not sweet at all. Radlers are half lemonade and very sweet. Particularly for someone who has been avoiding sugar for 3 months. I'm going to have quite a sugar detox ahead of me when we get home...

From Germany-Stuttgart-2

From Germany-Stuttgart-2

After our beer hall tour was complete, we thought we should complete the outing with a few carnival rides. There are some truly terrifying rides at the Volksfest - like those chair things that swing all the way around in a giant circle (upside down). They look like death traps to me, so we settled on the relatively tame ferris wheel and bumper cars. We both banged our knees pretty badly in the bumper cars, but had a blast doing it. And the ferris wheel provided a beautiful view of both the fair and the city. I found a euro coin in the bumper car Allen and I drove, making my total for found money 51 euro. Allen now makes jokes about looking only at the ground when we are out in public. :-)

From Germany-Stuttgart-2

Last night, at a wine tasting in a local supermarket, a local woman suggested we try a restaurant called "Kiste" in Charlottenplatz for "typical" Schwabian food and drink. We had dinner at Vegi Voodoo (again), first, as we were fairly sure the "typical Schwabian food" was *not* vegetarian. (FYI, it's not.)

From Germany-Stuttgart-2

We found Kiste easily - right at the exit of the U-bahn in Charlottenplatz, behind a large building with "Die Media" on the side. This restaurant is everything you'd want in a local hangout. It's tiny. And when I say tiny, I mean it - the seating area, including the bar, is about the size of our basement. Maybe a bit smaller, actually. There were 4 tables, total, that sat about 4-6 people each. Allen and I sat at the free table, but were joined in short order by two more couples. Everybody was doing their own thing, so we didn't really converse with anyone else, but it was still a pretty friendly atmosphere. We ordered drinks - a pils bier for Allen and a weinschorle rot (red wine spritzer) for Autumn, and a small kirsch (cherry?) schnapps. Kirsch schnapps is *not* sweet. At all. Allen had to drink most of that as I am not much for hard liquor. It smelled wonderful, though. The waitress seemed confused that we didn't want to eat, so we ordered salads so as to not seem rude. We had already eaten dinner, but being vegan in Germany is much more difficult than being vegan in the US, or even in Japan. We've been eating a metric ton of carbs (literally), so I was craving some vegetables, anyway. Those salads. Were. Delicious! They had an oil and vinegar dressing and had potatoes and pickled radishes on top. Heaven. I snarfed mine down and stole some off of Allen's plate too. We felt a little awkward taking photos in there, as it was so, so small, but we managed to snap a few surreptitiously.

From Germany-Stuttgart-2

Our waitress was also kind enough to take a photo of us, but I don't think the pictures can convey just how small and cozy that place was. There was the cutest little dumbwaiter from the kitchen (upstairs) to the bar downstairs, which delivered our food. As we left, I ventured upstairs to the ladies room and saw another tiny dining room with maybe 2 or 3 more tables, but they only sat 2 or 4 people each. Even though we were both tired from a day of walking and drinking in the sun, we were both so glad to have stopped in to Kiste. It was definitely worth it.

From Germany-Stuttgart-2

(The waitress is standing almost in the entrance to the dining room to take this shot. Seriously.)

We made our way back to the hotel for a well earned rest, and are planning our adventures for our remaining days in Munich. Our time in Stuttgart was short, but Stuttgart isn't really touristy like Munich. There are plenty of things to do and see, don't get me wrong, but it just feels more business-like here. We had an absolutely perfect day, though, and will remember our time here fondly. Once we get back to Munich, we are planning a trip to Neuschwanstein castle, and hopefully a trip to the huge thermal spa at Bad Reichenhall (near the Austrian border and Berchtesgaden). We will also try to take a half-day trip out to Freising to tour the "oldest brewery in the world" - Weinstephan. We have a lot left to do, and a very short time left to do it!

We're working on getting some of the videos up on Youtube, but our camera takes *huge* files, so we need to resize them first. But here are the rest of the photos from today!