We slept in to about 9 am the next morning. We got ready and headed down to the breakfast buffet at the hotel which was included in the cost of the hotel. It was pretty tasty and quite filling. After loading up on bacon, eggs, croissant, and coffee, we set out to the tram station outside of our hotel to figure out another city's public transportation system.
On today's itinerary was to visit the Mercedes-Benz museum, Porsche museum, Schlossplatz, and one of the libraries in the city. Once we bought our all day passes, we waited for the tram. The interesting thing about these passes which we did not understand was that in other cities, you have to provide a ticket at some point (like the yellow boxes in Brussels, the RFID readers in Amsterdam, turnstiles in Paris). There was nothing like that in Stuttgart. Well, there was a small receptacle inside the tram, but since we had an all day pass, I didn't want to put my ticket in there because it didn't give it back. So we just had them in our hands whenever we used public transportation. We later found out that in Germany it was an honor system and they would have plain clothed transit people randomly check tickets.
Anyway, after one transfer, we ended up at the Mercedes-Benz museum. It was a very new and modern building which was situated next to a large sports training facility. We went in, bought our tickets, and went up the elevator to start the tour of the museum.
Entrance
One view from the museum. You can see the soccer fields on the right.
There were several soccer teams practicing out there. I assumed it was a professional team since the facility was so nice. Also because from another side of the building you could see the stadium. If I recall correctly, both Porsche and Mercedes owned a stadium.
Stadium
The top floor (8th) of the museum started at the very beginning of Mercedes. Did you knew they made boats and trains? I did not. I guess you do learn something new every day.
Me with a boat
Mercedes Gull Wing
Some random display
Electric car by the gift shop
Surprisingly, the museum carried all sorts of Mercedes cars, not just the fancy nice ones or the race cars They had busses, ambulances, station wagons, police cars. You name it and they probably had one on display. At one of the top floors, they had this really nice sign up and the hubster and I decided to take pictures it by it.
The first one
The second after the husband said "Do something"
My response to the do something command
The hubster's do something pose
After reaching the bottom floor of the museum, we stopped at the gift shop. The hubster has a friend who is into cars even moreso than the hubster and especially into Mercedes. So the hubster figured it would be nice to get him a souvenir. Well, Mercedes doesn't call itself a luxury brand for nothing. We struggled to find appropriately priced souvenirs. Sorry, but I'm not spending €45 on a gift for someone else when I won't spend that on myself.
After buying some key chains and a shot glass, we made our way back to the train station to head over to the Porsche museum. Once we got to Porscheplatz, we noticed that everywhere you looked, there was some sort of Porsche. All colors and sizes. They really do have some national and city pride. We were hungry by that point and decided we were going to have lunch inside the museum restaurant.
We looked at the menu and saw that there was something for both of us. I ordered another mozzarella, tomato, pesto sandwich with a salad and the hubster ordered a double bacon cheeseburger. We thought it would be safe, but there was something lost in translation on the menu. What was listed as barbecue sauce was really a pink mayonnaise. After lunch, we visited the gift shop first. I confess that I was tired of looking at cars. This was our second auto related day.
The hubster picked out a personalized key chain. It has two pieces that match up with the paint and interior of your car. So we got silver and black leather. After we purchased the key chain, we bought our tickets and went upstairs. The museum is a lot smaller than the Mercedes museum, but more entertaining in my opinion.
Trophies
We were fortunate that when we went, Porsche was celebrating 50 years of the 911 which is the model of car that the hubster has. There were so many 911s on display. So many so that I just started taking pictures of the car colors that I liked.
Spiffy green and white
Hubster by mural
Me by the mural doing my best Top Model pose
My close up
The hubster by the 911 mural with his baby
My personal favorite
Also nice
The hubster with his car
Neon!
After we wrapped up with Porsche, we headed to the main square in Stuttgart. We walked by the main shopping strip and ended up in this courtyard.
Love parks in Europe.
Too bad it was under construction
We ended up sitting on that bench and enjoying the sun and the view. This was another great place to people watch
Me at the fountain
Hubster and I chilling
After the square, we went back to the hotel to rest. I had done some laundry in the morning and wanted to check on how they were drying. They were still soaked. We ended up opening the balcony door and letting them dry in the sun. I love how the windows in hotel rooms actually open up. We napped while the clothes dried which may seem like a waste of time in Europe, but the hubster and I needed to recharge.
We finally realized we had to start thinking about dinner. We decided to just head back into central Stuttgart and wonder around until we found a suitable restaurant. We walked back to the tram station and proceeded to get lost. *sigh* The tram station is on one line only. We assumed that even if it went to a station that had transfers that it would still stay the same line. We were wrong and we made asses of ourselves!
We didn't realize that the tram had changed direction until 5 or 6 stops. We jumped off and got on the return tram and paid attention this time. Even though it was an unexpected detour, we still saw some cool things on the return trip. They had a random vineyard along a river. We saw some people rowing in the river. By the time we got to the central station, it was 8:30 pm. We didn't know when the public transportation shut down and we didn't want to risk going into a restaurant and spending two hours on dinner (because that is the average amount of time spent on dinner that we have experienced) and come out to find that everything was closed. We've already been burnt by the closing monster!
So, we ate at McDonald's =( And because the hubster was 0 for 2 on burgers, we ordered chicken mcnuggets. They taste the exact same as in the States. I have to admit it tasted delicious. We've had 5 days of foreign food, so it was good to have a taste of home. We made our way back to our hotel and crashed.
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