Day 6: Travel to Amsterdam

We got to sleep in a little bit which was nice.  Next, we ate breakfast and asked the front desk about gas stations since we needed to return the rental car.  After getting directions, we loaded up the car and headed to the station to drop off the car and catch our train.  Not knowing where to go, we gave ourselves ample time and it's a good thing we did.

Since we did not rent the car from this location, we had no idea where the return was.  After circled around the area a few times, I ran inside to ask the rental office while the hubster circled.  Boy, was it complicated!  I ran back to the car and hopped in.  We finally found the parking garage which was not marked at all.  Once we were inside, it was also complicated.  We found the right level and the right row, but no clue which spot to park.  There were signs over some spots which didn't translate in my app.  After circling a few times, we just parked and walked to the return.

We had a few minutes to kill, so we just sat by a statue and I grabbed some fruit.  We realized at the last minute that we didn't get any souvenirs for Stuttgart, specifically a magnet which is our souvenir.  I stopped into a newspaper store which was the closest thing to a souvenir store.  No dice.  Apparently, Stuttgart is not a tourist town.

Walking out empty handed, we caught our train and headed to Amsterdam.  Along the way, the train was delayed.  Not sure how after all the great things we heard about German efficiency, how could it be late?!?!  Anyway, we got into Cologne which is where we needed to make a transfer with only 10 minutes before our next train came in.  We didn't want to buy food on the train, so I ran down the steps to find some lunch.  It's a good thing we were so familiar with this station from the previous days' trip or else we might not have had lunch.  I found the closest restaurant that had the smallest line which was Burger King!

I successfully ordered a plain cheeseburger for the husbster and chicken nuggets for me.  Yay for patient Burger King cashiers!  We scarfed down the food and as we finished the last bite, the train pulled up.  We found our seats and settled in for the last leg of the train ride.

We arrived in Amsterdam and boy, was it different.  This was by far the largest city we visited and you could tell by the station.  We walked outside and tried to figure out how to get to the hotel.  We had two options: ride a tram or walk.  I wanted to find the tram because of our experience walking from the station to our hotel in Brussels.

The station did not have any information about public transportation except signs towards different lines and then maps at those lines.  We thought we had figured it out and hopped onto the next tram.  We paid for a 24 hour pass and sat down and talked about stops.  It's a good thing we were talking because a nice man told us we were on the WRONG tram!  We could have ended up in the wrong part of town.  We hopped off the tram and picked up the right one.  We got off at our stop and started walking.  Thanks to my map app, we made it to our hotel, Hotel V Nesplein.

We stayed another chic boutique hotel.  We loved the rainfall shower and the toiletries provided.  They even restocked each day so we had some extras to bring home with us!  It had the most comfortable beds.  It also came with FREE water.  Two large containers which were restocked every day!

Chandelier in the lobby

Beds in the room

View of courtyard next to hotel from our room

This view may look cool, but it was kinda of a pain.  Because that courtyard got noisy at night.  The first night wasn't too bad.  We didn't go to bed until after the crowd died down at a decent hour, but the second night, the crowds were loud and boisterous to past 1 am.

Stair well in our hotel

After settling in and unpacking, we asked the front desk for some restaurant suggestions.  He offered two places: one Italian and one Dutch.  The Dutch restaurant had no menu and they only have a few selections.  It's small and sounded wonderful to me, but the picky hubster didn't think it was safe.  Italian it was!

It was literally 20 ft from the front door and it was really good.  It was called Mappa.  We sat down and ordered some drinks.  I ordered La Chouffe, but was told by the hubster to try Heineken.  I vehemently said I can get that in the states.  I can also get La Chouffe, but don't tell the hubster that.  Apparently, Heineken is supposed to taste different in Europe.  Maybe next time.

My drink

We ordered a calamari appetizer to start and I had the seafood of the day and the hubster had the meat of the day.  Mine consisted of two types of fish with a variety of seafood around it.  The hubster had a ribeye with pomme frites.

Extra dinner guest

Calamari with some amazing salsa

My dinner

Dessert!

The hubster picked the best dessert of the whole trip.  It was a pear tart tartine.  It was truly amazing.  So good.  Good enough that when dinner rolled around the next night, I was tempted to come here again.

Us after dinner

After dinner, we decided to take a stroll.  We walked towards the Red Light District, but found ourselves in Dam Square.  I had no idea it was so close to our hotel.  We stopped into a souvenir store and spent €50!  We bought T-shirts for the brothers, shot glass for mom, some trinkets for me and some friends, and post cards.  The most shopping we've done so far.

We continued on towards the infamous district.

We're getting close

Closer... very subtle

I think we're here

Aside from the sex shows with the bawdy lights, the other establishments sometimes weren't even noticeable.   It's funny because I would randomly look to the side and there they were.  Prostitutes standing in their doorways on display for everyone.  They looked nice enough, normal almost except for the outfits.  I think I had more of a kick pointing when someone actually opened the door and went in.  The hubster and I had a discussion on the logistics of it.  The rooms these girls stand in are not that big.  Blinds go down to cover the door, so I wondered if they had sex in the closet sized room.  The hubster assured me that they had a back room which was bigger.  Whatever.  

We went into a few sex shops just to peruse.  I have never seen so many vibrators in my life.  All shapes and sizes.  The hubster had to explain some things to me.  That was our experience with the Red Light District.  We didn't go back and we didn't see any shows.  I don't think we necessarily subscribe to the "Do it to do it" philosophy of siteseeing.

We headed back to the hotel to catch some Zzzzz.  We had an early morning because I had decided at the last minute to book us a bike ride tour of the city.  I was tasked with getting up and getting breakfast for the hubster since I choose the earlier start time of 10:30 am instead of 1:30 pm.

Pictures of the street our hotel was on

Other direction

Restaurant Week 2013

My brother, my friend, and I partook in restaurant week this year and had dinner at three local establishments. Thanks in part to having it extended to a second week. We went to Bertrand at Mister A's, The Prado, and Blue Ribbon Rustic Kitchen.



Bertrand at Mister A's
First course: Ravioli
Second course: Paella
Third course: chocolate mousse bar, strawberry shortcake, and creme brûlée
Drink: Parisian 75



The Prado
First course: Calamari fries in sweet chili sauce
Second course: Chipotle ribs
Third course: Creme brûlée, flan, and chocolate mousse bar
Drink: sangria



Blue ribbon rustic kitchen
First course: Caprese salad
Second course: Angel hair pasta with prawns
Third course: Butterscotch pudding, lemon merengue pie, almond pana cotta
Drink: wine pairings

And the winner is ....

Blue ribbon rustic kitchen

Hands down, agreed by all. The portions were good. The food was tasty and the desserts were amazing. I think we all greed that we would even come back and pay full price which is not something we would do for the other two restaurant.

Overall, a successful restaurant week. I'm sated until next year. These late night dinners were wearing me out.

Bling rings

In the past year, my collection of jewelry has increased by ten fold. I bought some easy to match necklaces that can be added to the majority of my outfits. Then some bracelets and now rings. I've caught on to the trend of statement cocktail rings, but maybe a year late. Is that still considered a trend?

I bought a large flat faced ring in Paris and I wore it every day since coming back. I had $10 reward at kohls to burn so I found 2 clearance rings and bought them for $2 after the reward.




This was $6 after 70% off and additional 10%. Usually not my style, but I kinda love it. I think the green eyes give a little extra something.



Also $6! The stone is half broken and why it was on clearance. I actually prefer it without since it would be similar to my Paris ring, but with a hammered texture. I even tried to pry it out at the store, but it was a no go. You can't tell it's broken unless you really look.

I think that'll be it for ring purchases unless I find one I love. I think my next purchase will be new sunglasses. My Chanel ones are almost 8 years old and although classic, I'm ready for a change. My aviators look a little dated and my other Chanel ones are so unique and trendy, they don't get a lot of wear.

Day 5: Stuttgart

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.