Back to Germany; Stuttgart and surrounds.

Settling back into Stuttgart was a lot of fun as it did not feel like long ago that I was living there on exchange. The previous night when I arrived I had met two students who were staying with Erni, my previous host-mother, who were also from Melbourne! Both in a similar situation that I was before, Kathleen and Mykel did not speak any German upon entering the country but were learning it now – Kathleen was very good in fact; much better than I. 

The lake near Konigstrasse with the Opera House

Konigstrasse, the main shopping strip.

I spent my first day back in Stuttgart getting a little familiar once again with the city, so I simply wandered through Konigstrasse; the main shopping strip, and along the side streets which is always really nice and relaxing. I had actually come across a project prior to reaching Stuttgart that looked quite interesting and had just been completed; the new Stuttgart City Library. The building is designed by Korean architects and is a very orthogonal, simple form. Having said this, the exterior features some interesting patterns embedded into the concrete which appear almost Islamic. 

 

Stuttgart City Library (Stefan Müller)

As I was walking through the building I was able to use an audio-guide which discussed the different conceptual elements of the design.

Inside you pass first from the reception area with a standard-height ceiling to a huge void which is intended to be a space of contemplation. At the centre of the ceiling of this space is a large-scale glass square mosaic that lets through natural light but which also connects to the space above on the fourth level. Reaching this fourth level by climbing stairs that circulate the void; you notice the connection between the spaces via the glass mosaic. The  space you enter grows in size like a reverse pyramid. 

The internal central void (Stefan Müller)

The vast top section.
(http://www.thecoolist.com/stuttgart-city-library/)

One thing clear is that the space itself is essentially white, with the only other addition by the architect being faint use of off-blues. I didn't think this worked well on any other level in that it was quite sterile and visually confronting, however in the top space the books which fill the shelves along every wall provide a fantastic array of colour.

After this little architectural detour, I travelled back 'home', this time taking a different train line which I knew wound up along the high points of the valley that Stuttgart city lay within and provided some really great views looking back down.

Spaetzle

When I arrived back home it was not long before Erni herself arrived and announced she would be making Spaetzle, a traditional Schwabian meal which I loved! Also excellent was that she would be making it fresh. The meal itself consists of egg noodles which when fried aren't smooth and are... 'frizzy' is the only word I can think of! Either way, these are then mixed with a bacon (we chose a dark smoked one, yum!) and then fried egg is added. It effectively sounds like a bacon carbonara, which is quite similar but quite different in taste; Spaetzle is much better :P

So, after a big meal we decided to have an easy evening and strangely enough ended up watching a couple of episodes of The Little Rascals which Erni had recently bought on DVD – a good laugh and then off to bed for a good nights sleep (I was certainly enjoying being by myself after numerous hostels for weeks prior!).

Michael Majerus

Michael Majerus

The next morning I got up earlier than the previous day so I could utilise it a little more! I visited the Kunstmuseum (Art Museum) which I had been to on my previous visit was nice to visit to Stuttgart, however it was nice to visit once more and see the different exhibitions. At the time there was a special exhibition on a late Berlin artist, Michael Majerus, who utilised a lot of pop art and marketing styles to convey messages through his work. This was quite interesting, though some of it was a little difficult to interpret. 

Otto Dix, Metropolis

The other general exhibition included a section devoted to a variety of different styles, but whose focus revolved always around the city of Stuttgart. In addition the Museum is also host to a large collection of Otto Dix paintings, including his very famous piece Metropolis.

Great view of Schlossplatz from the Kunstmuseum

Konigstrasse with the Kunstmuseum on the right

After visiting the Museum I decided to take a little walk down memory lane and went to a cafe that we had gone to many times when were living in Stuttgart a couple of years ago. The purpose of these regular visits was the fantastic mochachino that they produced; four layers of different chocolate – always fantastic; and even better after two years!

Very nice Mocha!

I then decided to take a train to Esslingen, which is an old Baroque town not far from the centre of town and is very nice to casually wander around in and do some window shopping! However, not content with the shopping here I decided that I would go to Metzingen. This town was a little further away but is home to a set of designer label factory outlets centred around Hugo Boss.

Esslingen; Town Hall at the centre

Quaint little side streets

After some vague wandering around and browsing, I walked into Polo Ralph Lauren, thinking it would still be outrageously priced and instead was confronted with the shattering reality of very well priced clothes! Thinking I might get away with a shirt, I walked out with four sweaters and about 110euro spent – that store would have been the end of me had it not been for the limited space I had in my bag!

My Downfall

Arriving back in Stuttgart; Erni had organised for us all to go to a restaurant for dinner, so we got ready and went out. Quite a small place, it was called Wangener Besahex which I think translates to “Witches Brew” - all the people running the restaurant were woman and the interior was quite crazy and very cool so perhaps a good fitting name!

The interior of the restaurant was a little quirky

A number of us ordered a house platter which consisted of a variety of local and other foods; including spaetzle, maultaschen (a lovely sort of pasta dumpling with minced meat and herbs, also native to the area), wurst (sausage), lentils and some other things I forget – it was fantastic! When it came to dessert there were a few jokes made about one thing on the menu called heisse lieber which translates to 'hot love'. It actually consists of cherries in a hot sweet sauce in a small jug which you can pour yourself over some ice-cream. “Would you like some hot love?” was said a number of times...

As good as this looked, I instead opted for some apple strudel and was once again not dissapointed!

Earlier that day I had decided that tomorrow I would go to Freiburg, a town in the Black Forest which was a few hours away by train, so I got an early night to catch an early train the following morning.

The train journey was just as nice as the town itself!

Catching a train just before 9am, I arrived after a little debacle in Freiburg about midday.  I took a little walk around town before learning where I might go for a small hike. I was told to go to a small town higher up called Tittisee. As we climbed higher on the train I could tell it was certainly colder as more and more snow accumulated around me outside. Arriving, I walked through the centre of the town and came across the lake and surrounding area. What a spectacular scene – a huge lake spread out in front of me, just about all frozen over with snow covered tree's lined up around the perimeter with a small forest in the distance. I found a map that advised a route that would circle the lake and take a couple of hours and so set off on a hike!

The frozen lake and pier in Tittisee

A little cold for this I think...

Trudging through the snow, it was not too bad in terms of temperature, however unfortunately there was a slight wind that was not doing wonders for my nose. As I walked along there were many more great scenes and photographic opportunities which I took advantage of! Also, kicking and jumping around on fresh snow never gets old.

The path that I hiked along, very cold!

The very pretty views across the lake

Finishing up the walk I was quite cold and ready for a nice hot drink so I went in search of a cafe. Sitting down at one along the main street I also ordered a slice of the well-known Black Forest Cake or Schwarzwald Kirche. I was expecting a reasonable size piece but was blown away by the size of one I actually got!

Not to worry though, I polished it off with relative ease. 

Warmed up with hot chocolate and Black Forest cake!

As I caught the train back to Freiburg it began to snow and continued to do so all the way back to Stuttgart! The next morning I would finally be greeted with a familiar view of the backyard at the Steigerwald house.

Unfortunately the next morning I woke up quite ill and it appeared as though finally non-stop travelling for five weeks had caught up with me. I spent the day inside, napping and trying desperately to rest up so that I could fight off the cold before it took much hold. At around 4pm Kathleen and Mykel arrived back from Uni and reminded me that it was in fact Australia Day and that they were going out to celebrate and I should go too! I found this difficult to argue with so after dinner I rugged up, chomped on some more Vitamin C and head out to the city with the others.

We started the night at a pub I remembered from my time previously called Amadeus which is quite big and suitable for the number of people who turned up! Initially we had some beers but then noticing the cocktail menu; we dove in and I grabbed the Flying Kangaroo purely out of some patriotic, inquisitive whimsy. Not bad, but containing vodka, rum, Galiano, orange juice and cream; its relationship with Australia seemed tangible at best.

Not content with the pub, the group ventured off to a Tequila Bar, aptly named Tequila Bar, where the principle attraction was that with every beer you received a free shot of tequila. This certainly wasn't helping those who had clearly been drinking since much earlier that afternoon but we plundered on. After a little time at the bar, we found the rest of the group later at a typical club and danced until the early hours of the morning. Myself and Kathleen then found a cab and got ourselves back home; her engaged in quite an avid conversation with the driver of which I had no idea at the time what was being discussed. Later, she admitted the same...

Unlike my poor friends at the house, I did not have school the following morning so slept in until around 11:30am when Erni knocked on my door and said “you really should get up now Joel” - she was right, I had a train to catch soon!

So we had a lovely late breakfast together and then drove to the station and said goodbye. It was so very nice to have stayed once again at the house and once again I was shown such unbelievable hospitality which I am forever grateful for! I do hope to one day meet the family back home if they come for a visit in the future and show them around town. Either way, I really love Stuttgart!

Schlossplatz with Konigstrasse on the left