Stuttgart

A Benz Affair

As soon as I arrived in Stuttgart, I got the feeling that the Benz experience was going to be a huge part of the day trip. Even the Hauptbahnhof, which to me is tastelessly designed like a concentration camp, had a Mercedes Tower (as in the picture below). And if you climed up (well we took the lift) the tower, 10 storeys high, you'd actually get a view of the city, like from one of the shots below. The many people looked like ants from above walking through the burstling street, otherwise the main shopping street of Stuttgart, known as the Königstraße. (King's Street)

Das Mercedes-Benz Museum

After getting down the tower, instead of going straight into the city area, we took the S-Bahn instead to the Mercedes-Benz Museum since it closes at 6pm. The Museum was located some 10 minutes away from the city area so its not very far actually.

The exterior of the Museum. Reminds me of the Chinatown point where the levels are inclined, meaning there are no stairs.
Looks like a Flintstone car. Well its stone anyway.
The world first patented car operated by gasoline (1886). Noticed that there were only 3 tyres instead of 4.
The world first ommi-bus (1895)
Of all the cars I saw in the exhibition, I liked this one the most. It was gleaming and shining excerting an aura of luxury from all angles as I admired this car.

Mobile post office (1938)

Fire-fighting truck (1910)

The gallery of sport cars

Benz racing car (1900) - top speed 65 km/hr!

Stuttgart City Centre

After having enough of the museum, we headed back to the city centre. Because the museum was near the stadium and there was a match going on that day, it was terribly crowded and full of rowdy crowds. For some of the Singaporeans, it was their first time encountering such crowds during football matches. For the rest of us, we've pretty used to it and we also expect that later after the match end when we board the train back its gonna be full of crazy people or drunkards yelling and screaming at their top of their voices even in the trains.

Anyway Stuttgart city centre is not medieval as Heidelberg. There's no half-timbered houses, no old bridges, and even the Rathaus looks like the Hauptbahnhof (which is like a concentration camp). However, there is a part of Stuttgart that is very lush and laid back. That's the area of the palace gardens, and the Schloßplatz. (Palace Place), below:

As you can see, when the weather is sunny everyone likes to sit on the grass and watch the world go by. We had our lunch of Würste while baking ourselves under the sun on the grass too(after much searching, we almost wondered if the Stuttgarters actually eat cos the Königstraße was filled with boutiques but almost zero outlets selling food!)

Neues Schloß - New Palace

Altes Schloß - Old Palace

By the terribly contaminated lake in the Oberer Schlossgarten.

And so, the visitors are already gone. They left for Berlin, and should be in München now, after which their next stop is Paris. As for YT and her bf they should be on their Europe trip now. Now I can't wait for Thursday cos its a public holiday and I will travel to Freiburg im Breisgau to stay with Seok Hui over the weekend. She seems very excited about it and we have planned a lot of activities together!

http://picasaweb.google.com/vintagebin/19MayStuttgart