When you arrive in Stuttgart, the first thing you notice is how hilly it is. The train arrives at the main train station ion the centre of town and the CBD itself, which is mostly modern, are in the bottom of the valley. Our hotel on the other hand looked to be about a kilometer up the hill. Tired and both still feeling a bit under the weather, we opted for the lazy option of a taxi. I am pretty sure the taxi driver took us the long way and like all cabbies here rounded up to the nearest 10 euro. Fortunately that was the fare – 10 euro. It was getting quite dark and cold when we arrived but you could still see the houses. The hotel was in what I would consider a semi suburban area. Although unlike a lot of the rest of Stuttgart, which is quite modern and filled with apartments, The houses here look a lot more like the traditional German Black forest houses with three or four stories and wide verandahs. They were set high on the hill over several floors with a smattering of newer buildings amongst them. It was the sort of scene you’d see in the suburbs of Brisbane but with houses from Heidi. The hotel itself was also quite twee but very comfortable. Dan took the opportunity to have a snooze and I kept myself occupied online for a couple of hours, despite another substandard internet connection.

We had asked at reception about local restaurants = they had suggested two Italian and one Turkish option. We’d already had Italian a couple of times on this trip and without a local option, we decided that Turkish was the best alternative. Germany has quite a large Turkish population and I had noticed quite a few people of Turkish descent when we arrived in Stuttgart. We took the large but not very detailed map the hotel had given us and would our way through the street until we found the restaurant. In fact we had probably walked about two thirds of the way back to the city centre – although there was quite a steep descent (and a huge amount of stairs) between us and the train station. The restaurant initially looked closed but the proprietor welcomed us inside. The menu was authentic Turkish; chock full of the dishes you find on menus in Turkey – not the Australian version with Turkish pizza and three different kinds of skewered kebabs with salad and rice. Dan had a meat dish that he had enjoyed at a restaurant in Melbourne as a child and I had the mine and spinach with yoghurt. We also ordered fried cheese for entrée. It arrived with bread and dips and two glasses of Turkish wasser (Raki). We drank to be hospitable and Dan also had a couple of beers so he was well and truly under the weather when we left the restaurant. The meal was fabulous – some of the best Turkish we have ever had and our host was more than hospitable. What’s more the bill for the meal was only about 45 euro. After dinner we wandered in circles for a while until we found the hotel. The streets were pretty confusing and the map was really badly drawn. Eventually we made it back and hit the hay. (Tomorrow’s Just Another Day – Madness – from the Rise and Fall – probably one of their more depressing albums really. Still can’t believe we are going to see them on New Year’s Eve)

Next morning we woke early and went down for the hotel breakfast – Dan’s cold had really set in and he was also suffering from a bit of a Raki-induced hangover so could only stomach a bowl of cornflakes and toast. I had a bit more of a substantial breakfast – all the standards were here – breads, cold meats and cheeses, yoghurt and cereal, scrambled eggs, bacon and mini sausages – and I had a cup of tea – just what I always feel like when I have a cold. Unfortunately I made the classic beginner’s mistake in Germany. The milk on the table is designed to have with coffee as it is a milk-cream mix.

Loaded up it was time for the real reason we had come to Stuttgart – a visit to the Porsche museum. You can catch a train to the museum from the station. Not wanting to waste time walking back to the hotel to collect our bags as our stay in Stuttgart was short, we decided to catch a taxi to the station and leave our bags at the left luggage counter for a couple of hours. We worked out the train ticketing system and headed for Porsche Platz. The building itself was striking and right there in your face when you got off the train. There was only one problem. It was closed. In my planning, I had forgotten the golden rule of travelling in Europe. Almost all museums are closed on Monday. And it wasn’t just the Porsche Museum either. The Mercedes Benz Museum was closed too. (Pantera Fans in Love – Nerf Herder – this song is a good moment in time song with more than a dozen pop culture references to bands of the time, including The Cranberries, Slayer, and The Offspring and lines like ‘we went to Sears at Christmas time but they wouldn’t let us make the heavy metal sign’.)

While Dan was still dealing with the immense disappointment, we got back on the train and headed into the centre of Stuttgart to see if we could find something else to do for the next few hours. We went to the tourist bureau but it seems most of what there is to do in Stuttgart apart from the museums is in the regions surrounding the place. We took a walk up the main shopping strip and lo and behold we found Stuttgart’s Christmas market. We also found the park with a collection of fountains that was marked on all the tourist maps. The sun had come out so it was quite pleasant sitting in the sun. It was also the first time since we arrived that it was worth taking out my sunglasses. That is the only problem with wearing sunglasses with a beanie with ear covers – you can’t put your sunglasses on your head because there is no way to anchor them on your ears. I may have forgotten to mention that I finally found a beanie with ear covers at the Christmas market in Hamburg and what’s even more remarkable is that I still have it. I can also report that my $39.95 Aldi snow boots are doing a remarkable job as my main footwear as is my mother-in-law knitted scarf which is both practical and snuggly.

We wandered through the Christmas market for a while and then headed back to the train station to climb (well mostly take an elevator) to the top of its clock tour for a view out over the city. They must have had problems with people falling, jumping or climbing over the edge as the whole thing was completely caged in. It did give a pretty good view of the city though. We still had a bit of time before the train left and Dan was still feeling pretty miserable so we spent our last half hour in Stuttgart utilizing the free wi-fi in Starbucks and enabling Dan to enjoy his first good hot chocolate in Germany. Here they tend to make it with real cocoa but it is a hot water drink with a bit of milk, like a traditional coffee, rather than a milk based drink.

Christmas themed activities – 12  War museums and model shops – 1.5 Design experiences – 1