Germany: Saturday, Sunday

When the company I work for sends me to Germany for a week, well, I can't really complain. (What I can complain about is the 16+ hours in a plane it took to get there. Hello my good friend Xanax, would you like to come with me?) My flight left Saturday morning, had a quick layover in Atlanta, and landed in Stuttgart on Sunday morning. The Stuttgart airport was awesome. Small, quick, and manageable, even with everything in German. Ian M., our press rep from England, was already waiting for me once I cleared passport control. We walked across the street and had breakfast while we waited for Ian S., another rep from England I'd be working with, to arrive. Once he got there the three of us jumped into a taxi and headed straight for the hotel.

The place Ian M. had originally wanted to stay in was completely booked so he picked out a new hotel in the small town of Esslingen, about twenty minutes east of Stuttgart. Esslingen was founded in 777 along the Neckar River and is characterized by it's medieval architecture, historic town center, towering castle, and rolling vineyards on the hill. And nestled among all this beauty was our hotel, the Best Western Premier Hotel Park Consul. From my room I could look across the red-roofed homes of this adorable German town.


I have to admit that my first moments in a European hotel room threw me for a bit of a loop. To be perfectly fair, I was experiencing some pretty major jet lag at the time. Everything just felt a bit "off." Can't really explain it. It just wasn't the same as an American hotel room. I also spent a frustrating twenty minutes trying to figure out how to turn the lights on. None of the switches worked. None of the lamps worked. And consequently I had a very brief meltdown (again, I blame the jet lag). Finally the more rational side of my brain took over and recognized that if I was unable to turn the lights on in a hotel room at the age of 32, I had no business traveling abroad in the first place. I concentrated all my energy at the problem and figured out that you had to put the key card in a slot by the door for the electricity in the room to go on. Germans and their environmentalism. Who knew? Apparently not me.


After a couple of hours of rest and a quick shower, I met back up with Ian M. and Ian S. We decided to head into Stuttgart to do some exploring since neither Ian S. nor I had ever been there before. We did a ton of walking, with stops at the Mercedes-Benz Museum, the Mercedes-Benz Arena (home of the VfB Stuttgart soccer team), the Neckar River, and the future festival grounds of Oktoberfest. We eventually ended up at the Sommerfest festivities at the Schlossplatz, the largest square in the center of the city. There was plenty to see and do there. Good food. Live music. Beautiful weather. We stopped at one of the open-air restaurants for drinks (can't even tell you how hard it was to find one that was non-alcoholic) and Ian M. couldn't help but get his grove on when the music started.


While we were walking around Stuttgart, we happened upon this gem of a vehicle. A Fiat Nuova 500, I think. Very small. Very European. Not sure if this car would quite work for your family, Jenni. You and Darin would have to loose a kid or two. Or six.


More to come . . .