STOP #1— STUTTGART
Day 1, March 8th — Night City Tour and Surviving Jetlag
Our trip to Germany started with the peasant experience of trying German food (and drinks) and meeting with the local Stuttgart city planner, Thorsten Donn. I strongly believe, that to merge with the country’s culture it is a must to start with trying local food. I think you cannot go wrong with any variation of pasta and cheese, so I decided to try delicious Käsespätzle, a German version of mac and cheese, followed by the real German beer. Thorsten Donn, the Head City Planner for Stuttgart, joined us for dinner, and then we proceeded to go on a tour around Stuttgart led by him. The key takeaway from the excursion was that Germans truly care about the public’s well-being, safety, and the environment and severely invest in the infrastructure to not just get the benefits but also preserve everything around them.
Day 2, March 9th — Cars and Trains!
The day started with a self-guided tour of the Mercedes Museum. The visitors are taken to the very top of the spiral-shaped floors building. I think it is the best way to describe it. The top of the building is also the beginning of Mercedes’s history, so walking down the spiral is also moving along with the history of Mercedes. A few interesting facts I learned were that Mercedes was Benz’s daughter, Mercedes owns 80% of the German ambulance vehicles market and the fact that the first hybrid vehicle was created over a hundred years ago.
The second part of the day was devoted to the Stuttgart 21 project which has been lasting since the 1980s. Officially, the construction began in 2011 but faced severe negativity from the public. We learned that since 2011, the costs have tripled and continue growing each year. Today, the cost of the project exceeds €12 million. While I understand how the train station will contribute to meeting the growing demand, connecting European and German cities together, and reducing carbon emissions, I think it was a very ambitious plan. The developers underwent through multiple issues including additional financial costs due to strict environmental regulations and preserving social well-being. My favorite part of the tour was obviously going into an underground construction site, the tunnels.
Day 3, March 10th — More Cars and a Vegan City
Apple watch recorded 25,825 steps on day 3. We started the day with a tour of the Porsche Museum. Interestingly, the museum was also in the shape of a spiral, but we were moving up which was the beginning of intensive cardio on that day. A few things I remembered from the museum were Porsche’s views on Nazis and the portable steering wheel in one of the sports cars. Apparently, Porsche did not mind making profits on Nazis’ orders but in fact, never supported them. Secondly, one of the sports models was so small for the racers, that they had to remove the wheel before getting inside. I also learned that Porsche built a Mercedez car on their behalf, which was very interesting to me.
After the museum, we took a train to Tübingen, the so-called vegan city. Our tour guide, Stefan, took us to the French Quarter, a former French-occupied military zone of Tübingen. In the 1990s, citizens reorganized the city giving old infrastructure a new life. They created automatic parking, implemented gardens, and restricted traffic. Tübingen is known for supporting The Green Party, so it was not surprising to see art and graffiti dedicated to the environment. After visiting the French Quarter, we took a bus back to the city center. Tübingen is known as a hilly city, and Stefan was willing to withstand walking up the hills unlike us, a group of college students, but we made it. We learned the history of the local university (built in the 15th century), a town hall, and the castle. We wrapped our day with a delicious dinner at the local restaurant Ludwig’s.
#Stuttgart
