A Weekend in Germany

Over the weekend I rented a car and embarked on some sightseeing.  Saturday was Stuttgart with James and Cyrus.  The built-in GPS in my Mercedes took us straight to the center of town and we found a carpark next to the town hall.  We wandered past a farmers market in the city square, admiring the historical architecture and somewhat lamenting the more modern concrete squares.  As the home to major Mercedes Benz factories, Stuttgart was heavily bombed in the war.  We did like the large amount of pedestrian-only streets.

At the end of the day we dropped James at the airport before heading on to the University Town of Tubingen.  It was just falling dusk but Cyrus and I were very impressed with the old architecture and cobbled streets of the historical center.  I liked it so much that I went back alone on Sunday morning to explore it further.  Being a Sunday, nothing was open and it was fairly quiet, but it was just very beautiful to see all these really old buildings.  I then climbed up to the castle which had first been built almost a thousand years ago and then expanded and modernized over the centuries.  It had a great vantage point high above the river and town.

The afternoon took me to Ludwigsburg which is famous for its baroque palaces and gardens.  Being the end of winter, nothing was blooming yet in the gardens, but the palaces were impressive to walk around.   The smaller, orange-y Favourite Palace was built only 500 meters away from the Residence Palace as a retreat and hunting lodge.  It seemed strange that they were so close together.