Stuttgart!

The guild for a drugstore

The German school year follows the  pattern of 6-7 weeks of school, then a break of 1-2 weeks.  Summer vacation is about 6 weeks.  The first such break was the Herbstferien, or Fall Break.  We headed 2 1/2 hours west to the Stuttgart area.  Fun Trivia - Stuttgart, geographically speaking, is basically a bowl with over 500 of its streets ending in stairs!  On the way, we stopped in Dinkelsbuehl, yet another beautiful, seemingly medieval city.

Note the dipped stone steps from centuries of feet!          And here we are near what remains of the old moat.

  

 The traditional exposed timber homes are called Fachwerkhaeuser. Here's a peek at what's behind the plaster.  Apparently, all sorts of things were thrown in between the woven wood to insulate and as common in many cities, as the floors went higher, they extended outwards.  Taking up less real estate, the owners paid less in taxes. 

 No need for street signs in Dinkelsbuehl.  The street names are just painted right on the corner house.











Know why this little guy is smiling?  Because we told him we're finally going to leave this town with the "broken stuff" and go find dinosaur fossils! 

This wasn't our first attempt at excavating dinosaur fossils.  Andrew and the kids searched at a quarry for over an hour near Berching and  let's just say they nearly found one.  It was like camel spotting with Eric Idle!  So spirits were a little low. Extra thanks therefore to the Urweltsteinbruchfischer in Holzmaden, all 3 kids found more fossils than they (read - we) could carry.  This area used to be a prehistoric sea and although the museum boasted enormous, bus sized fossils, we were satisfied with our specimens! 

 BYO Chisel and Hammer!

 Off to Ludwigsburg Palace, one of Germany's largest Baroque palaces.  Although it was stunning to see all the fancy ceiling detail and golden everything, the contrast between the crazy lifestyle excesses of the Duke's family and the peasant class of the time could not be overlooked.

 The Kinderreich program offered the kids the chance to don clothes from the 1700's and learn dances and formal dining etiquette.  We could hardly hold the girls back, Declan on the other hand needed a little prodding....

 

Meanwhile, the extensive grounds at Ludwigsburg were celebrating a Pumpkin Fest featuring all things Swiss. 

 

 

The next day, we hit the ultra sleek Mercedes - Benz Museum.  It was a tough decision (serious turmoil for Andrew) because the Porsche museum is also in Stuttgart.  We saw Karl Benz's creation of the first gas-powered car, the Benz Motorwagen, patented in January 1886.

The first Mercedes-Benz brand name vehicles were produced in 1926, following the merger of Karl Benz's and Gottlieb Daimler's companies into the Daimler-Benz company.



Two interesting nuggets:  The name Mercedes came from the daughter of an Austrian businessman, Emil Jellinek, who was an important customer and later dealer of Mercedes-Benz vehicles.  Also, MB has recently acknowledged the use of forced laborers supplied by Nazi camps during WWII.

 

 The museum offered a great mixture of political/social history as well as a glimpse of the complex technology central to building the Mercedes Benz conglomerate.  Our children, of course, were content to focus on their own buildings....

Then...  (are you thinking this is the longest trip EVER?  :) Then we visited an indoor swimming park with cool ice towers.

 

 Outdoor thermal pools!

Yes - I am airborne! 

The last stop was the Ritter Sport Factory and Museum in Waldenbuch.  We enrolled the girls in the Schokowerkstatt program (Declan wasn't old enough) which included a factory tour, museum visit and then they got to create their own chocolate bars and design their own packaging.  They loved it!  If only there were an adult program...

 

Anybody need a meter of chocolate?

Meanwhile Andrew, Declan and I hit the store. As with most trips, great to go, but we were all happy to head home when the 4 day trip was over.