NOTE: Picture uploader was not working when I made this blog. You can see all the pictures on Facebook. Sorry!!
Way back when, as some of you may know, I went to a camp in Michigan called Miniwanca. I met a lot of lifetime friends which I still talk to. My class had a group of counselors throughout our four years there. One of them, Rachel, I have kept up with a little on Facebook. She is currently living in Stuttgart with her family. We hadn't talked in awhile, but through Facebook, she found out that I was going to Germany. Rachel, her husband Mike, and their daughter Eliza, were generous enough to offer a stay at their house and take me around Stuttgart for the weekend.
When I arrived on Saturday, we had a delicious breakfast and then went to the Schloss Ludwigsburg Castle. It was built in 1704, and took 29 years to build. It was home to King Fredrick, who was made king from Napoleon. Here is a link to the website so you can actually see what the castle looks like from a birds eye view. http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=de&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.schloss-ludwigsburg.de%2F
I took a ton of pictures, but the views aren't that great since we weren't allowed to use flash and it was a rainy dark day. The castle is a lot of baroque architecture, there was seperate wings for the king and queen. They each had their own rooms and even stairwells so they never had to see each other.We have been to a bunch of different castles here but this is the first one that we have really gotten to go in. It is one of the best in Germany because so much of it is the original paintings and furniture. It was a 90 minute tour, and worth every minute. I got my history, my castle, and art in all on one trip! It was great!
After the castle, we went to a cute little cafe and I had some hot cocoa and cake. Delicious! We went to the shopping area of Stuttgart where I got some new jeans, a size smaller I might add, and adorable rain boots!! We walked by the Schlossplatz, where on a nice day is covered with people.Stuttgart also has the Mercedes headquarters, which we passed by on the train, but did not go in. There is also a Porsche museum. I just got postcards!
On Sunday we went to the Stuttgart festival, called Cannstatter Voksfest. Mike informed me that Stuttgart's festival is called the Vassan, and Oktoberfest is the Wiessen, pronoucned Vissen. The names are from the location of the grounds each festival takes place on. Stuttgart's fest is the 2nd larges in Germany, next to Oktoberfest of course. We went up the big Ferris Wheel and saw views of the city. Luckily we were up in between the clouds.
I am so grateful to have friends over here to take me in and show me sights of Germany. Stuttgart was pretty awesome, and I'm glad I got to see it :)
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