Dorint Mercure City Center Stuttgart

... while ambling back from the Volksfest. There's a building just outside the gate that we've been wondering about. We'd asked and heard something about little animals and events. Even walked by, looked like there were a lot of people inside. I saw a box for a menu, but it was empty. And when someone outside tried talking with us in German, we understood very little, nice guy though. Fast forward a few weeks of curiosity and we're thinking they ...

... und die Geduld, um mir Teilzeittourist ihre Heimatstadt zu zeigen. Total überwältig war ich allerdings am Wartberg, als wir die abendliche Aussicht über Heilbronn genießen konnten. Nach der hochinteressanten abendlichen Stadtrundfahrt gab es für mich einen Gaumenschmaus mit traditionellen schwäbsichen Spezialitäten. Und eines habe ich an diesem Abend hinzugelernt: Spätzle schmecken nirgendwo besser als im Schwoobeländle, heiligs Blechle.

We attended a big birthday party this weekend in Stuttgart. It was my boyfriend's grandfather's (Opa, as I now know him) 80th birthday. We celebrated with the entire family in a nice little restaurant in a small town near Stuttgart. I have no idea the name of either of those places.<br><br>We had some free time to explore Stuttgart on Saturday morning so we went to the Wilhelma Zoological and Botanical Gardens. It is a massive ...

... and humid, they were scooping up sand with their agile trunks and throwing it onto their backs to cool down, and they were quite successful, almost their entire backs were covered. We felt a bit sorry for the polar bears pacing around in the heat, but they did give us great photo ops. Unfortunately the brown bears, speckled bears, the wolf and the big cats were sleeping. There was a good selection of reptiles including a number ...

Caught a night train from Vienna and arrived in Stuttgardt in the morning. Had a great day wandering and seeing the sights. Yet another map from yet another tourist info place. More statues and old buildings (Boring right? Not by a long shot). Still walking around wide-eyed like kids at Disneyland.

... lots of a drug, you don't want to waste half of your starting material in useless side products). All in all, it has been a very valuable and eye-opening experience to see how research works. It has also been kind of frustrating. I enjoyed mom's email to me a few days ago that had this quote from Ben Franklin: "I haven't failed...I've just found 10,000 things that don't work." Seems to fit pretty well. In discussing this with Matthias and Michael I have learned that the research ...

... in the heart of Stuttgart, near my hostel. I've decided to order Maultauschen which is pockets made of noodle dough which contain a filling made of bratwurst, hamburger meat, spinach, eggs, onions, parsley and spices, they are cooked "in the broth" or cut small and baked with eggs, served with potato salad. Mmmm!! Lecker!!! It's about 5 right now and it looks like it's about to snow or rain, I don't even know what to expect. The weather here is just as crazy as it is in ...

... the first snowball was thrown. I don't know why Heidi looked so surprised, its not like it was out of character or anything... We went for a good walk and saw some deer. After the walk we went to have lunch. It is a rare thing, but the meal was so big I couldn't finish it. It was very nice too, I had venison, ticking another box in my carnivoristic attempt to eat a bit of every animal on earth. Oh, and then we went to a hotel for ...

... zing. Those Aussies think they h*ve it *ll figured out with Veggiemite, which is now illeg*l in the USA (seriously...look into it), but they h*ve no ide*. As for trying to find r*nch *nywhere in Europe, good luck. M*ny rest*ur*nts you go to will tell you they h*ve r*nch *nd will even put it on the menu just bec*use they know its popul*rity, but when it comes down to it, it´s nowhere close *nd more resembles * w*tered-down *nd bl*nd m*yonn*ise. Not good. Origin*lly I h*d only pl ...