Hotel Furstenhof Reutlingen

... The fair grounds are literally right off of the train station for Bad Canstatt. It would be hard to get lost. Being a rainy Friday, we were able to find a seat in a beer tent too. It did take us awhile to try to decipher the reservation postings and finally search through our burgeoning vocabulary for "ist hier frei?" Apparently for dinner you have to think a year in advance, which obviously wasn't us. But for a "weekday" lunch, we were in ...

... gleich ins TG-Stadion: er trainiert 100 m Hürdenlauf. Das Migy macht doch jedes Jahr am Europäischen Schulsportfest teil und da darf er evtl. mit nach Italien, irgendwann im Oktober.
Toivo liegt gerade auf dem Sofa und bereitet sich quasi auf seine Nachtschicht vor. Echt ätzend!
Mal wieder übers Wochenende.
Viele liebe Grüße,
auch von Toivo, Mati und Katja

Irmgard

... the first night but had to leave since it was the site of Stuttgarts Oktoberfest. We got a hotel room outside of town and decided to enjoy a lil more Oktoberfestivities! This time we didn't join a beer tent but decided to eat our way around. We got Sausuage in a currysauce, Beavertail Pizza, Corn on the Cob and Smoked Salmon sandwiches. It was fun since everything had a twist to it ...

... a path through the side that opened up into a whole slew of gardens and a pumpkin festival, several hours worth of enjoyable walking.

The pumpkins were made into fairy tale scenes - Guilliver, Hansel and Gretel, that sort of thing, life size, made of pumpkins. If we were smaller, we could have jumped in the hay and looked for the needle. We stopped at walking up the tower, but did go up to the hilltop to get a look. And took the ...

... walked through the door.

Today, we felt the need to really figure out the trains and take "scenic" routes. The Stuttgart airport is just 20 min away by train, good to know. Plus, I felt empowered because I ordered in German and got what I wanted at a bakery without holding up the line, success! More on our eating adventures later . . . Well a quick note on how Jon is a cheater. He hasn't had to order much. Part of that's not ...

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.

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 ...

... its always amazing to me how much people can communicate with each other without speaking the same language. There was also live music and a funny shadow puppet show. The next day we had another bit of good timing...we met these two german guys, aiden and ollie, who had mopeds - aka a free ride to the beach :) Two people asking us for directions, turned into a really fun day at the beach with two new friends...this is what i love about traveling! The next morning ...

... Mal aus dem Fenster sah und immer noch den gleichen Bahnsteig vor mir hatte, dachte ich mir schon, dass irgendetwas nicht stimmt.

Tatsächlich hatte ein Blitzschlag den gesamten Bereich des Wiener Westbahnhofs lahmgelegt. Und so kam alles ein bisschen durcheinander.

Irgendwann ging es dann weiter und wir kamen mit ca. 3 Stunden Verspätung nach München...

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.

... while dodging bloody trams. Eventually we left Stuttgart far behind and arrived in Reutlingen to the welcoming home of Snags' relatives (whom none of us had ever met). Given that they had no idea we were coming until a couple of hours before we turned up on their doorstep, we were more than a little grateful to receive dinner, showers, and even comfy beds inside their house - a reprieve from the bloody van! Next day we were greeted with a breakfast of juice ...