Moevenpick Hotel Stuttgart

... Sonntag haben wir 2 Bäume Zwetschgen geschüttelt und die Dinger - Gott sei Dank zu sechst - 2 1/2 Stunden aufgelesen. Siglinde hat ein Großteil davon zum Schnaps machen abgenommen, den Rest hab ich verteilt und eingefroren.
Gestern war ich auf Betriebsausflug in Ravensburg (Stadtbesichtigung), in Weingarten (Basilika gucken) und in Bad Buchau (Führung vom NABU am Federsee). War ...

... als den Faden zu verlieren während der Vorstellung kann ich auch nicht. So übermannte mich das immergleiche Gefühl der Neugier und Spannung, als ich das Klassenzimmer betrat. Alles lief nach Plan ... bis ich die ersten Töne zu Mainecoon erklingen ließ. Zunächst waren natürlich alle Schüler darauf gespannt, wie sich dieser Song anhört. So weit, so gut. Nachdem die erste Strophe vorbei war, begannen die Schüler lauthals zu klatschen ...

It was a quick drive from Nuremberg to Stuttgart so we decided to spend a few nights there. Stuttgart is famous for being the home of Porsche and Mercedes Benz. We decided to visit the Mercedes Benz museum and although Im not a big car person it was very fun seeing the evolution of the car. It was kinda frightening to learn how much involvemnet they had in World War II making planes ...

... fault because I'd ask for one and hold up my index finger. Inevitably, we'd get two. But the later is, he held on to one phrase in particular from the head start class, "ich aus," me too - cheater!

We wanted to get a view of the city and had heard of the state tomb up on a hill. The helpful guide listed the train and bus routes to take, but not the stop. To make a long story short, we're on this bus ride through the countryside ...

... of the Mercedesturm to get a nice view of the city, for free!

On our drive back we spotted a castle ruin high above the autobahn and tried to find it. We climbed up a steep and winding hill through wine fields to the castle gates, which were locked. A sign posted on the gates stated that the castle is private property and trespassers will be fined. Unfortunately this is the only thing I took pictures of from our entire trip.

We are having a party tonight to say good bye to our German hosts. We meet at the train station tomorrow morning to take a short ride to Stuttgart and board the high speed train to Paris. Students spent the weekend doing individual activities with their host families and I am sure they many stories to tell.

Unfortunately my father has taken a turn for the worse and the ...

... a long walk through the huge city garden. It could maybe be somewhat compared to Central Park in NY in terms of size, at least in length, and in the sense that it's dotted with little islands of things to see and do. Cafes, the Carl-Zeiss planetarium, bars, outdoor chess, ping pong tables, a fantastic, brand-new playground (great for Colin, of course) made of full-length ...

... you know how we always try to predict the lifestyle in the future and what kind of houses there'll be and the kind of transportation, well the Germans did the same thing back in 1927. It all started out as a project to create a model of houses that people in the future would come upon. Architects came together and they brainstormed a great design! I'm telling you, this house looks even more modern then the most modern house on the block today. But then again, the ...

... through the centre of Stuttgart to see the sights. We saw the Old Castle, next to the New Castle (its only a few hundred years old...) as well as more Christmas markets. Every stall had nativity scenes or something done on its roof, very scenic! Today, cousin Michael took us to the Mercedes Benz museum. We got to see the very first gasoline powered car, as well as many other interesting things. We spent hours ...

... us off and with our wonderful luck, we ended up taking the train the wrong way. AHHHHH!!!!!! Just how much bad luck can we have?!?!?!?!?!????? When the train started to crawl forward, we noticed right away that the train was going in the wrong direction! I jumped and ran to the the train conductor and asked if we could get off as we were on the wrong train, he shook his head no and would not stop. So with no other options we went for a ride and about ...