Out and About in Baden-Wurttenburg

Germany is divided into regions and Baden-Wurttenburg in the region that includes Stuttart and the surrounding towns. Our field trip today included learning how to use the bus/train system as well as seeing a few local sites. Above is the Alteschloss, the castle in the middle of Stuttgart. This is right in the city center and is only one of about 5 different castle buildings that comprise the palace... a couple of which have been converted into an Opera house and an indoor market. We didn't go inside today, but will try to get out there this weekend with the boys. Then to lunch and a tour of Tubingen, a village in the suburbs.



It almost seems like Disneyland... so quaint and "European" it seems contrived. It's hard to wrap my head around these house being the real deal... structures that have been around longer than the US has been in existence.


This former monastery was turned into a hunting lodge by Carl Wilhelm in the picturesque town of Tubingen, nearby where we'll be living. We toured this home filled with (still original I think) heads of game killed on various hunts, enclosed fireplaces that heated the room, seen below
... and enjoyed such modernities as electricity in the late 1800s and bathrooms with running water. Even the door jambs were older than 200 years... and they actually allow people to still open and close them; most of the rooms were roped off for "just looking" but many of the pieces were also out in the hall and still available to be touched if someone didn't listen to the signs. They're not as anal about their antiques as the Americans are (as we put everything behind glass); maybe because they have so many of them??

After the tour of the hunting lodge we headed to the Ritter Sport Schocoladen (chocolate) factory, which also, unfortunately or fortunately, is in the town we'll be living in. Free chocolate as we left was a sweet bonus.