A Few Days In Stuttgart Germany

I know I've been a bit absent recently...

However I have good reason - I've been in Germany for the past two weeks. I'm not sure why but the older I get the more I fall in love with travelling and exploring the world. So when I had the opportunity to head off to Germany I couldn't pass it up. Germany is definitely a country that has always been on my bucket list mainly because of the architecture, food and landscape. 

For the first few days whilst I was in Germany I was staying in Stuttgart city centre. Stuttgart is the capital and largest city in the South West Baden-Wutternberg region of Germany. When I arrived in mid July the temperature was an enjoyable 25 degrees - slowly increasing up to 30 during my last few days.   

My first evening I spent wandering the streets of Stuggart and getting used to their u-bahn system (like our London underground). I was pleasently suprised that my all day travel card in Stuttgart was a mere six euros! A bargain when you compare it to London's thirteen pounds!

Whilst exploring one of the first things I found was Stuttgart's state park or as it's known in German "oberer schlossgarten". The park was pretty sizable with a beautiful lake and plenty of trees to relax under to get away from the summer sun. Walking through the park I had a magnificent view of the Die Staatstheater (the city's opera house) and the Neues Schloss (new castle).

After strolling around the park for a while I sauntered through the streets to look for some shops. There was a single street full of the best designer and high street stores just by the u-bahn station Schlossplatz which ran between the city centre's station and the curve of the main road. One thing I couldn't get over (but was excited about!) was how many bakeries there were! Probably about every fifth shop along the main street was a bakery full of cakes, pastries and ice cream.

After doing some window shopping I decided to hop back on the u-bahn and take a look at the very picturesque Johanneskirche church which, you wouldn't believe it from the photos, is actually in the city centre too. The church is surrounded by a glorious moat full of wildlife. I spotted several ducks, swans, fish and even a tortoise on my visit. The moat's bank is lined with plenty of benches for relaxing by the water's edge and admiring the beautiful views.

My second evening in Stuttgart I wanted to get a view of the whole entire city and caputure it's beauty with my camera. So I headed to Stuttgart rack railway - a tram that would take me up the steep hills to the very south of the city. I took the rack railway from Marienplatz and went all the way to the very end of the line shooting a few clips as I went. Whilst riding to the top I saw a station called Wielandshohe which seemed to provide the perfect location for some landscape photos. So on the way back down I got off and put my camera to work. 

After heading back down the hill I checked out a cultural festival that was happening in the city centre - there was wonderful live music, various different cuisine stalls and travelling traders selling wares from all over the world. I listened to a live Mexican band for a little while and then grabbed some delicious Columbian food on my way out. A short but sweet visit to satisfy my culture craving. 

When my few days in the city centre were up I waved goodbye to it's hustle and bustle and went to the Stuttgart suburb Esslingen. Whilst I didn't capture too many snaps of this beautiful traditional German town I enjoyed my stay here so very much. There were many cafes and resturants to choose from in the evening including a quaint Italian returant in the town square and a genuine biregarten which served classic German and Swabian dishes.

I hope you enjoyed my brief stay in Stuttgart and hearing about what I got up to in my few spare evenings I had there. However if you're spending longer in Stuttgart than I did, I definitely recommend you check out these other 25 things you can do there**.  If you want to see more of my travel posts you can see my Easter weekend in Devon right here on my blog.