Stuttgart, Germany

We recently attended out very first wine festival. We drove the 2.5 hrs to Stuttgart for the Weindorf. We had a blast & would highly recommend this festival and this town.

We stayed at the Hotel Pension Am Heusteig. This was the least expensive hotel that we've stayed in since coming to Europe and it's one of our favorites. We were so surprised at the really reasonable nightly rate here. The location is central in the town and near everything. We were able to park our car on Friday afternoon in a parking garage one block from the hotel and walk everywhere the entire weekend. Breakfast and WiFi were free. The only negative was the fact that we were on the 4th floor with no elevator. Oh well, it was good exercise right?

We went sight-seeing our first day. They have a shopping district that leads to the center of the city where the main historic building are.

Inside the Old Castle

The New Castle

Where Parliament is now held

One of the old gorgeous churches/clock towers

The Theatre and lake

Skyline

We went to the wine fest both afternoons/nights that we were there. There were a ton of booths/tents set up offering local Swabbian cuisine and drinks. They didn't offer many reds, but we found a few that we liked. We were able to try the wines before buying them which was great, but it also made it easier to get tipsy! The local food was delicious! We ate and drank way too much, but had a great time and didn't care!

I fell in love with this drink! It's 1/2 the local grape juice, 1/2 sparkling water. Delicious and refreshing!

Local cuisine

The cheese noodles (top left) were delicious!

These little guys are called Mini Berliners- basically a doughnut hole with jam inside. So good!

We had a fantastic weekend, but it wouldn't be a trip with K&J if there wasn't an adventure involved. After we checked out of our hotel on Sunday, we walked the block back to the parking garage where we had parked Friday afternoon....only to be greeted by locked gates and a closed parking garage!!! Apparently the garage is only open M-F and is closed on the weekends. We never would have thought a parking garage would be closed on the weekend! There was a sign posted stating that they were closed on the weekends (in German of course), but we couldn't see it from where we pulled in. Argh!

A variety of solutions ran through our heads: staying another night and leaving in the morning, getting a ride back with a friend, etc., but in the end, J suggested that we talk to the bartender at the restaurant that was connected to the garage to see if he had any suggestions. When J explained what had happened the bartender told him that it happens all the time (probably to Americans =), and he actually had a key to the garage! I can't tell you how grateful we were at that moment! We were able to get our car out and be on our merry way back home.

The best part of the story? Since they are closed on the weekends, we were only charged for Friday afternoon/evening, making it the cheapest parking spot in town! We will definitely be parking there again! hahaha!