Stuttgart? More like Awesome-gart!

I arrived in Stuttgart bright and early.  Since it is the middle of June, the weather is perfect at 21° C.  Stuttgart is located in southwest Germany.  It is the sixth largest city in Germany. 

Stuttgart on a map!!

View of Stuttgart

I was still stuffed from yesterday's bread, so I decided to start off by sightseeing.  Stuttgart is well known to car enthusiasts for having the headquarters of both Mercedes-Benz and Porsche.  Both companies also have highly regarded museums here.  I, however, am not a car enthusiast so I am not going to those.  Instead I opted for the Stuttgart State Museum of Natural History.  It has over 11 million scientific artifacts, the bulk of which are fossils and insects.  The museum was spread out into two buildings separated by a 15 minute walk. http://www.naturkundemuseum-bw.de/

This part of the museum houses the really old stuff.

This part of the museum houses the newer stuff.

The museum cost € 6.00 for admittance.  I learned a lot about the evolution of life on this planet and about the urgency to protect the life that still exists here. 

I saw dead dinosaurs.

And I saw fake alive dinosaurs.

I knew way more answers than most of these kids.

After the museum I felt like going somewhere a little less touristy. I decided that I wanted to go to a local record store.  This wasn't hard to do because Stuttgart has a very lively music scene.  It quickly became obvious that there was always something going on.  Many successful artists have come from Stuttgart.  One hip-hop group called Freundeskreis is actually made up of several separately successful musicians from Stuttgart.

Freundeskreis Music Video

I found about a great record store that specialized in punk a few miles down the road from the museum.  It was called called Cheap Trash Records.  http://www.cheaptrashrecords.de/

Their logo

Their selection was great.  They had everything from the US plus some interesting European punk bands. 

 I hadn't eaten all day so I decided to search out some food.  As a vegetarian I had grown tired of being surrounded by meat everywhere I went so I asked a very nice local named Gügel where I might go.  Thankfully he knew a lot about Stuttgart and pointed me to a restaurant called Coox & Candy just across a bridge from the Natural History Museum. 
http://www.coox-candy.de/

Outside of Coox & Candy

Dining Room of Coox & Candy

Coox & Candy is an entirely vegan restaurant.  This meant that I was free to choose anything off of the menu.  I decided on the Veggie "Chicken"" Ragout.  It costed € 9.80.  The interior was very stylish in an urban modern sort of way.  The atmosphere was a little more laid back than usual and everyone was super polite.  I saw this as a good thing as I needed a break from rushing around everywhere.

Hilda was a doll!

  On my way out I noticed a nice selection of pastries for sale.  I was full from dinner but I couldn't resist taking a few for the road.

Shazam!

 It was early evening now but I still had a lot of energy left in me.  I decided to take a bus west to Baden-Baden where I could get a chance to explore a new city's nightlife.  Good thing I got my cupcakes. 

I arrived in Ulm this morning.  Ulm is a relatively small city in southwest Germany.  Ulm has a population of about 120,000.  Because of its size and the compactness of its downtown, I traveled around on foot. 

 











When I first arrived I was very hungry.  Luckily I stumbled upon a restaurant called Creperie Kornhäusle.  They made more types of crèpes than I even knew existed.             http://www.kornhaeusle.com/

 

With my stomach full of crèpes, I was ready to explore the city.  First on my list was the Ulm Münster.  This Lutheran Church towers over the city.  It is the tallest church in the world.  The steeple itself is 161.5 meters.  It was breathtaking.

 

 I am a history buff, so I really wanted to go see the birthplace of Albert Einstein.  I soon found out that there is only a marker where his house was. 

The original house was destroyed by bombs during World War II.

 http://www.einstein-website.de/z_biography/ulm-e.html

   

A stranger told me about a museum that caught my attention.  It was called the Museum of Bread Culture.  This museum had over 16,000 artifacts relating to the 6,000 year history of bread.  I never knew it could be so interesting.   http://www.museum-brotkultur.de/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=77&Itemid=59#museum

 

 

 Oddly enough, they didn't sell bread.  Too bad too, because I was gettin' hungry.  As luck would have it, I stumbled onto a restaurant called Brotbar.  I filled up on ryes and marbles.  I got my daily bread today. http://www.brotbar-ulm.de/bb_ulm.html

Hilda was a doll

I was getting pretty sleepy after all that bread. I made reservations at Hotel Ulmer Spatz.  It was alright.  The individual rooms were a little bland. http://www.hotel-ulmer-spatz.com/

 

 

I awoke bright and early and took a short bus ride to Stuttgart, about 90km northwest of Ulm, where I was ready to start another day of exploring.