Stuttgart (map) has the reputation of being one of the few cities totally flattened by Allied bombing during the Second World War, because of it’s industrial strength. As a consequence, the buildings here are all less than fifty years old. Still, there are some great touristy things to see here.
Getting There
Stuttgart is easily accessible by rail, and by autobahn. We drove from Frankfurt to Stuttgart at about 130 – 160 km/h. It took a few hours and the countryside is just amazing. Little church spires pop up throughout the drive as the autobahn by-passes hamlets and villages. Once in Stuttgart, we
got a little lost, so we just found a police station and had a little chat to the local coppers to get our bearings.
Stuttgart is also well served by rail link and it has a decent airport with connections to most German cities.
Where to Stay
Our accommodation was the Rega Hotel at Luidwigstrasse 18-20. We found these rooms to be excellent, with the hotel being a short walk from the city centre.
Eating Out
We didn’t eat at any restaurants, instead opting for the DM4 Kebab special on the run. There are heaps of fast food places around, so take your pick. We found a few pubs that offered great beer. Kaiser beer was our favourite and we ended up buying quite a few cans of it for our road trip to
Munich.
Museums
We really only wanted to see one of the car museums – Mercedes or Porsche. Mercedes won out, so we made it our first stop on our way to Munich for the Oktoberfest. This museum was great, with a wide range of cars spanning 100 years of manufacturing.
My favourite exhibits were the famous Silver Arrows; the old limousines belonging to Emperor Hirohito and the Kaiser; the McLaren and Penske racing cars.
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Also, Mercedes have exhibits of marine engines, fire engines, and aero engines. A most impressive display of 20th century technology and innovation in the automotive sense. It’s free entry, so do yourself a favour and stop by – you will be as impressed as our group and most people we encountered at the museum.
Summary
Stuttgart is now once again an industrial strongpoint of Germany. The city has been reborn with new architecture, commercial centres and parks, but it still bears the memories of recent history. All the public transport is well
organised and I can only attribute this to the fact that the designers had a clean slate to start from.
Stuttgart is full of pretty girls, artists and a few hard-core punk rockers, but my impression of the city is of a clean, organised, but very ordinary place.