Stuttgart with a Teenager

If you’ve read my last post, you’ll know that we had a very soggy day in Paris, followed by some nice bread and a train to Stuttgart. Well, first there was a bit of hanging around Gare de L’Est as our train was delayed by 20 minutes. We killed some time by looking around Pylones, which I’m sure used to be Octopus in the UK, and Hema. The latter was probably a tactical error because they had a whole display of sage green stationery, which is Eva’s favourite colour at the moment. I was lucky to get away from there with my bank balance intact.

I was worried about the four-hour train journey from Paris to Stuttgart but it went by quite quickly. We sat around a table again and played a couple of rounds of Exploding Kittens while we watched the scenery roll by.

As France turned into Germany, the skies grew greyer and I started to wonder if the rain was following us from Paris.

Spoiler: it was.

We got to Stuttgart with a sense of deja vu – or whatever the equivalent is in German. It was only drizzling for now but it didn’t look like it was going to improve any time soon. Still, at least we were prepared this time.

There was also a certain amount of chaos around the Hauptbahnhof as it was in the middle of a massive building site. So we tried following the U-Bahn signs through a very long tunnel and ended up in a biergarten by the planetarium, which seemed to be unrelated to the U-Bahn station at the Hbf that we were aiming for. We would eventually find it but not just yet. These signs did nothing to convince us that we were on the right track:

“You want an U-Bahn station? I got a totally legit one, right here….”

We eventually found the Staatsgalerie station and had yet more fumbling around on foreign ticket machines, trying to work out what zones we needed a ticket for. Stuttgart is a lot more affordable than Paris and we got a Gruppeticket for around 16 Euro for the day. We only needed Zone 1 but it took a little while to work that out because the map with the zones on it doesn’t also have all the stations on it. Eventually though, we had a tiny and loseable bit of card that allowed us to get the U-Bahn to Schloss-/Johannesstraße and from there it was just a few minutes’ walk to our hotel, Hotel Hansa.

As with every new country we went to, there were challenges in crossing the road and now the train tracks but we reminded the kids to look all ways at all times and only cross on a green man. I’ve always had it in my head that jaywalking is illegal in Germany and I’ve no idea whether that’s actually true or not but I wasn’t taking any risks.

We managed to check into our hotel without slipping into English too much – the only word I didn’t get was “make-up” but don’t ask why that came up in conversation. We dumped our bags and then went in search of whatever meal we were on now. It had been a while since breakfast but I don’t think we had lunch so it was linner I suppose?

It was, of course, still raining.

We walked from the hotel as it wasn’t far from the centre but it was far enough that my shoes – which hadn’t really dried out from Paris – were soaked again.

Along the way, we stumbled upon my friend’s favourite record shop and also the CVJM, which caused Eva to burst out into song. I don’t need to tell you which song but you can guess.

I knew there was a Fünf Männer in Stuttgart but I think we all needed to eat somewhere different for once. So after some soggy wandering around, we found a different American chain restaurant to eat at – Pizza Hut.

Don’t judge me. There will be actual German food along before you know it.

Once again, it was a relief to be somewhere warm and dry and thanks to the international menu, everyone managed to order their own meal in mostly-German. The Kellnerinen seemed a bit frantic as the restaurant filled up as there were only a few of them but we weren’t in any hurry. There was some confusion at the end because I couldn’t remember the word for “tip” and was trying to work out whether the Rechnung was mit oder ohne service, which I swore was “Bedienung” but that didn’t seem to be ringing any bells. Eventually I just used “tip” and apparently it was ohne, so I’m glad I checked. If anyone can enlighten me on whether German bills include it or not, I’ll know for next time. As it was, we just left a trail of Euro notes behind us wherever we went.

My soggy feet were hurting so once we’d finished we went to the nearest U-Bahn station, which was Stadtmitte. Here was another one of those liminal places Eva likes so much:

The next morning my intention was to get hotel breakfast with Reuben and then maybe go for a walk while Nathan and Eva slowly woke up to have theirs. But when I went to the kids’ room, Eva was bright and awake so the three of us went to breakfast together while Nathan snoozed.

It involved more tricky German at the front desk but we managed fine and were able to feast on bread, fruit and (for the carnivores) three types of sausage. I wasn’t quite German enough to go for the pickled onions at breakfast time but I did consider it.

And then Roo and I went for a walk to see a bit more of the neighbourhood and enjoy the first sunshine we’d seen since leaving London. We walked to Johanneskirche, which was set by a beautiful lake, and then dipped through the closed S-Bahn station towards the edge of the Karlshöhe, which was a massive and very hilly park. There were a lot of closed S-Bahn stations – possibly because of the works going on around the station – but bear that in mind if you ever visit. Luckily, the U-Bahn and the buses go pretty much anywhere you need to go. Also, there are lines on the pavement showing you the way to the rail replacement bus if you do need the S-Bahn route. Walthamstow could do with those the next time the Chingford branch is closed.

Karlshöhe was pretty, even if we didn’t stray too far into it. We found a couple of playgrounds and this owl, which looked suspiciously like Duo was keeping an eye on us. I know he likes to make sure I practise German every day but I *swear* I was. I was in Germany, Duo. Please don’t hurt my family!

Talking of my family, it was probably time to get back to the rest of them especially as Nathan hadn’t had any breakfast. We picked up some snacks at a kiosk and got ready to check out of the hotel.

Our next train wasn’t until late afternoon, so we had the whole day to explore Stuttgart. We could have left the luggage at the hotel but there didn’t seem to be loads of space so instead I booked a drop off at a dry cleaners’ near the station through Nannybag. That bit went absolutely fine and the staff were very friendly. We had a few issues getting there on the U-Bahn as we were standing in someone’s way with our suitcases and he told us off for being stupid tourists. I forget it’s Monday morning and some people were probably on their way to work but there wasn’t really anywhere else to stand with all the luggage. Ah well, good luck if you’re ever on the Victoria line in rush hour, angry man.

We also missed the Hbf stop again as we were on the wrong line and ended up once more in Staatsgalerie which was quite a walk to the dry cleaners. Once we got there, we realised that the Hbf station was exactly where we needed to be. Excitingly, we had been on the U2 Bahn, which looked like it stopped at the Hbf on the map but didn’t seem to IRL. I had inadvertently made the train wait for me while I was on the other platform buying the ticket for the day so in the frenzy of crossing the tracks and two roads (at the green man) I didn’t really check where it went. I wasn’t expecting the driver to wait for me to do all that but as the rest of the family had been on the right platform with their suitcases, he obviously worked out that we were together. Ah, I’m starting to remember why the angry man might have been angry at us. It’s starting to make sense now.

Anyway, we made it to the Stadtzentrum, dropped our bags off and were ready to explore. Of course, that was the point at which I realised I couldn’t find the ticket anywhere. Yes, that same ticket I’d just delayed a whole train of people for. That’s awkward. Eventually we just gave up and I bought another one, taking in another closed S-Bahn station on the way. Another liminal space and this one might make for a good album cover for Eva some day.

We were finally ready to explore and this is probably the bit where I’ll lose you all because the bit of Stuttgart I wanted to explore was very specific to me. My grandmother lived in Stuttgart before she had to leave Germany and I was super keen to see the house she lived in. I won’t tell you where exactly the house was but it was up on the hillside overlooking the city and we had to get a bus to get up there. Once again, we tripped up on some small matter of public transport etiquette (pressing a button to open the doors maybe?) but we got to where we needed to and enjoyed some spectacular views on the way.

Once we got off the bus, we got momentarily distracted by a very fluffy and friendly white dog who demanded cuddles (“Ist sie freundlich?” I asked the owner, who gave the kind of resigned smile that suggested that yes, this dog was friendly to absolutely everyone). Then we walked down the hill a bit and, happily, found the official Aussichtspunkt. It was pretty impressive:

We also saw red squirrels and tiny lizards in the gardens around there, which was very exciting:

Then we walked back to the bus stop and stopped for refreshments at Katz der Bäcker. Nathan had a coffee and the rest of us had cold drinks because yes, it was still sunny at this point. Reuben had a pretzel, Eva had a slice of Käsekuchen and Nathan and I had pastries which were called something like Himbeer-Streusel-Plunder. They were all super good.

After that we still had a few hours left before our train so I pressed on to see if we could do just a little more family history stuff. I had a great-great-great-grandfather buried in one of the city cemeteries and I fancied going to find him and say hello. It may not have been a popular choice with the kids but I promised them Fünf Männer and the Lego Store afterwards so they agreed to get back on the U-Bahn to Pragfriedhof.

Long story short, we did not find him as the Jewish bit of the cemetery was locked and there was no obvious way in. But there are worse places to spend a sunny afternoon than a shady, grassy, calm place and I appreciated the kids’ willingness to wander round it with me. Plus we found a little playground to hang out in. It was a little incongruous – the shiny new park next to the ancient graveyard but yknow, it’s a symbol of how life goes on.

As promised, I let them get burgers and browse Lego after all that solemnity. I slightly miscalculated how long Königstraße was – having finally located the Hbf station, we emerged and started walking down the street confidently before realising we didn’t recognise any of it. I’d sworn Fünf Männer was right next to Primark and McDonalds but turns out there might be more than one of those in Königstraße. It was about a mile’s walk in the end and I only really twigged when we walked through this giant Schlossplatz halfway down:

Anyway, we had our first German french fries – and this time we were allowed refillable drinks again – and then browsed the Lego for a while before popping to Hema for snacks and only a small amount of stationery. As previously mentioned, I felt lucky to get away without buying Eva the whole shop. Also, weren’t we here in the last post?

We got the U-Bahn back from Stadtmitte to Hbf, for once ending up where we intended. The luggage pick up from the dry cleaners was all smooth and then it was just a small matter of finding where the actual station was, in among the building works.

We joined a mass of people trudging through the tunnel, which had signs, optimistically saying that it was “Zwei Minuten!” to the trains. Underneath, people had added their own annotations, such as “Fünf mit Gepäcke” and other, less polite remarks. About halfway down there was a Jehovah’s Witnesses stand, as if they were counting on people giving up the will to live and looking for any kind of salvation by that point. They were probably doing a roaring trade.

Eventually, we did emerge but there was nowhere to sit in the reduced capacity station and it was unclear where our train might go from because the screens only had space for a few departures on it and ours wasn’t on there. I checked all the screens on the individual platforms and couldn’t see it on any of them either. There was a train that would take us straight to Friedrichshafen – we were booked to change at Ulm – but I spoke to an official who told us in no uncertain terms that we couldn’t take that one. Though she also told me that ours would be going from Platform 15. We found Platform 15 and, sure enough, our train was listed on that screen. I’m not sure how I missed it on my first sweep through. It was also running ten minutes late, which was going to make our 13-minute change in Ulm very tight indeed. We found a little shelter to sit in, a long way down the platform and waited tensely for the minutes to tick by while watching the direct train pull away. Reuben almost tried to get on that one,thanks to a small misunderstanding, but luckily he didn’t.

This was a train we didn’t have booked seats on and it was a bit confusing to work out which tables were reserved for “gold-klasse” passengers and which seats were free to sit in. We ended up sitting half a carriage away from each other, which was fine except that we had a group ticket. I sent Nathan the pdf through WhatsApp and he was able to explain to the ticket inspector that he had a Frau “over there” before she visited us and I was able to explain in a bit more detail. She understood and accepted our tickets so it was all good. Unlike another passenger who we overheard being told he had 40 days to pay his fine.

It was around 45 minutes to Ulm and I spent most of it watching the departures to see whether our connection was also running late. It seemed that we would be coming into Ulm at the same platform as we’d be leaving from – Platform 2 – so surely that meant we were ahead of the connection? I was almost certain that the connection was also coming from Stuttgart, just following us a little way behind.

At some point around then, one of the water bottles in the bag I was carrying started to drip on my foot. I was wearing flip flops, not my soggy trainers, but once again my feet were wet.

At Ulm we leapt off the train and quickly realised that Platform 2 had different sectors and that our next train was already there. I can’t find anything on the internet that supports the idea that Platform 2 at Ulm had two sides to it but I swear it did. We were in Ulm for around a minute before jumping, wet-footed onto the Friedrichshafen train and sitting down with a massive sigh of relief.

And so onwards to the next bit of our holiday. But that is definitely another post….