Overnight To Istanbul

When we got back to Stuttgart after the Sindelfingen Plant tour yesterday, we did some shopping on Königstrasse, Stuttgart’s main shopping street, but by 2:30 we were bored.  We headed to the airport, thinking we could hang out and use their Wi-Fi until our flight at 10:25 pm, but the Wi-Fi at the airport was broken!  Once again, I’m not a fan of airports or flying…

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The Mercedes Factory Tour

Apart from going to the museums, one of the things we really wanted to do while in Stuttgart was tour the Mercedes-Benz Sindelfingen Plant, where the S-Class, E-Class, C-Class, CL-Class, CLS-Class, and Maybach vehicles are made.  We had read that all you have to do is phone well in advance to make a reservation, but all of the numbers we tried went to automated messaging services that were in German!  Finally, on our first day in Stuttgart, Paul managed to find a phone number (+4970319070403) for the Mercedes-Benz European Delivery Center, which is at the Plant, and they were able to schedule us in for the English tour today, before our flight to Istanbul this evening.  We are so glad we had a late flight and could fit this tour in…

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The Mercedes Museum

As you may know (either from knowing us personally or from reading the about section), this trip became reality partially because I was working in the car industry as a finance manager and got laid off. This career path began at Mercedes-Benz Canada, and although I’ve long since left the company, I remain loyal to the brand and still believe they make some of the best cars in the world. Today at the Mercedes-Benz Museum, I was reminded of all the reasons I believe that, and even felt a bit of remorse about leaving the company, but everything happens for a reason and if I hadn’t quit, I don’t think I’d be here visiting the museum now!

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The Porsche Museum

Part of the reason we are flying to Istanbul via Stuttgart (other than the fact that it saves us money) is because Paul actually wanted to go to Stuttgart because it’s where the automobile was invented and Mercedes-Benz, Maybach, and Porsche are all still produced in Stuttgart or nearby towns, and each has a museum you can visit.  Since we woke up late, we decided to just go to the Porsche museum today, and save the larger Mercedes-Benz Museum for tomorrow, when we will force ourselves to get up on time…

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Why I Hate Flying

Today marks the beginning of what I call “the home stretch” – our last five weeks in Europe before going home for Christmas!  We are heading to Turkey & Greece to finish off, but first we must fly to Stuttgart, Germany to spend three nights in the “cradle of the automobile.”  I’ll never understand the way flights are priced, but it was much cheaper to fly from Budapest to Stuttgart then Stuttgart to Istanbul than to fly from Budapest to Istanbul directly, which is retarded because Istanbul is southeast from Budapest and Stuttgart is west so we’re basically going backwards then forwards!

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Comparison of Accomodations

Today we’ve moved on to Bruges (also spelt Brugge if you go by the Dutch version), a medieval city in the northwest region of Belgium. We’re staying at a hostel called Lybeer Travellers, and my main thought is “thank God we’re only here for two nights!”  Apart from the fact that we’re in a dorm room with two other guys who don’t seem to understand the common courtesy of coming and going quietly when you’re staying in a dorm room, the hostel itself is in bad need of repair and the bathrooms are horrendous.  I tried taking a shower and the water went from freezing cold to scorching hot every five minutes so I had keep waiting for that brief moment when the water would start changing temperatures to splash myself with a bit of normal temperature water!  It was not a fun experience… (more…)

The Perfect End To Germany

Tonight we finished Germany in the best way possible – completely drunk with a group of random strangers!  Could there be a better way to say goodbye to the country that drinks more beer than any others?  I think not (more…)

Why Not Germany?!?!

When we were planning our trip, a few of our friends discussed the possibility of meeting up with us in May, but when we told them our routing would put us in Germany in May, they all responded with the same “well, Germany was not on the top of my list of places to go to…” and they all decided not to meet up with us in May.  I can’t say I blame them, since Germany wasn’t on the top of my list of countries to visit either, but as we finish up our time in Germany, I have to say I’ve changed my mind and I think Germany should be on the top of more people’s lists!  The sights and history have been interesting, the people are serious looking but friendly, almost everyone speaks English so there’s hardly any communication barrier, and the food has been consistently good.  Germany has surprisingly become one of my favourite countries visited so far! (more…)

Düsseldorf, Why Did We Bother?

Hindsight is always 20/20, and in hindsight, we should have just skipped Düsseldorf, Germany!  Paul had added it to our itinerary after reading somewhere that it was a nice city and the “fashion capital” of Germany, but neither of us found it particularly worth seeing.  The coolest thing we saw was the door knocker in the picture above and in total we only took 15 pictures today! (more…)

Sushi Attempt #3

After Miniatur Wunderland, we walked around the area by the Port of Hamburg since it was nearby, then cut back into the center of town to find somewhere to eat dinner.  We wandered onto a street named Colonnaden where there were a number of restaurants and debated between a German restaurant and the all-you-can-eat sushi place next to it.  My sushi craving won, and Paul agreed to give sushi one more try, but I think this may be our final sushi attempt in Europe!  The reality is, you can only expect so much in terms of quality for all-you-can eat sushi, even if it’s 16.90 euros per person.  At home we can get a pretty good amount of great quality sushi for what that converts into in Canadian dollars, so even though the sushi wasn’t that bad, we’ve come to the conclusion that we just won’t find high quality sushi in Europe so we won’t waste any more money on it!  We’ll stick to other types of food which are cheaper and better and I’ll get my sushi-fill when I’m back home again