RAINY DAYS IN STUTTGART

Stuttgart, the capital of the German state of Baden-Wuerttemberg and the centre of the automotive industry, was never on my list of places to visit. At least not until my friend Bilja moved there. The two of us shared a flat in Rijeka from 2000 to 2002. I was the subeditor in a magazine, and she was studying for a BA degree in Transport while working in a tobacconist’s shop. Together we navigated some challenging times in our private and professional lives. We have not seen each other in a decade and there is a lot to catch up.
The night before my flight in early September, Summer 2024 gets archived, and autumn takes over. Stubborn rain and strong wind force me to rearrange my suitcase and wear my green wasserfester Regenmantel. The weather forecast for my destination is disastrous. But nobody visits Stuttgart for the nice weather.
The Ryanair flight from Stansted to Baden-Baden takes one hour and ten minutes. From here I have to find my way to Stuttgart: first a local bus to Baden-Baden, then a slow train to Karlsruhe where I catch the fast InterCity Express (ICE) to Stuttgart. The train costs me 40 euros, quite expensive for a country where public transport has a reputation for being affordable. The reason for the high price is my fault: I bought the first – most expensive – ticket offered by the machine. For the return trip, I opt for the regional train and pay half as much.
Bilja and I meet on the grey platform 14 in Stuttgart Hauptbahnhof. Ahead of us is a week of talking, reminiscing and playing tourists, and we are not letting the adverse climatic conditions spoil it.

STAATGALERIE

Stuttgart’s most famous art museum, the Staatgalerie, offers seven hundred years of European art history spread over two buildings, the old and the new. The new one, the Neue Staatsgalerie, was designed by the British architect James Stirling, known for his projects of university and museum structures, as well as for the fact that Britain’s most prestigious award for architecture, the Stirling Prize, is named after him. The building is modern and quirky, and the asymmetrical façade is embellished with blue, pink and green details.

The gallery is large, specious and, surprisingly, empty. It feels like I have the whole place to myself. Ooh, I do love getting lost in the 20th century art, gazing at works by Matisse, Picasso, Goncharova, Braque, Chagall, Dali, Miro and many more. As I stroll through the Pop Art gallery, I receive a shrieking national emergency alert on my phone. I jump. The message in German disappears from my screen. With the current state of global affairs, anything can happen, and I am anxiously looking for a gallery assistant who can enlighten me. Phew, it was just a test, and Bilja forgot to mention it when she went to work…
My favourite displays are two sculptures. Picasso’s Bathers are figures made of twigs and pieces of wood standing in pebbles. The other is the Triadic Ballet, the most famous work by Oskar Schlemmer. Schlemmer, a well-known artist of the Bauhaus school, was born in Stuttgart and died in Baden-Baden. These costumes made of non-traditional materials appear cumbersome and heavy yet incredibly scenic as if they are waiting for a prompt to start dancing.

I also spend some time in the old gallery with works by Italian, Dutch and German old masters. In the room of the Venetian masters, there is a life-like sculpture of a cleaner on the floor. I find it quite disturbing, although I am not sure why as I have seen stranger things in galleries…



FERNSEHTURM

Stuttgart’s TV tower, inaugurated in 1956, was the first such building in the world, and it became the prototype of all other telecommunication towers erected around the globe, from the one in neighbouring Frankfurt to Johannesburg and Wuhan. Queen Elizabeth II visited it in May 1965, as part of her state visit. Bilja takes all her visitors to the top of the Fernsehturm. The views are incredibly beautiful even on a dark, rainy and blustery afternoon. The topography of Stuttgart is a perfect balance of urban pockets and green areas of parks and forests. The slopes of the surrounding hills are covered in vineyards and – apparently – on a clear day one can even catch a glance of the famous Schwarzwald (Black Forest).
In the Panorama café we enjoy two large slices of calorific cakes and strong coffees, just the way we like it…



SCHWEINE MUSEUM
The Pig Museum is a rather quirky or niche attraction. With a collection of over fifty thousand exhibits, it gives a comprehensive insight into the porcine world, from their high nutritional value to their presence in decorations, souvenirs and linguistics. Its slogan “Kunst, Kultur und Kitsch” (art, culture and kitsch) describes it perfectly. Over two floors and several rooms, one can learn just about everything that is to learn about these animals. From the methods of preservation and processing of pork and butcher’s utensils to the symbolic meaning of piggy banks as well the presence of pigs in art, books and cinematography. There is also a red corner for adult eyes only with figurines and pictures of pigs in various poses of sexual (mis)behaviour. One of the largest rooms is dedicated to the collection of “piggy banks”. This animal has been used as inspiration for a saving box because it is associated with wealth and prosperity in many cultures. We also learn that China is the largest producer of pigs in the world, that there are more pigs than people in Denmark and that pig soft toys became popular as early as 1892, ten years before the more famous Teddy Bear...


These animals are certainly full of character but do not have much of a reputation and they regularly feature in derogatory expressions such as “dirty pig”, “male-chauvinist pig”, “make a pig of oneself”, “casting pearls before swine”, “pig-headed” and many others…
A rather amusing way to spend a couple of hours on a rainy afternoon…

ESSLINGEN AM NECKAR
On Saturday morning, Bilja drives us to Esslingen, a small town just outside Stuttgart. But first we stop for a breakfast of cheese and meat bureks. There are many shops and cafés in the area that sell foods and goods from the Balkan countries. Southern Germany has always been a popular destination for guest workers, the so-called Gastarbeiter, from the countries of former Yugoslavia. Even more so since Croatia joined the EU.

Esslingen is a postcard town. Well-preserved buildings, cobbled streets and planters of colourful flowers create a feeling of stepping back in time or into a book of medieval illustrations. The old town hall with its Glockenspiel is breathtakingly beautiful.

This is a perfect place for a stroll, a coffee – we brave the interval in the diluvial weather and drink our coffees on the terrace – and a spot of shopping in one of the boutiques or Kaufhaeuser.

MERCEDES-BENZ MUSEUM

Whether you are into cars or, like me, not so much, you cannot spend time in Stuttgart without visiting the Mercedes-Benz Museum. This museum dedicated to the past, present and future of the automobile comes at the top of every list of things to see in this city. The building itself is a work of art. Its trefoil outline, or three overlapping circles, resembles the shape of an internal combustion engine, as designed by its inventor, Felix Wankel. The museum was designed specifically for the display, creating a unique synopsis of form and content.

The exhibition takes visitors on a journey from the first car prototypes to the vehicles of the future. Every stage of development is placed in the historical and cultural setting of the time, something that I found particularly interesting. Side galleries show cars that belonged to famous people (one of them was Lady Diana’s car), as well as the history of buses, ambulances and other service vehicles…


TRIP TO HEIDELBERG
In a week of persistent rain and low temperatures, Sunday morning greets us with sunshine and warmth and we set off to Heidelberg. This town on the Neckar River is the home to the oldest university in Germany, founded in the 14th century. The University of Heidelberg produced a total of 56 Nobel Prize winners and many famous people, from mathematicians, to statesmen (Helmut Kohl), royalty (Prince Albert Victor, heir to the British throne), inventors, novelists (W. Somerset Maugham, Bernard Schlink), composers (Robert Schumann), diplomats, judges, linguists (Joseph Wright, professor at Oxford University) and others. Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, one of the most famous German philosophers of all times, also taught at this University.
A return ticket for the regional train costs 28 euros, and the journey takes us through magical scenery with hilltop villages, old castles and churches. And for a large part of the way, the train runs parallel to the river. Our plan for the day is simple: a walk through the historical centre, a visit to Heidelberg Castle and a stroll across the old bridge.
Heidelberg Castle sits on a hill above the city as if on a natural throne. It can be reached by foot, by bus or – which was our choice – by the funicular (Bergbahn) that takes you straight to the entrance. We spend the next few hours exploring the impressive gardens and buildings of the complex.

Although Heidelberg Castle dates to the Middle Ages, it is mostly known as an example of the German renaissance. The luxurious façade decorations of the Ottheinrich Wing contain elements of Italian and Dutch styles along with sculptures of ancient heroes and Roman emperors. And of course, the statue of Ottheinrich himself. Next to it, the English Wing is just a plain wall with a rather austere appearance. We also visit the German Apothecary Museum and The Barrel Building. The latter holds one of the largest barrels in the world that can store 220 thousand litres of wine… Impressive… But the place is too crowded. Everyone seems to be obsessed with climbing on the barrel…

In a pub close to the Gothic Church of the Holy Spirit (Heiliggeistkirche), we grab a lunch of cheese spaetzle and Maultasche, pasta-style specialities of the local Swabian cuisine. Satisfying enough…
We spend the rest of the afternoon wandering the medieval streets, popping into souvenir shops, queuing to get a photo by the monkey statue at the entrance to the Karl Theodor Bridge and then walking along the river to the train station. Heidelberg has a lot more to see and experience and deserves more attention than a half-day trip, but Bilja and I thoroughly enjoyed our flying visit…

LUDWIGSBURG

My last day in Stuttgart, we spend in nearby Ludwigsburg, home to the largest baroque castle in Germany. Ludwigsburg Palace, built by Duke Eberhard Ludwig von Wurttemberg in the early 18th century, can only be viewed as part of an organised tour. The next English language tour is in a few hours, and we decide to forgo the palace and head straight to the gardens. The spacious and magnificent estate of the Ludwigsburg Palace treat us to the Pumpkin Festival, the Fairytale Garden and a long (and wet) walk in the wild forest.

There are millions of pumpkins, of all varieties, shapes and colours, scattered throughout the formal gardens. Pumpkins are used to create sculptures of real and fictional characters, such as Joan of Arc, Marge Simpson and Frida Kahlo, as well as scenes from the Wild West. Large pumpkins are carved into funny faces and expressive characters. Of course, we could not miss a visit to the café and taste the use of pumpkins in the culinary industry. Pumpkin cake and biscuit (with pumpkin seeds) are delicious. The coffees are not bad either.

And while the Pumpkin Festival is a seasonal event, the Fairytale Garden is a permanent attraction. Germans are very proud of their folklore stories and the Brothers Grimm who collected them. The Fairytale Garden depicts over forty classics from the Frog Prince to the Little Mermaid, Hansel and Gretel and the adventure worlds of Aladdin or Sinbad. My two favourites are the Rapunzel tower and Snow White’s mirror. Rapunzel Tower is located on a rise in a corner of the garden, it is dizzyingly tall and the narrow and dark spiral stairs inside leads to the lowest levels of the park. Snow White’s mirror changes: one moment you see yourself in it, the next you are transported to the Snow White’s cottage. The ticket also includes a boat ride through the fairytale stream, which we thoroughly enjoyed.

As the day is getting darker and the rain thicker, we return to the car and head back to Stuttgart, for our last evening together.
It was an amazing week of catching up with my friend, but also discovering a new city. Stuttgart is an affluent place where buses, trains, U-Bahns, S-Bahns and all other forms of transport run with absolute punctuality. Where residential and industrial areas intertwine with parks, forests, allotments and corn fields. As a city, Stuttgart is neither too small nor too big, but just right for modern souls and should be used as a prototype of sustainable living. It has a lot to offer to accidental and intentional tourists alike. Next time I just hope for better weather.
Bis bald, meine Freundin und Stuttgart.