Day 37, Friday 20/4:

After another excellent breakfast, including the local speciality of oversized pretzels, we set out again. We drove to Stuttgart, driving through the centre to get a feel for the city. The main destination of the day was the Mercedes Benz museum. This museum has a very modern/futuristic design, comprising some seven stories. One enters, catches a lift in the center of the building and moves down the building in a spiral fashion. From the top, one starts with the very first one-horse power internal combustion engines and the cars/boats/trains/airships onto which they were mounted. Continuing downwards, you see how the car evolved from horse carriage styling into bigger, more car like, coaches and then into the first sports cars. As you move down each level, a history of the era is provided. Each level had an extra space, off to the side of the main gallery, with specific exhibitions off to each side. These included emergency vehicles, cars of famous people, such as the Popemobile, and trucks. Of course, all were Mercedes vehicles and all were displayed throughout the ages. Another two levels were devoted to the evolution of car safety and alternate fuel sources, such as a hydrogen powered electric car. The final level was devoted to racing cars, which was probably of the least interest to me. Here, Patsy and I did a simulation whereby one sits inside a box that is maneuvered by a series of hydraulic rams. This simulates some of the most exciting car races of history. It was quite realistic and Patsy was suitably shaken by the end. In all, we spent four hours here and it would have to be one of the better museums I have visited to date. 

We then drove home to Pforzheim through the countryside, avoiding the autobahns, stopping for gelati along the way.

For dinner Cristiane’s sister Anne-Katherine and her two daughters Josephine and Jacoba joined us, aged 13 and 10 respectively. In an email I had received from my Omi earlier in the day, she had recommended we try Spatzle while in Germany. To our surprise, this was the main dish we had for dinner. It is similar to fresh pasta and we had it in a delicious broth made with pork cheeks, which were really delicious.