I am rather behind on my blogging, but , as promised, I will talk about the great day-trip I had with the Deutsch-Kompakt course. I might as well talk about Stuttgart, too. We went to the Bodensee at the end of September, so it was sunny, and the Alps were clearly visible from where we were. Before we actually got to the waterfront, though, we visited a rococo church, which looked rather ordinary on the outside, but it was ridiculous (!) on the inside. I actually thought it was gaudy.

Birnau, the gaudy rococo church.

After the rococo church, we went to the “Pfahlbaumuseum”, which was a museum about houses that stood on pillars over the water. It is easiest to just show a picture…

Pfahlbaumuseum

Of course the museum wasn’t that interesting for everybody. What everyone did like was our penultimate destination, Meersburg. We had lunch together in front of palace, which was located on the waterfront (with a view of the Alps), before we had a tour of a castle, and some wandering-around time.

Lunch at Schloss Meersburg.

View of the Alps from Schloss Meersburg (where we ate lunch).

Then we got on a ferry and headed to Konstanz, where we spent the rest of the day. Unfortunately, at this point in the day it turned windy and cold, but we mostly just walked around the city for a while before the group had dinner together.

A week and a half later….Stuttgart. The first thing we did in Stuttgart was the Mercedes-Benz Museum, of course. I thought it was kind of interesting. I went through the whole museum in about an hour (including taking photos). It isn’t something I would necessarily do more than once.

Mercedes-Benz Museum

There were a lot of interesting cars of course…

One of the older models...

For you Jurassic Park lovers...

…and a lot of information about their vehicles…

I never really understood how someone is supposed to know which one is...

After the museum we arrived in the main part of the city. We went to the Markthalle and looked at all of the interesting foods that one can buy there. Then people went their separate ways for food or shopping. The main event of the day was going to the Stuttgart Ballet. We saw “Don Quijote”, which I never knew was a ballet, but apparently it is. That was how concluded our long day in Stuttgart before we boarded to bus to go home.

Opera and Ballet House in Stuttgart

Next time I will talk about how going to school in a German Uni is different than Valpo, and believe me…it is.