My first stop after spending a night in Munich was in Stuttgart, Germany. I didn't really know much about Stuttgart when going there except that it's the German version of Detroit...that is if Detroit didn't have rampant unemployment, crooked mayors, and a former Iraqi dictator with keys to the city (I only wish I was making that up). In other words, Stuttgart is home to Mercedes and Porsche. I only had one day in Stuttgart and I had planned on touring one of the two museums. At the urging of my father, I chose the Porsche Museum. Good choice. Porsche began exporting cars to America in 1950 due to a lack of demand in post-war Germany. This being 2010, it's the 60th anniversary of Porsche which means that all US citizens get half off admission and there is a special exhibit entitled "60 years in America". I don't really know much about cars so for me the museum was more educational than entertaining. Some of the highlights were a cross-section of a Porsche car, a spherical fuel tank creates by the racing team that eliminated the need for a fuel pump, Porsche's history at the 24 hours of Le Mans, and a fully stocked Porsche showroom. It was a great museum and great advice from my dad to go there.
Orange Power Porsche
According to the theory of downforce, when this Porsche 956 reaches a speed of 321.4 km/h, it could theoretically drive on ceilings.
The other interesting thing going on in Stuttgart right now is something called Stuttgart 21 (I'm not sure what the 21 stands for). Basically it's a €4b bill up for vote to renovate the main train station. This has been big news in Germany for a while now because of protests and clashes between the two sides. I had to see for myself what all of the hoopla was about so being a Saturday I figured if I walked down the main strip I would eventually run into the protestors and supporters. Sure enough I did and sure enough the crazies were out in full force. My favorite crazy person was a guy wearing a bandana who had a live parrot sitting on his head as he walked through the crowd. There seemed to be more supporters than detractors so I'll be curious to see if the bill passes or not.
My next stop was in Cologne, Germany for 2 days. I didn't really know much about Cologne but I didn't want to spend 8 days in Germany before going to Denmark so I picked going there at random. Cologne was nice. It's roughly the size of Tulsa with roughly the same amount of things to do. There's a massive cathedral when you exit the train station that has easily been the biggest cathedral I have seen so far. The inside was pretty drab but the exterior was excellent. I went up to an observation deck that's 100 meters above ground which was pretty cool. I wanted to sample the local brew, Kölsch beer, so I teamed up with a Brazilian and an Englishman and hit the town. Little did I know that Cologne's other similarity to Tulsa was an aversion to the sale of alcohol on Sunday. We did find a nice little joint (presumably the only one open) to get a few brews and talked with a friendly German local who filled us in on everything from Kölsch beer to what not to do in Las Vegas (which was pretty entertaining). All in all, a fun time with fun people in Cologne.
Panorama Cologne
Prost!
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