Stuttgart

Our second German destination was Stuttgart, chosen because of another friend I met traveling who graciously offered to host us. (For those who have read my book or just have been following along on the adventures since long before this blog existed, it's M, who was badly injured in the bus accident I was in in Tanzania.)

It's 9 years since I've seen M and we haven't really kept in touch in the meantime, but it felt strangely normal to spend time with her again (and under much better circumstances this time!). On the night we arrived, she made us an amazing dinner of kasspatzle (sorry--there should be two dots over the a's in that word; I can't figure out how to access accent marks on this computer)....

...had a spread, each morning, of gorgeous German baked goods...

...and arranged for her good friend, C (she's changed the spelling of her name...some of you may know her as K...), who was also on the bus with us, to drive over from Munich area for a full reunion over breakfast one morning. As I said, hard to process the three of us in the same room together after so much time and given the circumstances in Tanzania. But also it felt very normal, and I had the clear sense that these are women I would choose as friends regardless. It was so nice to get to spend some time with them, building a non-emergency friendship.

And of course, the visit gave us an opportunity to explore Stuttgart itself. I really enjoyed the enormous main square, Schlossplatz.

Also, there was a wine fest (which seems to be code for: lots of amazing food vendors everywhere and people drinking heartily starting in the late morning) that was nice to wander around.

We even biked out along the river to the Mercedez-Benz museum, which is one of the more interesting museums I've ever been to. You're looking here at the first automobile ever, designed by a German man called--you guessed it--Benz, in 1885.

Happily, M was able to take most of a day off from her busy life as a doctor and take a little fieldtrip with SR and me to the outskirts of the city, where we climbed a hill through beautiful vineyards with bunches of grapes just sagging from the vines (and they were SO SO GOOD).

At the top, we reached Grabkapelle, the beautifully situated grave and chapel dedicated to Katharine, wife of Wilhelm I. I somehow failed to take a picture of the chapel itself, but the views over Stuttgart were equally nice.

Yet another amazingly wonderful visit on this trip that just seems charmed.