Hooray for Stuttgart!!!

OK - so they told me at the desk that the WiFi here is "broken" - well, someone's WiFi is working just fine. I'm using someone's signal. I'm not complaining.

Stuttgart is AMAZING. I love it! I spent all day walking around a gigantic park running up the center called Schlossgarten. It was beautiful - all flowers and fountains. People were biking to work and all over the gardens. There were ducks, turtles, old monuments brought in from other gardens when they were abandoned to be preserved. I also spent some time hanging around the Schlossplatz - this huge square in the center right near the New Palace. Then I spent the entire afternoon basking in the SUN (Oh yes...the sun eventually DOES come out in Europe. I was just as surprised as you are, I'm certain of it!) at the Wilhelma. In the 1950's this was made into a zoo - it's a combination of a zoological and botanical garden at the far end of the Schlossgarten. I wandered for hours until the sun and all the walking got to be too much. I took tons of PICTURES - and yes, there are a lot of animals. They were what spoke to me.

My trip here was great. Well...mostly. From Brussels to Koeln totally sucked. I only paid 15 Euro for my ticket using my rail pass, but I sat in 2nd class with a pack of hollering and rowdy French children whose parents did NOTHING to shut them up. But then from Koeln to Stuttgart I sat in 1st class - like my rail pass says - and chatted the entire time with an interesting, intelligent, articulate businessman from Stuttgart. I was starving for intelligent conversation - so it was so refreshing. He and I talked a great deal about European companies that want to get started in the US but get too frustrated with the legal system and the business culture to carry on. I think I found my calling.

Tomorrow I'm going to go & hike in the Black Forest a bit and go to the Mercedes Benz museum, which is on the east side of the city. How fun will that be? I'm finally loving Europe. Uncle Mick just called and he's excited too. Less than 5 days and he arrives in Zurich!