...and Automobiles!

Friday, June 17, 2011: 10:59 (GMT +1:00)

Thursday was equally as successful and wonderful as Wednesday, and my time here is going all too quickly.  The adventure for the day was a trip into Stuttgart – and to see the Mercedes-Benz museum.  I must admit that at first I was a bit skeptical when Chris Suggested we visit a museum about cars, but his mother assured me that it contained enough history that even I would enjoy it.  But first we visited the city of Stuttgart itself. 

Christian’s parents were kind enough to drive us in and drop us off  at the same station I had been in two days prior.  There is a large tower in the train station which one can stand on top of and see the entire city.  At the top of the tower Chris pointed out some of the important buildings in the city.  Because Mercedes is the biggest employer There are Mercedes logos everywhere – including a giant rotating three cornered star on the top of the train tower. 

After getting the lay of the land Chris and I journeyed down into the park by the train station – it was a lovely park with fountains and trees and all of the necessary park accouterments.  The most notable thing about the park, however, was the protesters.  These are people which have been camped in the park for more than a year in order to protest the improvements of the train station in Stuttgart.  The improvements will put most of the rails underground which will add green space to the city, and make it possible for trains to pass straight through the city as opposed to traveling into the city and returning in the same way they came in before they can continue their journey.  It will be an expensive project though, and some of the land presently belonging to the park will then belong to the train station.  Some of the trees will also be cut down and there are factions of people who dislike this plan.  Part of their protests includes covering the trees in stuffed animals.  I’m not quite sure how this helps, but to each his own.

From the park we walked past the Opera building, the “new” castle (built in the 1800s), and the parliament building to the main square of Stuttgart.  It was really rather lovely.  In typical European fashion there were people everywhere – children feeding the ducks, students lying in the grass, and shoppers strolling the boulevards.  There was even a woman handing out a new type of Swiss mineral drink,  I might add, was quite tasty.

Chris and I wandered in to the international market, which he claimed was quite expensive.  It was everything I could have expected and more.  There were meats, breads, candies, nuts, fruits, and vegetables from all over the world artfully displayed in little stalls.  The fish stall contained all of your usual varieties, including herring, and then eel and even angler.  Of course most Germans shop in larger grocery stores just like everyone else, but it was quite quaint to be able to wander through the market.  Perhaps the most enchanting thing was several different types of food made entirely out of marzipan.  Outside of the market, in the square was a farmer’s market, which at this point was generally selling flowers.  We wandered into a church briefly and then back to the train station to grab a quick bite to eat.

From the train station (with our Chinese food in hand) we traveled two stops to the Mercedes museum.  The museum is right next to the Stuttgart football stadium which Chris was certain to point out.  Inside the museum we received audio guides and then road elevators to the top of the building.  Chris will kill me if I don’t point out that the elevators looked like they were from StarWars, a reference I didn’t understand until I actually saw them.  Once at the top floor of the museum the exhibits proceed from the first cars built by Daimler and Benz down the building to modern times and the future.  The building is a slightly skewed cylinder so one simply proceeds downward in a spiral.  The center of each floor contains cars from a certain time period along with appropriate music.  The spiraling passages from one floor to the next contained displays of significant historical events.  Some of the historical events were givens: important events of WWI and WWII, Sputnik, the first trip to the moon, ect.  Some of the events were not so familiar or as obviously significant.  There were several football games which I had never heard of, but Chris assures me were quite important, the opening of Grand Central Station, the opening of the Guggenheim, and the start of the career of Josephine Baker (whom Chris had never heard of).  There was perhaps a small amount of pandering to the large American clientele of the museum. 

There were also side exhibits about significant cars produced by Mercedes, ones owned by famous people, or ones which had done significant things.  And, throughout the museum were modern art exhibits, most of which neither Chris nor I understood.  The car exhibits were made bearable by the audio guide’s bits about the technology of the cars – more than horsepower and speeds, but explanation of the switch from rigid axels, the addition of power steering, the invention of hydraulic brakes, and the functionings of the air bag.  While I never think I shall be interested in the various types and designs of muscle cars, the actual mechanical workings, especially of the older cars, were quite interesting.