Walk Around the City
Exploring + Porsche Museum
I woke up early again, despite drinking quite a bit last night, but fortunately, I feel fine. The morning air outside must be quite chilly, around 1-2 degrees Celsius according to my phone. Inside the hotel room, though, it’s warm thanks to the heater. I don’t have a solid plan for today, so I started by taking a shower and getting dressed, then headed down to have breakfast at the hotel.
Novum Hotel Boulevard is located on Marinestraße, where it intersects with Königstraße, a popular street because it’s pedestrian-only, making it perfect for shopping at the roadside stores. This street stretches all the way from Stuttgart Hauptbahnhof, passing Schloßplatz, and if you keep walking, you’ll see the hotel on your left.
Today’s plan, as mentioned yesterday, revolves around lunch, but since it’s still early, I decided to explore the city a bit. I left the hotel, turned left onto Marinestraße, and started walking. The air was cold, and my clothes were quite thin, but after walking for a while, my body started to warm up—except for my ears, which felt like they were freezing off.
I’ve completely fallen in love with the architecture here—the orderly buildings, the well-planned city layout, and the various statues. Walking around here feels safe because cars always stop for pedestrians at crossings. There are many churches here, so much so that I sometimes wonder how people manage with all the ringing bells, which can be quite loud. If you want to sleep in on a Sunday, you’re in for a tough time!
On Sundays, everything here is closed, so buying anything can be difficult. Sunday is family day, so most people can be seen taking their grandchildren to the playgrounds, which are full of children. One of the most heartwarming sights is elderly couples walking around together—it’s lovely to see. I passed by a cemetery, and it was almost like a park with walking paths and plenty of benches. Many people were decorating graves as Christmas was approaching.
I turned onto Alexanderstraße, walked past Muckey’s house, and then by Buzzwoo!, getting more familiar with the streets here. Time seemed to slow down as I walked. From the office, I headed down several streets to reach the Rathaus train station, crossed under the road to the other side, and continued walking along Marktstraße. This street is filled with shops and the Christmas Market, which only operates during Christmas. It’s extremely busy and is considered another iconic part of Stuttgart. I kept walking, turning right until I reached Schloßplatz again. Today, I planned to take photos and explore the area, including the Old Castle and New Castle. There’s a lot of history and detail about Schloßplatz that you can find on Google.
Around the side of the New Castle, there’s a small pond filled with trash from last night’s tourists—beer cans and other debris. Next to the pond is the Oper Stuttgart, a beautiful building that attracts a lot of photographers. I walked around the pond, checking out the statues next to it. This pond is called Eckensee, and it’s home to ducks swimming around and crows eating food left behind by people.
Crossing the street again, I arrived at Landesmuseum Württemberg, a museum that has been renovated twice due to fire and bombing during World War II. There’s an entrance fee if you want to go inside. After a quick look, I retraced my steps to meet Mucky at his place, as we planned to go out for burgers.
Lunch today was at a place that Mucky claimed has the best burgers in the area: Beef Burger Brothers. Finding parking was a challenge, as it often is in Germany. We had to park a bit far away and walk back to the restaurant. The place was packed, so we had to wait for a table to free up. The burgers were amazing. If you order the 200g burger, it costs about 8.90 euros. Paired with a good beer, it was absolutely delightful.
After filling up, Mucky’s plan was to take me to a hilltop with a panoramic view of Stuttgart, similar to Doi Suthep back home. This place is called Höhenpark Killesberg, and there’s a tower you can climb to the top for a great view of the entire city of Stuttgart—it’s quite high, but worth it. The park also has a concert area, and Mucky mentioned that it used to be an open-air cinema. There’s also a long road perfect for skateboarding.
Our next destination was the Porsche Museum. This place serves as a factory, a storage facility for racing cars, and a museum all in one. If you’re a Porsche fan, this is a must-visit, as Stuttgart is the birthplace of Porsche. The entrance fee is about 4 euros. The museum isn’t huge, but it houses an impressive collection of Porsche cars from the past to the present, including race cars, rally cars, and engines. You can take your time and really immerse yourself in the experience. They provide headphones, so you can listen to descriptions of each car by entering a code. The Porsche 911 is an especially stunning car—if you’re thinking of buying something here, be prepared because everything is quite expensive.
After returning to Mucky’s place, I walked back to the hotel, exhausted from the day. I’ll need to rest because tomorrow is likely to be more work-focused. But it will be my first day working in an office in Germany. The office here is just as interesting as the one in Chiang Mai. Let’s see what fun surprises tomorrow brings!