Archive for April 23rd, 2008

Dinner in Ettlingen

I didn’t feel like walking all over Waldbronn tonight.  Also, apparently on Wednesday…the hotel resturaunt is closed.  I’m glad I arrived on a Thursady.  I would have been lost…

Ok, so Ettlingen…Ettlingen hasn’t been so good to me!  Here’s the site of my worst fall…[flickr]photo:2437200434[/flickr]

I had dinner at the place that was closed last time – Restaurant Portabello, and joked when I walked in if they were open.  They laughed, so they got the joke…I think.  I had a Salmon and Noodle in creamy tomao sauce. And a beer..because beer is 3 euros, a cola is 3.2 euros.  Tastey, yet again.

Then I just meandered about.  I remembered the Museum!  While it’s not open at night, the gates weren’t shut…

Why, what a lovely building!  I believe it was once a minor/small castle type building…

[flickr]photo:2436381445[/flickr]

What’s this?  The facade looks a bit interesting..

[flickr]photo:2436381595[/flickr]

HEY! Someone just PAINTED the thing! It’s totally flat.  It’s a good paint job..but..uh…I wonder why..

[flickr]photo:2436381753[/flickr]

That’s really it… I figure out the parking system.  From 07:00 to 19:00 it’s 2 hours of parking, and that’s why I have this wheel in my car…set the time, toss it on the dash – don’t cheat – and be back.  See, it’s all explained in clear German:

[flickr]photo:2436381959[/flickr]

At least it was Frei…and free!

Format…

I notice when I write a post “in advance” on note pad…it looks goofy compared to if I use the built in text editor for the blog. (ie: tomorrows post is already written, just need to publish it)

or am I the only one who notices such differences?

Lichtenstein unt Mercedes

On Saturday…it wasn’t a nice sunny day.  I guess this whole April Showers brings May Flowers is strictly enforced in Germany.  It was damp, it was chilly…so I put on my shorts and grabbed my light jacket that isn’t waterproof. (I think it was waterproof back in 1997 when I bought it…)

Off to Lichtenstein!  Thankfully, I had remembered to bring the TomTom into the hotel and programmed the address from the laptop.

It’s important to know some things when you get there… [flickr]photo:2431080997[/flickr]
like, where’s the toliet! (Herren, I think, is Men’s room..unless I’ve forgotten already)

Here’s the path to the castle entrance: [flickr]photo:2431897026[/flickr]

The tour is only in Germany, not enough of us normal talkers about, but, they give you a handy card to tell you about each room: [flickr]photo:2431081515[/flickr] and you can read along and sort of ignore the German.  I am sure I missed little caveats — like the explanation of the toilet in the main dinning hall that’s just a hole in the floor where yo remove some boards.

The castle isn’t very large… 9.6 yards by about 30 yards.  We only went through 2 stories of the castle.  Big room at each end, and a smaller room in the middle.

[flickr]photo:2431900122[/flickr]

The views, however, are amazing.  Good building location!  I had lunch outside the castle, and forgot to take a picture.  Fried sausage mit pommes.  No Ketchup, because I forgot to ask…but spicy brown mustard worked great!

[flickr]photo:2431900324[/flickr] [flickr]photo:2431083455[/flickr]

To see more..you’ll have to click an image…we’re moving along to the Mercedes Benz Museum in Stuttgart here! [flickr]photo:2431900902[/flickr] as I walk to the entrance..it is still raining a bit.

The museum is in the photo above, you don’t get to go to the one with the cool hood emblem on it [flickr]photo:2431901144[/flickr].   So I paid my entrance fee, go the audio tour in English guide (they support every language I believe) and headed off.  You get to an elevator and are whisked to the top floor then you meander down through the years and the cars.  It’s interesting.  I took lots of car pictures, [flickr]photo:2431086007[/flickr] [flickr]photo:2431903776[/flickr].

To see more cars, click above and browse the flickr account.

After leaving Mercedes, I’d driven past a huge festival next to the river.  It wasn’t too long a walk, so I headed to that!  It was fun.  Lots of people, and the rain had mostly stopped by the time I was there.  It was packed.

If you haven’t been to Lakeside Amusement Park, get off you butt and go.  The place in Stuttgart has a newer version of the Chipmunk! [flickr]photo:2431905140[/flickr] I think it’s called Crazy Mouse here.  Same ride, just “updated”.  It was worth the 2 euros.

I also went on the giant ferris wheels! [flickr}photo:2431904782[/flickr] [flickr]photo:2431905324[/flickr]

I then just walked through and went on the roller coaster.  It was fun, and then I got a sausage sandwich for dinner.  I headed out of the park to my car and drove to the Shell to purchase  some unleaded.

I didn’t take a picture of it, but I should.. there’s lots of fuel options.  Diesel, Benohol {sp?}, Super, and something else, and Unleaded.  I got 44 Euros of Unleaded and headed back to the hotel for the night.

And that’s how Saturday was.  It started out cold a rainy…stayed rainy, but it warmed up and was nice by evening.

Tomorrow…I’ll do the Sunday entry for the museum in Speyer and the castle in Heidelberg.