Traversing 1000 years in 2 days! After we arrived in Freiberg, we went for a drive into Ludwigsburg. Heidi and Stefan showed us around the old city including the very impressive square. We wandered over to the Schloss and walked around the beautiful gardens. Unfortunately it started to rain and we had to curtail the walk. It was enough however to give us and indication of the lovely gardens they have there.
The next day we headed into Stuttgart to visit the Mercedes Museum, which you find on Mercedes Str - where else! Interestingly the Porsche Museum, which we didn't have time to visit, is located on Porsche Platz! The Mercedes Museum was brilliant! Anyone visiting Stuttgart, should include this in their itinerary. It is not just a history of the Daimler-Benz company, but a record of the social and historical impact of their products over their history. It is very well done, informative and set in a stunning building. The cars were awesome also! I particularly enjoyed the early days, with the developments in parallel by Gottlieb Daimler and Karl Benz. I had heard the name Maybach previously, but didn't know its significance. He was a key engineer in the formative stages of DB who developed remarkable improvements to the original designs. We also learned the origin of the 3 pointed star, the recognisable Mercedes brand. The 3 refer to the 3 fields of transport to be developed - land, water and air. Which they did! We could have spent much longer there, but ran out of time.
As it was, when we headed back to Freiberg, we were already caught in Stuttgart traffic, not helped by an accident along one of the roads which constricted the heavy traffic.
Heidi and Stefan looked after us very well. We were very fortunate to have been asked to stay with them. Stefan works for Porsche in their R&D division and was really interesting to talk to. One of their children was in Croatia on holiday which meant we used her room. The other 2 children, Jule and Justus were delightful.
On Saturday we headed to Rothenberg ob der Tauber. It was a bright sunny day, which made the journey even more enjoyable. We are staying in a guesthouse in nearby Detwang, which is apparently the oldest part of R, dating back to 970AD. It is a lovely old village, very small - we walked around every street in less than an hour! Today we went to R, which is a medieval town, very well preserved. Unfortunately it hasn't stopped raining today, so our walk around the old city has been cut short. Hopefully it will ease up and we can head back this afternoon.
Last night was the big football (soccer) match for Germany. Dortmund were playing Bayern Munich in the final of the UEFA champions league, in London. So there was a lot of talk about it before hand. The favourites BM won 2-1, but it was a good game. Very skilful teams and a great spectacle which we watched on the tv with German commentary. Interesting how the different codes do their prematch entertainment and their post match awards etc. Some things I think the AFL do better, some they could learn from their European colleagues.