Full Fun Day in Stuttgart

This was the only full day we had planned in the city I claim as my second home. I was stationed here for three years and then returned for reserve duty the several years after leaving active duty. It remains as one of my favorite cities in the world, and a European visit wasn’t the same without a stopover here.

First objective was laundry, which was done at a laundromat close to Charlottenplatz. I swear it was at a location where my friend Ann Stieglitz and her husband opened a Crossfit Stuttgart gym. Apparently the gym relocated to a larger space across the street, adding to the changes I notice with each visit to my city. Then I realized there was a disappearance of some items, including underwear for Perla. As weird as that is, we were able to visit the mall next to the hotel and get a new pack for her. Between laundry, shopping, it was already 2pm and my full day in Stuttgart was progressing too fast. The kids were happy at the hotel, and Greg and Claire were getting some rest. As tired as I was, I still rallied and met my dear friend Melissa at a fest in Esslingen. There used to be a very favored Zwiebelfest that featured onions and many ways to enjoy eating it, but apparently those had sunset with the pandemic. This was the first weekend of Essfest, which was a newly branded fest for Esslingen aside from their very renown Weinachtmarkt during Christmas.

I was able to meet and catch up with Melissa and her husband, and also meet her fur-baby Trueffel. We then transitioned to the Schlossgarten Biergarten which is something I had planned for us to be visiting a couple of times during our Stuttgart stay. Unfortunately with the Hauptbahnhof construction there were modifications to the Biergarten grounds, and the playground was temporarily closed. Biergartens and Spielplatz’ were the whole reason for us to enjoy Germany the most on our Euro-trip, so I was disappointed my favorite one was temporarily closed. Good thing is there are hundreds of other biergartens to choose from our remaining cities to visit.