Day 7 - Stuttgart and Heidelberg

Trip Progress

Day Summary

Wake up Tübingen

Getting up early so we could be in Stuttgart for some big plans!

While we LOVED Tübingen the city, our accommodations were blah. Fortunately, there wasn’t anything to do, clean up, or jtidy up… We didn’t even upack. We just left.

Drive to Stuttgart

It was a quiet drive to Stuttgart that morning…

Breakfast

Stuttgart

Porsche Museum

Most of the trip planning was done by me, with some periodic help from the family. I tried my best to quadruple-check that everyone was happy with the itinerary.

However, the Porsche Museum was one of the few surprises that Lori and I planned for the of the trip. The kids had mentioned it a few times, asked if we were going, but we kept saying, “we’ll look into it.” and never committed… you’ll see why in a moment

When we arrived, we walked in past this bright yellow 718 Cayman GT4RS.

I was excited to see them notice the car and get excited about it. They wanted to go look at it and take pictures.

I told them, *“That is parking for where people who bring their Porsche to the Museum to get VIP…we can’t go over there…”

Disappointed - they bought into my lie…

Little did they know, we’d soon be driving it!

The Museum

Inside, we bought tickets and Lori took the kids while I “had to take a work call” .

I actually headed over to the Porsche Driving Experience desk and got all the arrangements done — and the key to that 718 GT4RS.

I caught up with Lori and the kids driving car simulators - not surprised.

Rental Car

I told Tyler that I found the owner of the Porsche and they agreed to letting us take some pictures of the car as long as we didn’t touch it.

So went back outside to check out the car. When we got there, I kept pushing the boundaries: first touching it, then opening a door, then getting inside, then starting the car.

Not sure what Tyler was thinking, but the look on his face was a mix between scared and this is awesome! (a permanent smile)

This was one of the things Lori and I were looking forward to most on this trip. Keeping it a secret a secret was hard, but totally worth it.

The only bummer was: like many Porsches, this car was a two-seater. Which meant, someone had to stay back with the other kid.

Since Lori didn’t want to drive, I volunteered to do it.

These are the sacrifices that dads have to make sometimes…

Lunch and Kid Swap

Each kid took a turn riding for about an hour ride. We basically just got lost on the Autobahn, driving through no speed limit sections and country roads.

While each kid was riding the other was taking a tour of the museum and getting some food from the cafe.

This actually worked out really well - but poor Lori had to do the museum tour TWICE !

It was a lot of fun, and I fully took advantage…testing a lot of the car’s capabilities. But I’ll admit: I was quite nervous driving a $240,000 car around. Even though we had the rental car all day, two trips out putting the car to some test was enough risk/reward for me. We decided to go check into our hotel, drop bags, and explore.

Hotel - Jungle No 5

Parking Garage

We arrived at the parking garage near the hotel (there was nowhere else to park).

The inside of the garage was run down, smelled like a bathroom, graffiti everywhere plus murals of naked men and women…

Lori: “Eric…”

Me: “What do you want me to do… it’s Europe…”

Tyler: “Mom!”

Me/Lori: “Yes Tyler, we know…”

The Walk

We walked with our luggage 5 blocks.

86°F doesn’t seem that hot, but we were roasting…dragging our roller bags down cobblestone roads — everyone in the world knew tourists were coming.

When we passed the casino, I thought little of it. But when we passed the first gentleman’s club, I looked further down the road. There was another, and another…

Thank heavens we were doing this during the day and not at night.

We get to where we expected the hotel to be, right there adjacent to another adult establishment. But…

The door was locked. We needed a code.

Where do I get a code? (scrambling through emails and the booking site) “I found the code!”

Code doesn’t work.

(trying multiple times, looking up number to call, sweating bullets in the street with no shade…)

Someone opens the door, and we sneak in.

The Hotel

Inside, it had to be over 100°F . No A/C. Awesome.

No lobby, no instructions. I think: it’s probably in an email then.

Found it! Top floor. Awesome.

Elevator?

Looking all over the first floor / narrow hallway, we can’t find an elevator. Just an insanely steep spiral staircase.

Wait - there’s a woman gathering towels and cleaning. Lori asks for elevator.

She rolls her eyes, signals for us to follow, and then disappears behind a service door.

We race to follow her. Walking through the door…she’s gone. We follow a maze of more doors and eventually end up coming back to the hallway entrance by the front door!

Where did she go?!

Upstairs

Tyler and I ventured up 8 flights of the narrowest, steepest staircase.

Reaching the top floor, with a beautiful skylight brightening the walkway - it had to be 110°F up there. Like a hot car in July.

The door was locked. We needed a code.

Where do I get a code? (scrambling through emails and the booking site) “I found the code!”

Code doesn’t work.

(trying multiple times, looking up number to call, sweating bullets in the street with no shade…)

Maybe we were too early to check-in? No…it was past 3:00pm? Hmmm…

Not expecting to get lucky again and have someone open the door… we walked back down.

Now What?

Lori had found this side room with a little couch and the boys took a seat.

By this point, I was starving (I forgot, I didn’t have lunch!), annoyed, and just wanted to relax somewhere. I told Lori I’m done - I was looking for another place.

There was NOTHING available in Stuttgart.

So, I decided to look for a hotel in Heidelberg (which was our destination for the next day anyway).

Lori started looking as well and found a room at the Hilton (which is where we had a reservation).

Done. Booked. And, we left the Jungle

We walked back to the ramp, grabbed the car, and left!

First Dinner

We stopped at a phenomenal pizza place off of the highway, just outside of Stuttgart.

I was so furious about the hotel situation it took me a bit to calm down.

We met a super nice couple and chatted about their trip to USA and our trip in Germany so far. Large pizza was gone in minutes.

Heidelberg

Just arriving in Heidelberg was refreshing. The vibe was 180° from where we just left.

Hotel

We checked in to our hotel.

• amazing (wouldn’t have taken much though)
• awesome location
• excellent rooms (connected rooms)

Dinner

Table with a view by the Neckar River, people watching, excellent food, maybe a beer or two. This was a much needed end to a hectic day!

The kids loved their food - which was a huge relief.

Walk around

Like many nights, arriving late into a city, we spent the night walking around.

One of the reasons for coming to Heidelberg was the reviews about it’s calm, but social vibe. We loved this park along the river where everyone gathered with friends.

We were super excited that the next day would be a non-travel day, and we would have the entire day to explore Heidelberg!

Quote of the Day

Put the monkey down…You don’t know where it’s been.