Stuttgart

Stuttgart is the capital of Baden-Württemberg. It was heavily destroyed during the war and most of what is reconstructed is extremely ugly. What remained bears testimony of what might have been one of the jewels of Germany. It has gentle hilly backgrounds which give the city a distinctive touch. The Schillerplatz, with the Stiftskirche's narrowly squeezed in one of its corner, is a magical sight when coming from the new castle.

The city is also renowned for its car industry (home to both Porsche and Mercedes-Benz). We visited the Mercedes-Benz's museum, with the impression they pioneered the entire car industry, but with a feeling their corporatism distorted a bit the facts.

Visits

We visited Stuttgart at the occasion of the 2012 German Physical Society meeting.

Schillerplatz with the Alte Kanzlei;
the Stiftskirche, on the other side,
narrowly erect, gives the place a touch of fairy tale, especially at dusk.
At the Markthalle.
An angel uninterested by das Neue Schloss.
just as the other passers-by.

Of interest

Technical museum: Mercedes-Benz Museum, Mercedesstraße 137/1, Bad Cannstatt (S-Bahn: "Neckarpark (Mercedes-Benz)". [1]), [2]. Newly built in 2006 in an astonishing architecture. Go early to have time to queue for the "simulator" at the end of the tour (we missed that). The exhibition is interesting but it sounded propagandistic at times. We had the feeling they did everything...
Fernsehturm Stuttgart, TV Tower (1954-1956) [3], world's first TV tower built from reinforced concrete and prototype for all modern TV towers, with a beautiful view over Stuttgart. There's a cafe at the top; we had to argue with the waiter over the price of the glass of Sekt we ordered, against the claim that the price indicated on the price list was merely indicative (he wanted to charge twice as much instead).
Württemberg State Museum. It was interesting to look for the exhibit in the higher floors, which led us through abandoned parts of the castle, getting out through doors bearing the mention "private" or "closed to the public".

Left for us to see

Library (Württembergische Landesbibliothek StuttgartÖffnungszeitenFrag), with a special architecture.
Technical museum: Porsche Museum, Porscheplatz 1, Zuffenhausen (S-Bahn: S6 to "Neuwirtshaus (Porscheplatz)". [4])
State gallery: Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, Konrad-Adenauer-Str. 30-32, [5] (permanent exhibits are free on Wednesdays and Saturdays).

Food

Specialty

Maultaschen (Ravioli). Big squares, the fewest of them, the better. We went as far as being served a couple only. Since then, we have them regularly as they happen to be available everywhere.

Restaurants

Schwabian gastronomy:

Alte Kanzlei Our instant favourite. Exceptional location, you go straight from your table to the best part of Stuttgart, the Schillerplatz. Cheap for the quality.
Sophies Brauhaus Local brewing. Good price, food okay.

Left for us to visit

Weinstuben Stuttgarter Stäffele, Buschlestrasse 2A/B, (Ecke Augustenstrasse)
Calwer-Eck-Bräu Brewery Small brewery. It was full.

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