Stuttgart - the remainder

So, after the last post we got to Christmas Eve. One of the main reasons for coming to Germany for Christmas was for the boys to see snow. Of course, as happens, they had snow in Stuttgart 2 weeks ago and are expecting more in the next 2 weeks, but Christmas was a "mild" week of winter - so no snow in Stuttgart! Hence, we decided that on the 24th we had better go in search of some snow before the mild weather and rain washed it all away.

Countryside heading south from Stuttgart

It was a bright sunny morning with blue skies

The first snow on the ground we saw was mostly along the tree lines

The taxi driver who took us from the train station to the hotel had said that Titisee was the closest place we were likely to see snow, so we hired a car and headed south from Stuttgart towards the Swiss border. About 80km down the road we came to Rottweil - where we first started to see signs of snow - pushed up into piles in the yards as well as on the ground along the tree line and in the shady areas. After this we turned right and headed into the Black Forest and up into the mountains. We got to Titisee to find that there was indeed snow on the ground - but not a full covering - so we continued on to the ski area of Feldsburg which is a few hundred metres higher than Titisee. There we found a full cover of snow!

Main street of Rottweil

Christmas decorations in Rottweil

Titisee lake

One of the ski slopes in Feldberg

We pulled in to a building that was called "Caritas-house", parked in their parking lot and let the boys loose in the playground area they had out the front. The snow was not well packed and we all kept going through it - Barry and I down the full length of our leg and Ethan up to his armpits! We got back in the car and decided to continue along the road (which was signposted as headed to Basel) and see if we could find another location and some lunch. The road wound down into a valley with a rushing river/creek from the early melt/mild conditions, but there was still plenty of snow on the slopes - eventually we took a turn to Freiberg, leaving the Basel road and wound up another hill. We stopped for lunch (very yummy) and another 10mins down the road came across a ski slope that had lots of kids on it as well as tobaggan/ sled area. We let the boys out to play again.

First time in the snow

Snowball fights

Stuck up to his armpits!

One of the many villages in the valley

River that was running quite fast

One of several waterfalls we saw

The village where we had lunch

The view from our lunch table

From here we continued to Freiberg before turning north towards Kahlruhe - taking a short 15km detour out to see the Rhine at Strassbourg - crossing briefly into France. We then returned to Stuttgart.

The Rhine

Christmas
We spent the morning in the room with presents and calls back to Australia and had a very nice buffet lunch in the hotel. The weather was milder, about 12-15C so after lunch we went for a short walk - finding an area of allotments where people had plots of vegetables as well as numerous fruit trees planted. With perfect timing the rain rolled in just as we were about 200m from the hotel so we only got a little damp. We snoozed in the afternoon whilst the boys played with their toys and had a light dinner.

One of the allotments we walked past

26/27th
Many places were closed on the 26th but we decided to travel out to Ludswigsberg to see the Palaces that are located out there. The day was the coldest that we had had since arriving with the wind being bitterly cold, in addition to the drizzly rain! The residential palace was open, but have only one tour in English which takes 90min - whilst we would have loved to do it the boys were not being very cooperative so we went instead to the "Favourite-palace" that was basically the hunting/party lodge and had a short half hour tour instead! Food was our biggest problem as everything was closed!

War memorial at Ludswigsberg

Church in the market place

Front of the church

Church on the other side of the market place with the remains of the Christmas market

Walking the path next to the residential palace

The last full day in Stuttgart was spent like our first one - shopping! The boys had Christmas money to spend so we headed back into town - plus there were a few things we wanted to get - so that was it. The only other highlights involved afternoon tea at the Kauffehaus (coffee house) at the hotel with its delicious cakes/strudel and dinner at an Asian restaurant that had a superb buffet - with premade dishes, sushi, desserts but which also had a BBQ section - where you choose your own meat/vege/sauce and they cook it fresh - it was lovely!

Nose in a book