Stuttgart

Last weekend the boys and I took the train down to Stuttgart to see Marc. He's getting close to the end of a six-month project there. He comes home Wednesday nights and weekends but last week he had a Friday off, so instead of him coming home, we went there to see the city for the first time. He's been rooming with another guy who has a sweet apartment in the heart of the city. Everything you could possibly need is within just a few blocks. I love great locations! I woke up each morning to the smell of the bakery right down stairs.

So the boys and I took the train two hours south to Stuttgart. If you've been reading my blog you know how hard it is traveling by plane with Doren. It's completely awful! Trains are only slightly easier because he has more room to move around, but still not quite enough for his level of independence. Just two hours of dealing with him on a train and I'm done. DONE FOR THE DAY. He climbs on the seat in front of him and stands on the window ledge. Of course he slips down and hits his chin and screams despite my constantly trying to pull him down and tell him its a bad idea. He just climbs back up, smiles his devilish smile and jumps on the seats until he hits his head again. Other passengers get up and change seats because he's so loud and obnoxious. If there was a seatbelt to keep him in his seat he would either figure out a way to get it off or scream so loud for so long that other passengers would probably pick us up and throw us from the moving train. It's so exhausting trying to deal with him, but I kept telling myself, "Just one more hour. Just thirty more minutes. Just ten more minutes." When Marc finally met us on the platform I rolled the stroller in his general direction and threw my hands up. Stick a fork in me! I'm done!!

As soon as we left the station, and I could decompress from the traveling stress, I immediately fell in love with Stuttgart. It's such a nice city! It's hard to pinpoint exactly what I liked about it - it had a different vibe from Berlin and Munich, both of which I also really like. I think I could see myself living there more than the other two cities. There were gorgeous water fountains everywhere, beautiful plazas and enchanting city parks. The hilly neighborhoods reminded us of the West Hills in Portland. There were so many cute shops I would have liked to go in but didn't even bother trying with three kids and a big stroller.

Here are a bunch of pictures from the weekend, courtesy of Marc...

At a little street fair

This was supposed to be a really cute family picture, like maybe Christmas photo material, but it was too bright to open our eyes for even a second.

Oh well.

I really liked this fountain at a permanent indoor marketplace.

Uddorrrs!

Untitled

One of many awesome playgrounds we visited.

Morning meditation on mischief strategies.

"I'm ready to begin."

Doren is tucked in the back seat. Finally! The oldest can help to contain his brothers.

We climbed to the top of this tower to see the view.

I'm not afraid of heights but once it started swaying Doren and I went back down.

On one of the days we went to a huge playground within an immense city park. There were so many neat things for kids to do. As I sat there watching them, it struck me how many different types of people were there. I heard Spanish, French, Russian, Chinese and who knows what else. There were Middle Easterners and Africans in hijab. There were other Americans of every race. And kids of every ethnicity were also speaking German. At one point the boys were spinning on this thing with kids representing four different continents! With all the turmoil in the world I love how a playground can bring everyone together. It's just kids playing with other kids.

They were spinning on this thing for over an hour dragging their hands in the muddy water. Jonah fell off at least twice and was completely splattered in mud. It was too easy to laugh in his face when he came to me asking for a wipee. LOL

"Mommy! Why do we have to keep walking evwee-wayur?!"

The face

At another rad playground

A really popular ice cream window at the top of a hill.

Doren's Chocolate Blue Steele

They don't seem to have any trouble running around a playground for hours, but walking is too hard!

So many stairs

The streetcar system is so efficient.

Germany pulling a Korea

Are you up to something, Dorito Burrito?

That's what I thought.

We went to a store similar to an REI and found more fun stuff to do in there.

When Jonah isn't pouting he looks like this.
I swear I'm not mad! It's just my RBF flaring up! This is proof that I really don't know what my face is doing until I see a candid picture of myself.

Watching the action on the street from the apartment with Marc's roommate.

I really like our village and I've gotten used to the greater area, but I must say I'm pretty jealous of the Americans whose jobs are in Stuttgart or other really nice cities. Our area is kind of the armpit of Germany...but as far as armpits go, it's still one of the nicest, cleanest, prettiest armpits around! It's just not somewhere that anyone would intentionally travel. I doubt our counterparts in Stuttgart would ever come here for the weekend to "check it out". But, hey, it's still Germany and still really lovely and I'm glad there are so many nice places to visit within just a few hours. Stuttgart is on my Yes list!