Stuttgart

A few weekends ago I went to Stuttgart with Chris. He has some family there that he has never met and he was going to visit them for the first time and he wanted somebody to come along, I like Germany so I joined in. After the six hour train ride we arrived well after dark. His aunt and uncle were waiting for us at the station. After introductions they drove us about 15 minutes outside of the city to their apartment. We unloaded our stuff and then went into the living room to talk while dinner finished cooking. Chris’s uncle is a theoretical physicist that does research at a local institute in the city that was founded after the Second World War in order to begin once again developing Germany’s competence in many technical topics. His aunt works at the same institute teaching language. We talked a lot about Chris’s family, because he has never met them they enjoyed discussing family, especially family that still lives in Bolivia, where his they are from. We stayed up until about 11 talking, moving back to the living room after dinner.

The next morning we got up and Chris’s aunt, who is the one related to him, took us into the city to enjoy the Saturday morning hum. Stuttgart is a very nice city, though I have never been to a German city I didn’t like. We walked about the many open air markets that were busy selling cheeses, meats, fresh produce, flowers and even advent wreaths. We saw the city hall the opera house, and generally the bustling part of the city. After a few hours of walking Chris and I said goodbye to his aunt and we got on the metro to go to a few miles outside the city to the Mercedes-Benz Museum.

The museum as amazing, maybe one of my favorites I have been to. It walked through the very beginning of the automobile and the influences of Benz and Daimler and then the whole history of the two companies, their merger and up to the present day. They showcased cars from throughout their history; There was even a Pope-Mobile made by the company. We had a great time, it was a wonderful museum so we spent a lot of time there and after we had finished it was getting late. When we got back to the city we grabbed a sushi snack of all things at a restaurant. The sushi came along on a conveyer belt and you picked off what you wanted to eat.

After the snack we took a tram back to the apartment for dinner. We began with drinks in the living room, and Chris’s aunt had invited her daughter and her boyfriend over for dinner. There were in their late 20s and they had just returned earlier that day from a week of sightseeing in New York City. It was fascinating to hear what they had to say about the American culture and NYC in particular, especially because I got to visit the city a few times this past summer. Once again after dinner we returned to the living room to enjoy drinks and after dinner conversation, we even broke out some scotch. We talked until almost 2am before finally calling it a night.

The next morning was Sunday, so we were up early to get to Church. The Catholic Church in Germany has seen better days, and better clergy so true to character I found a parish run by the Fraternity of St. Peter so we could stay away from all the crazy non-sense that often goes on in German churches. The Mass was glorious. The church used to be a parish church, and it is the ugliest building man could hope to create. And seeing that the novel non-sense of modern German “Catholicism” had failed, the Fraternity came to take over the church. They sacred had outlasted, overcome, and re-inhabited that which had been so profane. There were 13 altar servers, ranging from probably ten years old up to twenty. There were probably more male altar servers at this Mass than all the other churches in the Diocese of Stuttgart combined.  Anyway I was giddy for the next few hours over how clearly the modern attempt and Catholicism had failed and how the ancient remained and how clearly it showed at this parish, which was packed full.

Just a few minutes walk down the road from the Church was the Porsche museum. So of course we took our time there. It was also a great museum but I liked the layout of the Mercedes-Benz much more. It was very interesting to see the progression of this famous brand. After the museum we headed back to Riva for a crazy week of class.