France & Germany! Day 7: Stuttgart, Museums

We woke up and nobody died of hypothermia. lol. The rooms had heated up in the night and it was a comfortable sleep. Daddy Lim and I were up at 6am to do the laundry. In fact, we had been waking up before 6am automatically almost everyday throughout the Europe trip. I don’t know if it was the jet lag or simple an old people thing. Must be the latter bcos this didn’t happen for the kids.

The laundromat was empty. It cost 4 euro for a wash, taking about 45 mins and 1 euro for 10 mins of dryer. 

We were very excited to find an instant coffee machine for only 70 cents euro but it was a fraud! Somebody messed with the cup and we eventually didn’t get any coffee. Sob!

Bfast! We were very happy with hot soupy instant noodles. 

The plan was to leave the house before 9am but we of course failed. Anyhow, it was a 2 museums day and we had plenty of time. We left the accommodation with all the radiators running and bedroom door closed, hoping that it would help to heat up the room.

Once out, we had to figure out how the get to the Mercedes museum. We googled map to the bus stop and had to figure out how to buy the bus tickets. There were friendly tourists ambassadors (or whatever you call them) stationed at the bus stop, maybe bcos that bus stop is right outside the main train station and there would be many blur tourists like us. We were told that the VVS app works very well to figure out the route and to buy tickets. Yes, we know, but we cannot read German. Eventually, we were told to buy the bus tickets onboard the bus. 

The bus driver was super nice. We told him our destination and he helped us to find the cheapest tickets. There are the daily tickets, the short trip tickets, the one trip tickets, the group tickets. They all cost differently We eventually paid 13.4 euro for the group tickets for traveling in zone 1 the entire day. The tickets work on all buses, trams and trains in the zone. Woo! That was a steal, or I felt so bcos I was still thinking if we had to spend a lot of $$ on transport the night before. 

The bus was crowded and almost everybody was going to the museum. 

I can’t remember how much was the entrance. I think we paid over 40 euro for our family. The museum started with this very futuristic looking elevator.

The museum is a lot about cars (of course), Mercedes car from old times to present. It was a lot on history too, they have this wall with pictures depicting the major incidents taking place in Europe. I thought it was enriching but the kids got bored quickly. 

We spent a good 2 hours at the museum before making our way to the 2nd museum. We found e-scooters near the bus stop and were contemplating scooting to the next destination but the bicycles and scooters need to go on the roads at times and we weren’t confident. The kids ended up renting one just to scoot on the pavement for fun and that cost us 2.5 euro. That is a lot of money for that few mins of fun. The legal age to ride one of those is 18 YO but ah Yee said that nobody cares. 

We got ourselves to the 2nd museum - a funny pig museum. We spotted it soon after we alighted from the tram. So big, cannot miss. 

Before that, lunch at the cafe. It was our 1st real German food. Daddy Lim even ordered a beer to go along. 

The food was so-so. Daddy Lim’s ravioli was somewhat like a big siew mai. I found the beef goulash a little too thick, and salty. Nana found a hair in her soup and got upset. I exchanged soup with her; I don’t know how to complain in a foreign land, especially when we are Asians. At least there was no other hair or foreign particles in the soup. Hoho. 

The museum was right next to the restaurant. It was a collection of all piggy stuff, enough to fill 2 floors. 

The dinosaur and fish heads were replaced by piggy heads. Haha. 

Piggy Christmas tree.

The final plan was actually to find one of those shared bikes to cycle to a place 10km away to look at rubbles from WW2 but it was cold and nobody was keen. They rather go walk the Christmas market. Lol. 

We tried the hot apple punch with cinnamon and kept the cup for home.

A little more walking before it got too cold and we decided that we should head home. 

Dinner was at this kebab place near to our accommodation. Ah yee bought us kebab on our 1st day in France and it was good that we didn’t mind to have it again. We were surprised that the serving was huge! 

You know that the serving is huge when Zaky is willing to forgo the crust. We originally had the thought to tabao home and eat but remembered that the house was super cold and we would be better off at the restaurant. We walked home with a full tummy and were very happy to find the radiator working and the house was warm! We spent the rest of the evening lazing away.

Ah Yee and Athena came to join us in Stuttgart in the night. They took a train, arriving at 9.20pm. 

Daddy Lim and I went to the station to pick them. We didn’t lose our way and brought them safely home. The kids were still awake. Zaky shared the bed with Daddy Lim while Nana with me, so that Ah Yee and Athena could have a room too. 

Mummy Lim