Why Stuttgart?

In December 2021, I had a plan to visit Kuwait to see my family and I decided to make a stop in Germany for 5 days before continuing my journey to Kuwait. I originally flew from Toronto to Frankfurt and then took a train from Frankfurt to Stuttgart where I spent 2 days and then I spent 3 more days in Berlin.

I was visiting Stuttgart for the first time; I visited many German cities in the past such as Hamburg, Berlin, Bremen, Dortmund, Dusseldorf, Cologne, and many others but I’ve never had the chance to visit Stuttgart so I thought it would be a good idea to plan a stop there for a couple of nights to explore a new city and to visit 2 museums which I always wanted to see; Mercedes-Benz and Porsche museums.

Stuttgart is the 6th largest city in Germany and is famous for being the home of Mercedes-Benz, Porsche, Bosch, and Daimler-AG. The city is located on the Neckar river in a valley and lies an hour from the Black Forest.

Landing in Germany

I flew from Toronto to Frankfurt with Lufthansa. The flight was full but generally uneventful. It was an overnight flight for about 7 hours so I landed at Frankfurt airport at around 7 am local time. Passport control was like a breeze and I just had to show my Canadian vaccine certificate to enter Germany (No PCR test was required). However, my suitcase took too long to arrive so I ended up missing my train to Stuttgart but that wasn’t a problem as I was able to take the next train 30 minutes later.

I arrived at my hotel at around 10.30 am and luckily, I was allowed to check in early although check-in starts at 3 pm. The hotel had an ideal location, about 5 minutes walk from the central train station.

I stayed in Motel One hotel which is a popular hotel chain in Germany. The hotel was nice, modern, and clean but the room was small and basic. When I travel, I often stay in Airbnb apartments especially when I travel in Eastern Europe. However, Airbnb isn’t great everywhere you go. I did some research in Germany and I didn’t find a big price difference between Airbnb apartments and hotel rooms. Besides, many of these Airbnb apartments don’t have great reviews so I decided to stay in a hotel. It was a high season when I was there so the stay per night cost around 100 Euros (around $114 USD). I was obviously missing the prices in my beloved Ukraine and Russia but I’m in Germany now so I have to accept these rates, even for a tiny hotel room.

A beautiful evening in Stuttgart

I was exhausted after a long overnight flight and a train ride so I showered and changed and managed to get an hour or so of sleep. in the afternoon, it was time to go out to explore the city and luckily, my good German friend (We’re friends since 2014) showed me around like a professional tour guide. It was such a lovely evening to walk around the city of Stuttgart and see the beautiful Christmas decorations everywhere in the city. I enjoyed the beautiful walk around the city center but the highlight of the evening was the view of the city from the hilltop, it was a breath-taking moment and I’m grateful once again to my great German friend who drove me up there to enjoy the magical view.

Later in the evening, we had dinner in an elegant and traditional German restaurant that combines the atmosphere of a historic building with the joy of the traditional cuisine of the Baden-Württemberg region. Everything we ordered tasted amazing. I loved the Schwäbischer Sauerbraten dish I ordered and the dessert tasted magnificent. It was definitely an evening to remember.

Mercedes-Benz Museum

The next morning, after having a delicious German breakfast which consisted of a Chicken with Sauerkraut sandwich and an Apfelstrudel, it was time for me to visit one of the major highlights of this trip to Stuttgart, which is the museum of Mercedes-Benz.

After handling my vaccine certificate at the door, I was given the green light to enter the museum. I bought my ticket to the museum for 10 Euros. They asked me to keep my ticket and to show it when I visit the Porsche museum to get a 25% discount. I went to the fancy cloakroom to hang my coat there and then started my tour in this fabulous museum, a tour I dreamed about for a long time.

I started the tour on the top floor where I saw the oldest cars from the invention of the automobile era (1886-1900) and from the birth of the Mercedes brand period which is between 1900 and 1914.

A few minutes later, it was very interesting for me to see the beautiful 300 TD Station Wagon, which is, according to many experts, the best Mercedes car ever built. There’s always something very special about these Station Wagons and seeing one of them there brought a smile to my face.

I moved to a lower floor where I saw a beautiful SL from the post-war era. It’s definitely beautiful but I was looking to see more Mercedes cars from the 1980s and 1990s as I grew up watching these cars in the streets of Kuwait and I wanted to see them there in the museum to have some sweet childhood memories back.

And here I am standing in front of one of my dearest models; E190 from 1984. Everything about this car looks so perfect, it looked ahead of its time, the only downside was the colour, I wish it was black.

And the beautiful surprises continue and here I am admiring the beauty of this magnificent SL500 from 1986. It’s one of my all-time favourite Mercedes models.

Another model of my beloved E190 but this time it’s from the early 90s. This car is from California and was owned by Nicolas Cage who donated it to the museum years ago. What an elegant car!

And now it’s time to check out some SL models from different eras. My personal favourite is the maroon SL which was owned by Lady Diana. I like other models too but not the newest one in black. The ones who know me very well also know that I admire older Mercedes-Benz much more than the newer ones.

Let’s not forget that Mercedes has had many successes in the world of formula one. From left to right, Nico Rosberg’s Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 car that won the 2016 championship and next to it is the amazing McLaren-Mercedes car of the Finnish legend Mika Häkkinen from 1998.

Finally, after spending around 2 hours which were full of beautiful emotions and nostalgia, it was time to leave this magnificent venue. I needed to go back to the hotel to rest a bit, charge my phone, and then head to the Porsche museum which I needed to explore on the same day as I was planning to leave Stuttgart for Berlin the next day in the morning.

In short, the Mercedes-Benz museum is a must-see in Stuttgart as it’s a great opportunity to enjoy learning more about the history and the beauty of this amazing car manufacturer.

Porsche Museum

In the afternoon, I took the S-Bahn from the central station in Stuttgart and headed to Porscheplatz where the Porsche museum is located. The entrance fee to the museum was also 10 Euros but I got a 25% discount because I visited the Mercedes museum on the same day.

Porsche is my dream car and I admire the marvelous engineering of this company. Visiting their museum in Stuttgart was something I wanted to do for a very long time. It’s hard to compare my emotions when I was at the Porsche museum with my visit to the Mercedes-Benz museum hours earlier but let me try to explain it here; At Mercedes-Benz museum I felt nostalgic while at Porsche I had that feeling of joy and even ecstasy. I was literally walking around while smiling the whole time I was there.

Porsche museum is significantly smaller than the Mercedes-Benz museum so the whole tour would take around an hour or so. I was fascinated by all the gorgeous Porsche models I saw there. Each model has something unique about it. Porsche 911 Turbo S model from the 1990s was on top of my favourite list. I also took a photo of a very special Mercedes model which was built by Porsche, it’s Mercedes E500. To read more about this interesting story, click here.

I also have a very special place in my heart for the 924 model from the 1980s; it was another car ahead of its time. I loved the 911 from 1974 (It’s the silver car with frog eyes). I also loved the red 911 model from 1967 which is also known as “Targa”. Finally, I’m not a fan of the Porsche Panamera but some people may find it interesting so you can view it below, it’s the sedan car in blue.

Conclusion

I enjoyed my short stay in Stuttgart. As stated above, the city is famous for its automative industry. Furthermore, Stuttgarters are amazingly friendly people and they have an interesting local dialect which is called Schwäbisch. Stuttgart is a city with a very unique character. I had no expectations before visiting it and I’m glad it was a pleasant surprise. I found the prices of food, drinks, and transportation really affordable (Well, I live in Toronto, one of the most expensive cities) so I guess any European city would be affordable comparing to crazy prices in Toronto.

Finally, Stuttgart is a special city to me because it’s the hometown of my forever favourite football player and my childhood hero. I always loved his passion when he celebrated scoring goals and of course, his diving headers were the best ever. He gave every German football supporter numerous moments of joy. His name is Jürgen Klinsmann.