I started the day early in the morning in Muscat, Oman. My flight to Germany left at 2:00 AM.
Luckily I was flying business class and the seats were quite comfortable as I needed to get rest during the 7 hour flight.
Today’s inflight menu…. needless to say I was more interested in sleep than food.
After a smooth flight, going through EU immigration and retrieving my luggage I retrieved my rental car. Luckily I was able to get a new sporty fun car (not that sporty mind you) with a manual gearbox – a VW Golf.
I definitely didn’t want an SUV for two reasons – the first one being the low clearance in the underground car parks and the second reason being they are not allowed on the ‘Green Hell’ which I was determined to actually drive on this time as it still bothered me that I was so close a few years ago and hadn’t made an attempt to drive on it.
I drove from Frankfurt to Stuttgart. I had booked myself at the aloft hotel which is part of the Marriott chain and nearby downtown Stuttgart.
I checked into the hotel first as they had a promotion that included admission to the Mercedes Benz museum which I had intended to visit this morning as the Porsche museum was closed for the holiday. The room was typical for the aloft brand which an open floorplan. Nothing too exciting about the view from the window.
Now that I have checked in I drove to the Mercedes Benz museum which was actually pretty close to downtown Stuttgart.
The outside of the museum is quite stylish.
Since I already had my ticket I didn’t need to wait in a long queue. I got an audio guide (included) and waited for the lift to take me to the top floor.
The museum website also has a very good virtual tour
The first section of the museum had exhibits about the founding of the company and examples of very early vehicles and engines. Some of the vehicles were quite rudimentary.
As you meandered down the slopes the vehicles got newer and newer.
I had no idea they made a double decker bus for London.
This high speed transporter for the race car was also quite interesting. Very sleek and fast too. The racing car it was designed to transport was a 300 SLR. Read more about it in German in the virtual tour.
I took so many more photos, but the museum virtual tour has excellent photos, so I will stick to the highlights.
Some photos of engine cutaways. I always enjoy these.
And now for the most famous Mercedes Benz, the gullwing. Surprisingly the doors were a requirement from the high sides of the space frame used for the car. You can see in the pictures of the car how high and wide the entry of the door really is.
There was a station wagon with am umbilical which they used to collect data from cars it followed.
And now the fun part of the museum, the racer cars (and trucks). There was a few examples of Formula 1 cars in addition to GT and other cars.
Who knew Mercedes copied the Fiero?
I was finally at the gift shop (the exit), My next stop was the Gottlieb Diamler Memorial which was nearby and free. I hurried though it as the weather was about to turn bad and I couldn’t get the parking meter to work. It’s a small museum, but well worth the price of admission (free).
It was impressive knowing what there were able to build with such rudimentary tools in a small workshop.
After a quick bite on the road I drove to Lichtenstein Castle.
It’s a small castle on a rock next to a cliff. It’s an impressive sight. I didn’t make it there in time for the tour in English, but Google Translate helped me understand most of what was said by the tour guide in German. Photos inside are forbidden, but there was a Durer inside and there is an escape tunnel that does to the lower part of the rock where one could in theory climb to the valley below.
I took a bunch of pictures outside the castle from all the angles I could.
After the castle closed for the day there was still plenty of daylight, so I followed a sign to the ruins of an old castle nearby. The trail was well marked, but it was just a pile of rocks.
There was a couple of scenic spots looking out over the valley and a couple of monuments.
Now it was time to go back to the hotel and explore a little of downtown Stuttgart.
I just was in Japan, but found a highly rated Ramen place and it was pretty good, despite corn being in the soup.
I strolled back to the hotel through a park.
It was the end of a very long day, and there was more exploring to do tomorrow.
Today’s timeline:
