the skinny on stuttgart

Since moving to Munich 7 years ago, one of the top things on my list has been to explore Germany. I didn’t want to be one of those people who move to a city, lives in that one city and flies away all the time without discovering the country they are in. So feeling inspired I looked for a city that was close by enough to take two kids but somewhere that I hadn’t been too before and up came Stuttgart.

I did my usual trawl, that I do before I travel. I just don’t believe you can get the best out of a city by being spontaneous, so it doesn’t matter how late or early I have to do it, this won’t be left out. 

The trip was two days, three nights, so we filled it up as much as was possible and we managed to achieve quite a bit. 

Accommodation was the first thing on the list. The Park Inn by Radisson Stuttgart was perfect. It was available on short notice, the hotel staff were friendly, the room was comfortable and it was pretty straight forward to get there from the central station.

We did a 2.5-hour bus tour organised by Tourismus Stuttgart and it was very interesting. For anyone who hasn’t been to Stuttgart, this city is hilly. Not just a slight gradient, but seriously hilly. If you are an avid mountain biker, this is the city is for you and also has some famous route. Not just that, but Stuttgart has beautiful vineyards high above the city. There are wine tastings aplenty, but that is for the next trip.

There are so many restaurants, it was very difficult to choose where to go, but we chose three places. Carl’s looks like the typical tourist trap restaurant from the outside, but it really wasn’t. The layout of the restaurant and the ambience made it suitable for couples, locals, tourists, families and best of all they serve locally produced alcohol which gave us an opportunity to try both the wine and beer from the area. 

For brunch with friends, we went to the Breuninger department store restaurant. I would only recommend this for families or those who can brave children heaven. It was a little much for me with the buggy park but this is ideal for parents who want to eat in peace. There is an expansive menu for kids and a play area. 

Finally, there was Gardener’s Nosh. The food is 100% instagrammable (see pictures), the only downside that while the food tasted great, it came out cold and the wait was extremely long. They may have been having a bad day which is a shame, but as it stands I wouldn’t necessarily go back.

And just before heading back, we managed to go to ‘Vertigo’ exhibition in the Kunstmuseum Stuttgart. I thought the exhibition was going to be able dizzying heights, but it actually referred to the feeling that you should get by looking at the paintings and constructions. There should be a dizzying displacement. The exhibition was thoroughly enjoyable for all of us.