Our Stuttgart Hotel (and Surroundings)

Our hotel in Stuttgart wasn't really in Stuttgart. More of a suburb. The area had a few hotels and two major entertainment centers, as well as a train stop for convenient travel without a car.

Our hotel was the SI-Suites, which has spacious apartment-style rooms. We had a small kitchen (refrigerator, sink, and microwave), a large dinner table, two bathrooms and a nice view of some park area.

SI Suites, Stuttgart (sort of)

View from our window

The entertainment complexes include several restaurants and bars, a movie theater, and two live theaters. Musicals seemed to be the order of the day when we were there. The movies had Les Miserables and the two theater shows were Mamma Mia! and Sister Act. We didn't get to see any shows.

We did find an underground tunnel that went from our side of the road to the train station's side of the road. It was a little spooky with black lights and funny patterns projected on the walls. J and L loved it.

Spooky floating balls

Watery blue lights

The underground fountain, with a black and white movie showing

On our last day, J was feeling poorly and I had to go find medicine. The weather at this point was sub-zero temperatures with a harsh wind. I walked to the local grocery store but the only medicines they had were herbal homeopathic stuff. So I walked back to the hotel to ask the front desk for a pharmacy. They found a few in the nearby town and printed out a google map for me. A pharmacy in Germany are called an "apotheke." So I walked back past the grocery store further into town. Finding the apotheke wasn't hard. Inside, the only items available for browsing were cosmetics. All the medicines were behind the counter. I wanted the equivalent of Children's Tylenol (the active ingredient is acetaminophen). My wife looked it up online and in Germany acetaminophen is called paracetamol. The pharmacist (or apothecary, I suppose) spoke a little bit of English and I was able to communicate my need. She asked if I wanted a liquid-based or suppository. I chose the liquid. It wasn't too expensive, only 4 euros.

On the walk I saw a cool ramp at one of the train stations and a helicopter!

Stroller/Wheelchair-accessible stairs!

What is that helicopter doing up there?

Back at the hotel, J would barely take the medicine. It was a tough morning, but soon enough we were off to the airport. Luckily, we had already planned to check a bag so we didn't have to throw away the rest of the paracetamol. Getting through security was pretty easy, but the other side of security had some interesting items.

Stuttgart International Airport is actually Stuttgart Interplanetary Airport

Backgammon with chocolate pieces! I guess you only play once.

The flight was uneventful and we made it home safely. It was a great trip.