Stuttgart

As already mentioned I stayed with Julian and Serina Clark in Stuttgart. Julian is an old school friend of my Dad's and he and his wife are both involved with Eurythmy. If you don't know what that is (I was ignorant before staying with Julian) look it up. It's a form of modern dance......sort of.

Anyway, Julian and Serina continued my huge list of fantastic hosts that I've had so far on my travels and I had a great time staying with them. Whilst I was there I went to Freiburg and Strasbourg (as already described), watched England get knocked out of the world cup, visited the zoo with Julian, visited the Benz Museum (as in Mercedes Benz) and generally visited Stuttgart.The Stuttgart Zoo was really nice. It wasn't particulary massive nor did it have particulary exotic wildlife, but it was very nice. Other than New Zealand zoos I've never really been into a zoo so seeing the bears and beavers and things was nice as well as the baby snow leopard. I also went past the Keas and Kakas to say Kia ora. =)The Daimler Benz Museum was only completed in May 2006, so it was brand new and no expense had been spared. Everyone is issued with a little palm-top computer which is activated whenever you press a button near each exibit where it gives detailled information on every display as well as following the history of the development of the automobile, mostly from the companies point of view. After all, it was Daimler who invented the petrol-powered high speed engine that made cars possible. They even had a racing simulator, although unfortunately I had neither the time nor the budget to have a go.What I rather liked about Stuttgart is that it's actually one of the greenest cities in Europe (according to my guide book) with extensive parks throughout the city which were lovely to wander through. Unfortunately I didn't think to photograph them, but it makes Stuttgart a very nice, modern, city.