Stuttgart date was no example of German efficiency
I hadn't been to Stuttgart before and the business side of the trip was very enjoyable and successful.
However, our story doesn't start well. Hours before flying, Muddy came down with a nasty bout of food poisoning and was unfit for travel, so musical director Grant Windsor and I began our epic voyage to the state of Baden-Wrttemberg.
For an industrial area, Stuttgart is very green with lots of hills and parks. I reminisced to Grant about family holidays to Llandudno in the '70s before being rudely interrupted (to his relief) by the looming of a stark concrete apparition not dissimilar in taste to the old Bradford and Bingley headquarters where I used to work during the summer months. This Alcatraz was our hotel. I don't normally pay for broadband in hotels as it can be expensive, however this was an emergency. I needed to be able to video-conference Muddy as she always does my hair and make-up. Without her, there was a good chance I might leave for work looking like Dustin Hoffman in Tootsie.
Of course, the broadband was kaput. There was little to do except eat biscuits. Grant and I decided to meet up and explore. After hours wandering round the streets of nowheresville, we ended up back at the deserted hotel restaurant next to the tram stop. Every few minutes a shiny yellow tram would trundle past packed full of people staring out, but none of them stopped.
Our waitress, Olga, blew the dust off the menus. I'm all for "when in Rome" so I pointed to the menu and asked what a typical German would eat. She suggested Thai green curry. Grant had viener schnitzel and I had a minute steak... it wasn't called that, neither had it been cooked for 60 seconds. It was a minute steak in stature – so small you could barely see it. Frankly you'd find more meat on a hamster. All mitherings aside, Stuttgart is a beautiful place and the people (when we found them) were delightful.
As for the puddings...
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Sunday 12 February 2012
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Temperature: 1 C to 6 C
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Sunny spells
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