Blogs from Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, Germany, Europe - page 4

Hello, tis I josh. Today we went to the Mercedes museum. Guess what we saw cars! We went through the museum in a weird way. We took an elevator to the top of the museum, then spiralled to the bottom with each floor we went through a different time period. So there was lots of stuff we saw. Some of the highlights where, the architecture of the building it was all wonky father might post a picture of it, next was the guide he was fairly old and seemed to like breathing really hard into his microphone (*sarcasm* that was actually a bad part). Okay I can’t really appreciate the cars so the next thing I found interesting was the fact that Mercedes supported Hitler, they produced engines for war planes and used forced labourers. One ... read more

Stuttgart is the home of Porsche. On my way back to London, I dropped in on Stuttgart to see the Porsche Museum and then went for a walk in old town. It is a very charming place. You can see why Germany is leading the pack economy wise in Europe. I bought my first Porsche in high school, at age 16. It was a 914. I bought my first 911 Targa at age 19, and have missed it ever since. I bought it for my 19th birthday. I have owned about 5 different Porsches along the way. My sisters had thrown a surprise birthday party for me but I didn’t know. So I was out buying myself a Targa for my birthday present and almost missed my birthday party. But I made it home around midnight, ... read more

It’s Tuesday morning, Kirsten has already gone down for breakfast. I’m behind her in the next few minutes. I have my suitcase and leave it by the front door. I’m looking around to see where Kirsten, Oma and Opa are, I can’t find them. I’m opening each door and theirs no one there. Finally I open this door and there they are, everyone’s looking at me as where you been. Are you hiding or what? Kirsten laughs; they closed the door Es Zieht ‘a draft’. One thing Germans can’t handle is a draft, any draft. We finish breakfast load up the car and we’re on our way heading west nowhere in particular just meandering. After a while we come into this small village and there is a McDonalds. McDonalds are good in Germany and Austria they ... read more

here's some pictures... read more

A long time ago (1973 & 1974) in Stuttgart, Germany I was a Staff Sergeant working with the U.S. Army 42nd Military Police Customs unit. While working with the 42nd Military Police Customs, I ran across just about every type of customs scam you can think of. Our unit had Customs Inspectors and Customs Investigators. I was one of the Customs Investigators. I did great things like checking ID cards and ration cards at the military facilities. I also investigated the illegal use of those ration cards and ID cards and the giving and selling of US goods to local Nationals for profit. Yes, U.S. Soldiers paid their rent with booze and cigarettes. Go figure. Of course as it turned out US soldiers had been dealing on the black market in Germany since World War II. ... read more