Mixed up arrival times, Locked up house & warm bakeries - charming Stuttgart

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We drove through a scenic countryside from Luxembourg into Germany and found our host Ute's house pretty easily in Stuttgart, but I think I got the arrival times mixed up again and we arrived to a locked house!!! We waited for a while not knowing whether Ute was gone to work or if she had forgotten about us. Jonny waited with us for a little bit, but he had to leave as he had to drive 4 hours back to Lux. We tried sitting on the step outside the house but it was too cold, so we decided to leave our bags on the step and go look for somewhere warm to sit. The girls wanted to continue sitting on the step outside Ute's house as they found Wi-Fi there but hell no I wanted somewhere warm. We found a lovely bakery with Wi-Fi where we ordered hot chocolate and doughnuts. We went back and forth to the house to check if Ute was home but no such luck, so we left a little note telling her that we were sitting in the bakery. We were a little worried that they(the ladies from the bakery) might not like us sitting for so long in the bakery without actually eating anything but they were so cool and so friendly. We waited there from around 1pm to 6pm(the bakery's closing time). They then directed us to a hotel and said that we could sit in the hotel foyer while we waited for Ute. I thought this was a good idea because if Ute was not going to show up, then we could just check into the hotel for the night, but as we were going back, we bumped into Ute in the street...Wheeeew, sigh of relief!! She was so surprised to see us as she was not expecting us till 7pm. She had indicated in her mail to me that she was visiting her mom for christmas and would return to Stuttgart by 6pm, but we should arrive around 7 so she could tidy up the house and have dinner ready for us. I'm just so silly - I don't read my mails properly. Anyway all's well that ends well!!

Ute's house was beautiful and Ute was fantastic, but unfortunately she was leaving the next morning, so we were going to be alone again. I was not looking forward to that at all, but we knew this before we arrived so it was no big bad surprise.

That night Ute took us to the train station to show us how to use the machine to buy our tickets to for the train. She also wrote down all the places we should visit, gave us some maps and showed us how to work the amazing heater/stove. She said that we could use whatever we needed from the cupboards and we could use the phone to communicate with anyone in Germany. She was too kind. As soon as I arrived in Germany, I loved it, but maybe I have a bias towards Germany because of all my wonderful experiences with German couchsurfers back in SA!!!

Keeran's edit: When we left the bakery, the ladies from the bakery packed a bag full of rolls and crossiants for us for free and their reason for doing this was that we were sitting there the whole day so they wanted to give us something for that!!! Can you believe it - anywhere else in the world we would have probably been asked to leave if we were not supporting the bakery and just sitting there and here they were giving us free things!!!
(Remember in Paris, the lady at Monoprix also gave us free cakes for waiting too long for mom) WOW this is Europe and I love it!!!
Oh yes and the other thing I love is the fact that we can walk outside in the streets at night and not be afraid. Every of mom's friends' houses that we went to, they were always telling us 'let's go out for some sightseeing' and it was already like past 7. We thought it was strange as in South Africa we did not walk on the streets when it got dark. It was just too dangerous and we were a bit afraid here too at first, but of course this is Europe - no crime. I SO want to move here permanently!!!
That night Ute made us macaroni for dinner and she intoduced us to her mom's home made kamquat jam which I just could nto get enough of!!! She also took us around the neighbourhood to show us where we could buy nice fruit, meat and veggies.

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Photos

My other food weakness in Europe
Ute's mom's kamquat jam delicious