406 - My First Trip to Europe XXI

Stuttgart, Germany:

Thursday in the Stuttgart office was quite nice, and everyone was wonderful to me. I met a new friend, Klaus Young, who helped show me around and I worked through the morning.

Around noon, Klaus, Steve and his boss (don’t remember his name) and I went to lunch and had a wonderful meal! The hospitality of these people was just amazing.

Steve came around to see me around 5pm, and said lets head out, and asked me if I wanted to go out to dinner with him, which I jumped at!

He met me at a commuter train station about a block from my hotel, and we headed downtown to an absolutely gorgeous area, and sat down at an outside restaurant. At right is Steve and I enjoying a nice, German Alt bier.

The menu was, of course, in German, so Steve translated for me and I ended up saying “I’ll just have what you have”. He asked if I liked white asparagus, and I said I’d never tried it but I really liked the green version.

The meals we got were called Schweinshaxe, and it was outstanding, as was the white asparagus.

At left is a picture of the meals, (and Steve).

We ate and talked and generally had a wonderful time. Steve was a wonderful host, and the combination of food and beer was just perfect.

 

I had hardly realized, we were eating a few hundred yards of the Governors Summer Home (see next picture).

 

Now that’s a time lapse picture so you see some people walking by that look like ghosts if you look closely. What a gorgeous place though.

We sat for a while, talking after dinner, and just people watching.. and I was beginning to reflect on my time in Europe, and all the wonderful friends I had made, and great times I had had.

As we got back to the train station, I noticed a gendarme with a dog, and asked Steve about it. He didn’t have a clue, and asked me to ask him myself.

So…. I go up to this nice gendarme, and ask if he speaks English, to which he says yes, and ask him about his dog.

The dog is a Bouvet, and is an incredibly brave dog that’s being used more and more in law enforcement in Europe.

We spoke for a while before I boarded my train to my hotel, but not before me thanking him profusely for being so nice.

I got off the train the block from my hotel, and surprisingly, even on a very dark street, I felt very safe.

More on Friday….