Stuttgart Wine Village

Fall has come and summer is over.   This is always a bittersweet time of year for me. The summer has ending but endless weekends of festing has begun.

The Traveling Tubist decided to spend Saturday in Stutgart.   Every year Stuttgart puts on "the largest and most beautiful wine festival".  The altstadt is transforms itself into a wonderful wine village. 

I arrived to Stuttgart by train and arrived mid day at the Stuttgart main train station.  I walked down into the city and discovered the Markthalle which I was made aware of by a 'neighbors' photo blog.  The markthalle explodes with colors of food, drink, and flowers from the vendor booths.  It is awesome place where once could spend hours with a camera to explore every booth. 

After spending an hour wondering around and grabbing a few photos, I ventured over to the altstadt to catch the wine village.  Like last year, I stopped and chatted with the vendors, some whom remembered me from last year!

It is a great way to spend an afternoon meeting people, sampling local wines, champagnes and food.  This year, as always, I met a wide variety of people.  I met a couple of guys who were in Germany for 36 hrs and happened on the wine fest.  I chatted with another couple who spends a month in Europe on holiday and had just come in from Brussels.  They were doing the wine fest and the following weekend were going to head off to the Bierboerse in Karlsruhe.  People after my own heart!

Sadly, the evening comes to an end.  The last train home is 2305.  As I hopped on the train, I waved another successful Stuttgart wine fest good bye. 

Random thoughts of a Tubist

Finally, a blog.  The Traveling Tubist?  That would be me!  And no, I don't take the tuba traveling, that stays at home. 

This blog is/will be about places I have been, places I still want to go, and if I ever figure out how to type on my 'smart phone', it will be places I am at.  This is not a facebook page where I got 'like' and 'dislike'.  This is for me and anyone who cares to read it.

The first place, appropriately,  will be Bamberg Germany.  The city of Beauty and Beer.  I was tipped off by a Canadian 'aquaintance' of Germay's biggest jazz fest in the city.  So, I decided to combine my two passions, good beer and good music, and set off to Bamberg!

So sadly, this intrepid tubist, got on the early morning tram alone to catch the first of three trains to get me there.  The train trip was uneventful.  I opted to take the ICE's (InterCityExpress) as far as I could versus the regional train so I could keep my phone charged and try to get past the next level of the 'Angry Birds'.

The last leg of the journey is the RE (Regional Express) from Würzburg to Bamberg.  The train station is approximately 1 kilometer from the city center.  However, one does not have to wait quite so far to come across two of Bamberg's famous Brauhaus's, the Fassla and the Brauhaus Spezial.  Just a short 650 km walk from the train station you can be enjoying your first cold Rauch Bier!