Ludwigsburg

In future, hopefully we will just look back and laugh at the end of our trip, haha. Our day started off at 6:45 a.m. with the jackhammer crew back and at work–wow! Quite a view eh!?

Actually I didn’t mind and it was pretty entertaining, but Mike didn’t enjoy it much lol!

So we figured we would book our last train tickets to get the airport and sort out where to stay. And guess what? Next to all the trains was the word: Strike.

Yep, Germany is now striking over wages. No problem. We went to the front desk and changed our hotel to 3 nights instead of 4. We booked a train ticket for Sunday and a hotel in Frankfurt for Sunday and Monday AND bonus we booked a room right on the tarmac so I can watch the planes take off and land woo!

Except now they are calling it the biggest strike in Germany in 30 years. The airports, buses, trains, trams…..everything. Wow.

So here’s hoping. What a mess! We tried to move everything up, but it’s all booked up.

With everything we could think of accomplished, we of course wanted to make the most of our rainy day in Germany.

We walked to a huge park right by our hotel. There was an adorable red squirrel, which looks kinda like ours only orange and has tall pointy ears. He was leaping from tree to tree. Everywhere the birds were out and flowers blooming. Some teachers were walking a group of kids through the park and everyone just ignored the lousy weather!

We came to a cemetery and it was the local people killed in WWII, this time on the German side. It was filled with cross-shaped stones and so many of them were only 18 years old. That’s the thing with wars, everyone loses.

The cemetery was as green as anything could be, with moss and grass and cedar trees.

We had pizza and strudel at a cute local bakery and sorry to say, Italy–this was the best pizza I’ve had all trip. Doughy crust with yummy sauce and pepperoni. Later we had the most delicious dinner also! It was listed as traditional “Swabby” food, which we learned is an area in Germany. The reviews said it was run by a local couple for years. When we arrived at 5:30, thinking better get there early as it’s Friday, it was empty–but not for long! And the couple who run it are Asian, maybe Korean. We had noticed the town was exceptionally diverse! Well the food was incredible–hot yummy potato soup, second only to my friend Cindy’s soup in Michigan! Then potatoes and eggs for me, schnitzel and a different potato for Mike. And refreshing beer made in Stuttgart. I think we might go there again!

I inadvertently learned about a project called Stolperstein. It was listed on Pokemon Go, of all things. So a German man named Gunter Demnig began making and installing Stolpersteins in 1992. Quite literally, they are “stumbling blocks” made of brass, installed in sidewalks, marking the last place someone lived or worked freely before the fell victim to some type of terror. Now they are all over Europe, over 75,000 of them. There was one outside where we were having a pretzel snack.

Julie and Salomon Kaufmann ran a business in the building we were sitting in. They emigrated to escape the anti-Jewish movement and later were taken to Auschwitz. You can find information about the project online. It really made you stop and think about the individual people.

Which took us back to our hotel, a lovely building that was one a bakery and used by the German military in WWI. After WWII, it was taken over by the Allies. And in 1996 it was turned into this pretty hotel, with a sign in the lobby and full acknowledgement of its complicated history.

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