Wrapping up

Turns out the worlds largest piggy bank is in Ludwigsburg! It’s got a certified Guinness Book of World Records stamp on it. And her name is Louise 🙂 And you can actually put pennies in the slot, which go up to the piggy bank. Wow!

There’s also a huge castle palace called the Ludwigsburg Palace. It is the biggest palace and grounds in Germany! We really wanted to go, but it was $11 euros each and raining so it didn’t make sense. Mike read online that if you go in a particular entrance it is free to walk around the grounds. Alas, we got there and nope, tickets please. Just then a couple came up and said several sentences in German and invited us in using their key card. I just kept saying Thank you, and finally she said, Have fun!

Despite the intermittent wind and rain, it was really pretty and the flowers were dazzling!

And, it turns out Rapunzel’s castle is there too!

We had stopped at a little store the day before–it sold only beer and record albums! We struck up a conversation with the guy and told him how much we liked the city. He mentioned there is a market on Saturdays in the big square. We kinda figured he meant in the summer when it’s nice out, but no! We were shocked to find the empty square completely full of amazing stands of food, produce, meat, flowers, cheese………..you could literally go there every Saturday and buy all you need for the week.

As we walked back to the hotel, we realized there was another market! This one was full of fabric, yarn, patterns………and it was packed! Every stand had people rummaging through the items.

We loved the German Swabby food so much we did indeed go back! It was just as good with Spaezle noodles and more potato soup! And beer 🙂

We were trying to be relaxed about our upcoming travels and enjoy football on tv, but we were both worried. Suddenly Mike exclaims, “SummerSlotzen!?!?!” Or some weird word. Turns out Europe DOES go on Daylight Savings Times and it was last night!! I’m sure it would have been fine but we would have been running late all day if he hadn’t noticed it agh!

Now they are calling it a Mega-Strike. Oh mannnnnn, fingers crossed!