It’s still March, but it feels like the longest month ever. Outside of our usual activities, we haven’t done much noteworthy, so I’m combining the last two weeks of March into one post.
Everyone’s been super busy with their work, school, and activities.
Over the first weekend, the kids had another doubleheader against Kaiserslautern. Matt dropped both kids off at 5:30 AM on the early bus, and we drove up later. We each watched one game and then swapped fields so we could see both kids. Softball won another two games, but unfortunately, baseball lost another two. Ryan, of course, allowed no pictures of himself, but we did get a few of Brooklyn.
During the two weeks, Ryan also had baseball pictures and had to work at a fundraiser for the team.
After we were back from Kaiserslautern, we rested for a little bit before heading into downtown Stuttgart. There was a special event called Stuttgart Long Night at the Museum, where all museums stay open all night. Additionally, there are several buildings that we wanted to see that are only open once a year to the public. We thought it would be a relatively quiet night, and we were surprised when we arrived downtown and saw tens of thousands of people taking part. We had to wait in the lines for everything we wanted to see, but it was worth it.
We started at City Hall, aka the Rathaus, where they have a unique paternoster elevator.
I had never heard of a Paternoster elevator before, but after looking it up, I found it is a continuous loop of opening cabin elevator cars. You just jump in an open cabinet as it’s passing by and then jump off when you get to the floor you want.
Our next stop was the bunker museum which was built during World War II underneath the marketplace. Several thousand people sheltered here during the WW2 allied raids. After the war, it was briefly turned into a hotel before being closed off completely. Now it is only open once a year on this night.
The bunker was definitely the most popular attraction of the long night, and we waited in line for over 30 minutes to enter. Once inside, there wasn’t much to see except long concrete hallways with small rooms broken off. Because it was briefly a hotel, there was some crazy peeling wallpaper on the walls. It seemed pretty creepy to me, and I could not wait to get out of there.
Our final stop was Neues Schloss, or New Palace. It was originally built as a palace for the Kings and then Dukes of Württemburg. After World War I, it was turned over to the state and became a government office building. It was heavily damaged during World War II but eventually restored.
It was briefly open to public tours, but that ended several years ago. Now, this is the only night of the year you can enter the building. Neues Schloss is the central landmark in downtown Stuttgart, and I have wanted to enter forever; I can’t imagine having lived in Stuttgart and never having gone inside.
In the present day, it’s the headquarters of the Baden-Württemburg Departments of Finance and Economics and we were able to see all of the their official receiving rooms.
Our other big event this week was Ryan’s Civil Air Patrol promotion to Cadet Staff Seargent. A lot more work than usual went into this promotion; there was a long closed-book exam and detailed drill test which took a couple of weeks for Ryan to complete. We are so proud of him for earning the promotion and the Wright Brothers Award.
We spent the end of March finishing up third quarter and preparing for our upcoming trip. Next week is Spring Break and we are off to Africa!
Gilcrests Abroad 