This weekend was Homecoming at Stuttgart High School, which meant an entire week of Spirit Week leading up to it. Even more exciting for Ryan, he finally had his braces removed this week! It has been almost three years of braces, preceded by another two years with a jaw alignment device, so it is still strange to look at him and not see any metal. I know he was more than ready to be done with it, and his teeth look awesome. The timing could not have been better, with his new smile making its debut just in time for Homecoming.
Brooklyn is still having a blast being at college but we are missing her so much! Classes are keeping her busy and she’s spending a lotttttttt of time with friends. Thankfully she is still keeping in touch with us every day. I can’t wait until I see her again soon!
I had a busy week at work with the end of the fiscal year finally arriving on Wednesday. It was nice to officially close out the year and start fresh in October with a little less busyness and hustle. I also resumed my Fridays off, which I had put on hold during September, so having my Friday back felt especially nice.
Matt had a few days of leave he needed to use, so he took Friday off with me and helped me cross a few more things off my German bucket list. We started at the new Necklarline suspension bridge in Rottweil, about an hour south from our house. It’s a 606 meter pedestrian bridge that stretches across the Neckar Valley about 60 meters above the ground. The bridge connects Rottweil’s historic old town with the Berner Feld and its famous test tower, and its curved S shape gives you a different view of the city and valley as you make your way across. It just opened this year so we’ve been eager to try it out.
We brought the dogs along and carried them across the bridge in their dog carriers, which earned them plenty of attention from the other hikers.
Even though it’s been pretty warm, the leaves are starting to change colors in the Black Forest and it was so pretty! When we reached a tiny park on the other side of the bridge, we let the dogs down to run in the fallen leaves, which they loved.
From Rottweil, we headed another 30 minutes south to Donaueschingen, a town with more than 1,100 years of history and a long connection to the Fürstenberg family. Donaueschingen became the residence of the Princes of Fürstenberg in 1723 when Prince Joseph Wilhelm Ernst moved the family’s residence there, although the Fürstenberg connection to the area goes back much further.
In 1283, Count Heinrich I of Fürstenberg received the Baar region and Donaueschingen as a fief from King Rudolf I of Habsburg, along with the right to brew and sell beer. This is considered the beginning of the Fürstenberg brewing tradition, and the brewery has remained in Donaueschingen ever since. Fürstenberg also hosts a beer tent at the Stuttgart festivals, which we have visited several times over, so we have always been interested in the beer and its history.
Given all of that history, having lunch at Fürstenberg Stüble felt like the perfect choice. The restaurant sits right next to the huge Fürstenberg brewery, and they serve the beer straight from there.
We both loved our meals. Matt had a pork steak, while I had pulled pork served over fries. The pork was cooked in a tangy barbecue sauce, but what really made the dish was the yogurt sauce drizzled over the top. Barbecue sauce and yogurt sauce are not exactly a combination I would have thought to put together, but somehow it worked incredibly well. I honestly could not get enough of it.
After lunch, we stopped at the Donauquelle, the traditional source of the Donau, or in English, the Danube River, located right beside the Fürstenberg palace. The spring has been associated with the source of the Danube for centuries, and the current ornate fountain was built in 1875. From there, the water flows underground to the Brigach before eventually joining with the Breg to form the Danube and beginning its 2,840 kilometer journey toward the Black Sea. The sculpture in the center of the spring represents the Mother Baar, pointing the young Danube toward its eventual journey.
Friday night, Ryan attended the Homecoming Game and I met some coworkers for some cocktails at the new Carpe Diem bar in town, which is becoming one of our new favorite places.
Saturday started with Matt leaving early to work at the SAT at school. Ryan and I slept in a little, and once Matt was finished, we decided to make a second trip downtown to the Volksfest. We had spent most of the previous weekend in the tent, so I felt a little deprived of the chance to actually walk around and check out the shops, food stands,and Biergartens. And, we still had some leftover food and drink coupons from the weekend before that we decided to use for lunch.
Of course, as soon as we arrived, I realized I had left our beer and chicken coupons at home. It was fine though, because moments after walking into the fest we ran into our friends Sarah and Josh, who had also just arrived.
We ended up grabbing langos and Aperol spritzes with them and wandering between a couple of Biergartens and tents. At 2:30, Matt decided it was time to head home, and although I thought it seemed a little early, I agreed.
As it turned out, leaving when we did was a very good decision because the train line back to our town was in the process of being shut down when we reached the train station. Everyone was being forced to offload from the train and the platform was being roped off. We had to walk to another station, take the U-Bahn to Stuttgart Hauptbahnhof, change stations again, take the ICE to Böblingen, and then change to the S-Bahn to get back to our car. The whole journey took almost two hours, but we made it home just in time to help Ryan get ready for Homecoming.
Ryan looked so handsome in his new suit and, of course, his new smile. After helping him get ready and making him suffer through a short photo shoot, we dropped him off at a friend’s house before heading over to Nick and Natia’s. They had hosted a work function the night before and were practically begging for help finishing off all the leftover food and wine, and we were more than happy to volunteer for that particular job.
Ryan had a great time at Homecoming and ended up going home with a friend afterward, so we didn’t see him again that night. It was a pretty good deal for everyone: Ryan got to enjoy his night with his friends, and we got to enjoy ours with good food, wine, and our friends.
After our late night Saturday, Matt and I slept in on Sunday and spent most of the day doing absolutely nothing while Ryan was gone. In the evening, I headed back into Stuttgart to celebrate two friends whose birthdays had both happened during the week. We started at Origami for what is arguably some of the best sushi in Stuttgart, which was the perfect way to kick off the evening.
From there, we headed to Hanky Panky, a 1920s style speakeasy tucked inside an old bunker. You have to descend several floors underground to get there, and once you are down there, there is absolutely no cell service, which honestly makes it feel even more like a proper escape. The space is beautiful and the cocktails are even prettier, and if you arrive before the end of happy hour, it is buy one, get one free. We did overstay a bit past the BOGO and had a great time. It was not a bad way to end the weekend!
