Stuttgart and Pigeons. ****ing Pigeons.
To Stuttgart and Schwabisch Hall
In this trip report:
- An Invite to Germany
- Testing and Paperwork
- Off to Heathrow, Terminal 5, and the South Galleries Lounge
- BA920 London Heathrow to Stuttgart (Club Europe)
- The joy of German Immigration, Into Stuttgart and the Novum Hotel Rieker, Stuttgart Hauptbahnhof
- Off to Schwabisch Hall, qubixx stattemitte Hotel
- Economy Class and Beyond at Recaro Aircraft Seating
- Back to Stuttgart and the joy of pigeons
- Off to Stuttgart Airport
- BA921 Stuttgart to London Heathrow (Club Europe)
- Welcome to Brexitainia, The Premier Inn Heathrow
- Off Home again
- Innovation is the driver
With my business concluded at Schwäbisch Hall, it was time to return to Stuttgart for the afternoon, and then back to Brexitainia.
After checking out of the hotel, they kindly ordered me a taxi for the ride back to Schwäbisch Hall-Hessel station (as the buses were still on strike).
€15 later, I was deposited at the station that feels in the middle of nowhere.
.
I had another fight with the DB ticket machine (how dare you want to pay with a contactless card, no Amex, etc), and eventually got a ticket back to Stuttgart Hauptbahnhof.
With that in hand, I took the tunnel back to the island platforms where the trains depart.
Soon enough, the white and yellow train trundled in.
Is it me or am I am just expecting to see any train in Germany operated by DB in traffic red?
See figure one.
Let’s take a look at this train. It’s got a mixture of seating, both first and second class. In addition, it has a rather large bike and buggy bay. Once again, it’s a Bombardier Tallent 2 that would be completing the journey.
Reasonable enough seating. No ironing boards here
That’s one hell of a bike bay.
On-time, the train left Schwäbisch Hall, making its way back to Stuttgart.
And something amazing happened on this route – I check-in greeted by an inspector who was conducting a ticket check. Yes. I was in shock – someone checked my ticket on a DB service.
Well, there’s a first for everything in life.
I’ve done my fair share of regional and local travel in Germany – but a ticket check on a medium distance journey – that’s new for me (and yes, I’ve been ticket checked on the Hamburg S-Bahn more than I remember).
Onboard the train, everyone was masked up (with FFP2 masks as stated). Again – it is interesting to see how different countries handle masking requirements.
The train took an hour, and eventually pulled into the building site that was Stuttgart Hbf.
Danke Zug.
It’s a building site.
I took my time exiting the maze of the building site that’s that place.
.
Eventually, I popped out on the right side of Koeniginstrasse – a good enough place to start exploring Stuttgart.
Well – belay that. There were other priorities as I needed to bring back gifts. This of course means a trip to the local REWE to pick up supplies – such as Haribo (yes, there are different variants of the items in Germany, some chocolates for the office, the odd tube of currywurst sauce (because I’m a sucker for it – especially the spicier versions).
Super.
Or would you prefer…
What nice Knoppers you have.
Above there was a Condor electronics store – and well – me and a good electronics store is never a bad thing to use.,
3D Printers in the flesh.
And there were wondrous things – such as motherboards, chips, power banks and even… wait for it people: GRAPHICS PROCESSOR UNITS!!!!!!!
GRAFIKKARTEN!
Whilst I’d love an excuse for a new gaming PC, I wasn’t going to drop some money on a GPU that day. Rather I wanted another power bank, as the Anker one had gone walkies in packing. At €14.99 for a 10,000mha power bank, I was not arguing at that price for an “in-shop” purchase.
And I can always use a reasonable power bank.
Although many people need to be hunted down for this keyboard. Why. Just… Why?
With those done, it was time to go repack, and go exploring.
Of course, nature intervened after I sat down for a while. A bird decided to drop its good luck over my day bag.
Sigh. I cleaned up the bag as best as possible… only for another bird to drop its good luck over that too.
Now I was getting slightly annoyed.
I moved away and cleaned up the major mess, but this bag was not going to be travelling at the rate I was going at all. Thankfully, Kaufhoff is at the bottom of Konigstrasse. Unfortunately, I was at the other end of it.
I tried a few other shops on the way down (as Kaufhoff can be reassuringly expensive) but to no avail.
No bag in here…
Or in here.
Or in Lidi. But there were Lidl surprises.
Eventually, I found a four-wheeled bag for €50. Not the best price, but not the worst. This was a case of “Suck it up buttercup”.
To say I was mildly annoyed would be an understatement.
I wheeled my new bag away. With remains of the fight left in me fleeting me for the day, I called it quits with Stuttgart for the day, and headed for the S-Bahn station, where hopefully, there would be trains to the airport.
And time to put my mask back on…
Next: Back to Stuttgart Airport.
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That keyboard is both kind of cool looking and absolutely preposterous at the same time.
And that Schwäbisch Hall-Hessel station is pretty sad…it looks like a backwater New Jersey Transit commuter station.
Hate pigeons…had one greet me by decorating my shoulder the second I walked out of the train station in Nice. Damned rats with wings.