Feuer Und Eis

Okay, for those of you that don't understand German, that title means "Fire and Ice". It's a good subject line for our weekend. We woke up early Saturday and prepared to leave for Stuttgart because the weather wasn't as bad as forecast.

Marty looks out the sunroof and suddenly announces "Something is on fire nearby." I ran to look and there was a huge cloud of smoke coming over the roof of the house next door. The thing you have to remember about Germany is, the house next door is typcally adjoined to... your house!

We raced to the front window and discovered the reason for the sirens we'd heard earlier. A house just down the street was in flames. You can see in this picture that the smoke is so thick it is blotting out the church tower just beyond.


We couldn't get out of our underground parking garage, because a firetruck was blocking the entrance. So we walked down to view the destruction.


What you can't see at the end of that ladder extended over the roof was two firemen. Here I caught a shot of them in a short clearing in the smoke. The tile roof still has snow on it, which shows how well these roofs suppress fire and don't add to the problem.


We knew we weren't going anywhere soon, so we walked into town and had Brunch (Redonkulous!) at the Moritz.


Finally the way was clear for us to get our car out, and we headed to Stuttgart.
First stop: The Porsche Museum


So many beautiful cars...





This was one of my personal favorites:


And I loved this amazing picture on the wall between the floors of the museum.


Next we went landmark hunting and found this cool old tower overlooking Stuttgart. It's called Burgholzhof-Aussichtsturm, built in 1891.


The next morning, we went to the Staatsgalerie, where we saw Monets, Manets, Picassos, Cezannes, Gaugins, Renoirs, and Rembrandts. I found the works of two other artists that I now like: Sisley and Marco Ricci. Sisley is similar to Manet. I wish I had pictures to show, but they wouldn't let me take pictures. I could only buy postcards at the end. I did sneak one picture before my camera got shut down. It's a Klee that Marty and I both liked alot.


Then we went to the Ludwigsburg Castle.


And it was cool because they let me take pictures! They didn't come out so well because the place was so dark, but the many chandeliers were beautiful. One of my favorite rooms was the Queen's bedroom.


The balconies in the theater...


And one of the many ornate hallways...


It was one of the nicest palaces we've visited.


Well, we started with fire, and we end with ice. This sweet little chapel on a tiny island in the middle of a frozen lake at the Seeschloss (Seacastle) Monrepos.


And if that wasn't enough, when we got back home to Memmingen, we walked to the Eiscafe and had an Eiskugel... schokolade!