I Choose Adventure
We arrived in Stuttgart. Slept for 12 hours straight (thanks crazy travel day)! Found the grocery store. Then went on our first adventure.
I wanted us to get out and see something wonderful on our first full day in Stuttgart, so I downloaded the train app SBB to find out how to get to the Schlossplatz (castle plaza) downtown and figured out the train pass and route we needed to take. Admittedly, when I woke up to a very rainy Saturday, and jet lag just settling in like a weighted blanket, I didn’t know if I had it in me to get us all out the door and create the magic for my kids, and for me too.
So, I went back to bed. Really. I took a nap for a couple hours and when I woke to sunshine I rallied the troops, grabbed my sunglasses and wallet and took us out. My kids were nervous. The previous day I took a wrong turn following the maps on my iPhone (you know how it can be really slow to direct you when walking?) so they were nervous from the start that I would get them lost. It didn’t help that our walk to the train platform was riddled with graffiti and cigarette vending machines through a few streets of sketchy apartment buildings. They stayed close and kept asking if I was sure about this…
When we got to the platform, I found the ticket machine and bought the amazing 9 euro pass that was just introduced June 1 in Germany. This pass gives you unlimited travel on all local trains and buses throughout Germany and is available each month this summer (June, July, August). It was introduced as as relief measure from the government due to the rapid rise in gas prices and inflation that the world is experiencing. We’ll have these passes all through June to get us out and exploring, and confident on using public transport.
We hopped off a few stops later only to realize that mom (me!) had not put the correct German name for the destination in the route planner. The kids rolled their eyes and just wanted to go back to the hotel, but I knew I could figure it out and that we were headed in the right direction. I readjusted our destination, looked at the map and shared it this time so they knew I had a plan. We got on the next train just a couple minutes later and hopped off in the underground of city center.
Once we came up to street level we followed the GPS and found ourselves on an idyllic German street with outdoor cafés, bakeries, and shops. Around the corner was an old church built in 1321 and the final resting place of eleven of the counts of Württemberg.
The flower and farmers’ market was still happening from the morning with the most gorgeous strawberries I could smell even before we reach the stalls. The peonies and tulips were overflowing their buckets and it made me so happy.
We stopped at a food stall for some traditional würst with horseradish mustard on sourdough rolls, and fries like only Europe can do. The kids loved it.
But after a couple hours walking around, the kids were losing their steam. We walked into an Apotheke (pharmacy) to buy some N95 masks (we noticed everyone was wearing them, not cloth masks on the train) and I was reminded just how different European pharmacies are. It was a beautiful space with old paintings on the ceiling and walls with lighted displays of skincare at all price points. Behind the counter were the controlled medications to collect from a pharmacist. The women in the store who worked there were dressed really nicely, like high-end department store workers, and were ready to help me with any questions about skincare products I had. I remember loving these stores in France and Luxembourg especially and made a mental note to go again — without my kids — another time.
There is a Medieval castle right there on the place that was rebuild in the Renaissance era that is now a museum of the Würtemberg history. We walked in, but the kids were done so we planned to come back another time. We made our way home on the train again and walked back to our hotel, tired as ever.
I loved seeing my kids so happy in such different surroundings and discovering new things. But the best part of this whole outing was seeing them feel more confident in trusting me and themselves to be able to figure out a new place. I hope that they will have a sense of adventure and a willingness to get lost sometimes, to be curious about different ways of doing things.
Our next few years in Europe will give them lots of opportunities to experience this. I’m taking it as my job to show them how to embrace it all.
xo
dayna
