22/03 Stuttgart, Germany

I did not sleep very well last night but I deserve it-.- Today, I took risk again that I took the train without any train ticket with me. I woke up at 06xx am-.- and I tried to sleep again but in vain. Then I went to Esslingen first, which was only 20mins away from the Stuttgart Haupbahnhof. It was a small town. I saw it on Tommy's travel book and the photos seemed quite nice. Every time the train arrived at the train station, I always looked at the platform to see if there was any train officer to check tickets... Luckily, I was not caught and fined 40Euro :) Esslingen was a small town but had a old square area so I thought there would be something beautiful to see and it was within my expectation. I kept searching the google map and found a way to that area.














 

There was an old church. Next to it was a square, where had a open market today. Many people were buying fruits and vegetables there but I thought to buy a applne train e but it was a bit expensive. The buildings near the square were quite special. Then, I went to Burg, where was on the hill and there was a kind of wall. I went up a lot of stairs to get to the top of that hill, which was exhausting and a bit cold because it was raining.  But every time I went higher, the view was better.

Finally, I arrived at the end of the stairway and the view was beautiful. I could see the most part of Esslingen. In summer, there should be more green plantaion on the hill. Because I saw nobody there so I had to try to take photos of myself on my own.. There was a large yard on the other side of the wall.  Afterthat, I went downstairs and headed to the statoin. I passed through that market and people at a booth waved their hands to me. I went towards them and they were selling their homecakes. Those people were students.

They were very nice and I bought a cake from them. It was so good to meet such nice student in this town and so i took a photos with them with the cakes on my hand. I tasted it and it was good. Then I said goodbye to them and this nice town and went to Mecedes-Benz Museum !!!! Unfortunately, I found there was no train that stopped at the Benz station and I needed to get off at Bad Cannstutt and I needed to walked to there under the rain!!! and I walked for 20mins and my hair got wet. I got lost and went to a wrong direction. So, I decided to go to the Pig museum first called Schweinemuseum. The ticket costed 5Euro. It exhibited many pigs things.

Then, I walked again from the pig museum to Mecedes-Benz museum. Student ticket was 4 Euro. The lobby was very modern. The lift was very 22-century. The lift stopped at the toppest floor, which display a lot of old, classic cars and engines. I could also find a lot of history of Mecedes-Benz too.

















On every floor, many different kinds of car even the old bus, trucks, taxi could be found there. There was a corridor between each floor where a lot of pictures of big world history and history of Mecedes-Benz were displayed, which was somehow a timeline of history.

When I got to the lowest few floors, I was shocked because I found a lot of supercars. Those cars were really beautiful.















































































There were many concept cars which was awesome. I spent almost 3 hours in the museum. I left the museum at 1530 and I needed to go to Zuffenhausen to take the meinferbus back to Mannheim at 1630. I was panicked because I needed to walk to the S-bahn which was a bit far back to Stuttgart Haupbahnhof first and take another line to Zuffenhausen. I thought I did not have time because if one train left, I must be late and need to wait for 2hours... At Stuttgart Haupbahnhof, I kept seraching for the right line and platform. Lucily, I did not need to wait long and finally got to the bus station at 1625 lol and I had a big sleep on the bus to Mannheim.

21/03 Stuttgart, Germany

Today, Me and Anson went to Stuttgart but she would leave one day earlier. We took the meinferbus at 0600 at busbahnhof. It took around 2.5 hours to get there. Stuttgart was a kind of car manufacturing city where the headquarters of Porche and Mercedes-Benz are. Therefore, of course, I would go to their museums!! We arrived at 0900 and the weather was surprisingly good. We went to Ludwigsburg, which was just 10mins train away from the Stuttgart haupbahnhof. There was a big park surrounding the Residenzschloss.

We paid 5 Euro to get inside the park. The park was beautiful. There was a lake at the centre of the park. Different flowers were on both sides. If we come in summer, it would be much more beautiful. We wandered around the park and saw many beautiful plants but my fthat lower English sucks. I did not know their English name. I wanted to go to the castle but realized that my entry ticket did not include the castle and I would rather spend that money on car museums. I saw some pictures of it on the postcard which were sold in the sourneir shops nearby and the castle was not beautiful. And we met Tommy at the entrance of the castle. What a small city LOL. He came to Stuttgart one day earlier to drive mini-plane in Stuttgart. Tommy went inside the castle. And we went to another area of the park. On our way, we saw a tree with many Easter eggs on it, which was beautiful.

We then went to an area where everything was made by straws, which was really interesting. We stayed there till 1100 and headed to Porche museum!









We bought student ticket at 4 Euro. The museum was wonderful. At the first floor, there were some old cars from Porche. When I went upward, the cars become more modern like Porche Cayman,   Porche Carrera 911. Of course, Supercars!!

They were very beautiful!! I really hoped I can sit inside. However, we can only sit in a Porche Carrera 911. Finally, I can have a taste of Porche! When we left, we saw Tommy again LOL. Afterthat, we went to Stuttgart centre area. Because we did not know how to buy the train tickets, we didnt buy it and took the train hahah! We first went to Neues Schloss where was the castle and the landmark of Stuttgart.

Many people were sitting on the grass and chatting each other. Because Anson had to leave earlier to Mecedes-Benz Museum, she left first. Then, I would be on my own. Easy! Then I went to Altes Schloss, Fruchtkasten and Stiftskirche, where were very next to each other. The buildings were nice. Then I went to Markthalle, where was a market and I found there were a lot of different fruits, vegetable, meat, sausages, and other stuff sold by the locals.

Then, I went to Rathaus, where had nothing to see lol and so went back to Neues Schloss to go to the State theater and Musics and art galleries but i did not get inside because I was very tired. I walked a lot!! I then went to Carl-Zeiss-Planetarium to have a look. and nothing special again. I really tired with my legs. The day is getting dark and i took some pictures of nice night view from Suttgart

and I went to Stadtbibithek, where was a library famous for its designs and architecture.
On the outside, it was blue in color beacause of the blue light and it really looked like a prison.

I went inside and I was amazed by its design. Almost everything was white in color except for some books. The design was very great. When I got to 5th floor, it was totally different but was even more beautiful. The stairs were asymmetric to one another. This was the most beautiful library I have ever seen. Then, it was about 2100. And I took the S-bahn to a place where I could buy doner for my dinne. But I saw Tommy again and again and again at the train stations' platform. I ate a 4.5 EUro for the doner. At 1000, I went back to my hostel which was where this city airport was. and Maybe I  could wake up on time and  to stay here for one more days. I found a seat where I could charge my photos . But the thing is  that the seats were not good and comfortable. And so i did not have a good sleep.

17/03 Prague, Czech Republic

We woke up a bit late cuz we were very tired yesterday. We had quite a lot of breakfast at our hostel cuz it was included. Tommy and I went to a post office nearby and it was quite cheap to send postcard to Germany and Hong Kong. Afterthat, we went to the Old castle area through the Charles's bridge. I took one Polaroid pictures but first one failed and the second one was fine but the color was not that good. And me and Santiago helped me record a video for my friend's girlfriend's birthday. It was very good to record it on Charles's bridge with some background violin mucis . In tbe video, I said happy birthday in Spanish and he said it in cantonese. But we deliberately said it wrong and asked for cut and said again. And we said it right and at the end said it in German. Hope it was correct LOL. We then walked towards the old castle and we needed to walk uphill, which was a bit tough. The view from the castle was very great.

We watched the soliders at the entrance. Some soliders played the drum and saxophone and The Czech soliders marched quite neat but not that as neat as PLA in China lol. Then we bought the tickets for the royal palance, golden lane, and St vitus church.



























































The church was very Hugh and gorgeous. There were many beautiful paintings and church windows on the wall and a lot of meticulous status and scrulptures. When i got out. I really struggled if took one polaraid picture there. Becasue there were only one film left but i wanted to use it for supercar in Stuttgart. In the end, I chose supercar, which was a bit disappointing cus I only took one film at Prague only. Then, we went to the royal palance, where displayed a lot of former government stuffs. The palance was not splendid.. and then we went to golden lane. There were many small houses in different colour where a lot of military weapons, uniforms, were found. They also display the bedrooms, mini cinema there, which reflected the local life at that time. Then, we walked towards a place where we could take the photos of the whole view of the old castle area and the Charles's bridge.

Afterthat, we left the old castle and went to old town square to look for unqiue sourvenirs and I bought a plastic watch which costed 275czk (€10.2) it was a bit cheap. That shop also sold a lot of special fancy things. Because we all didn't had our lunch, we went to buy trednilk.and asked her how to prounounce it. It was hard LOL. It was really delicious and we would really miss it. Then we went back to the castle to take back our bags and suitcase and headed to the haupbahnhof. We took the DB bus at 1700 and took a train at nurnberg to frankfurt at 2000. When we took a tarin in frankfurt, we took an wrong RE train. We should take the ICE train. And this train stopped in the middle of nowhere (dormberg) and delayed at least 30mins. What the fuck. And it was moving backward!!!!!!!!!!! And we arrived at home at 0200...
This was my second European countries I travel. Czech was an important country for us to go to eastern Europe and Czech was really like another Eastern Europe countries but it is much more beautiful than others of course. Czech doesn't have the prosperity of some big countries in western Europe but its simplicity, serenity, and romance make it become one of the must-go destinations in the world.
Praha, bye