Bad Cannstatt

Last weekend, Diana and I were looking for something to do and we decided to go to the Bad Cannstatt area of Stuttgart. It's probably one of, if not the oldest parts of town and it's right across the Neckar river from the U-park that leads to the main train station and the city center.

I had walked through the area on the day that I visited the nearby Gotlieb Daimler Memorial but it was just a quickie on the way back home. The area is pretty old and probably built up around the mineral spas that are there. It's home to Cannstatter Wassen, where a couple of large, Oktoberfest-types of celebrations are held, two sports stadiums, and the Mercedes Museum (which I haven't yet gone to).

The main pedestrian street that runs through the middle of Bad Cannstatt:

It's also home to the oldest residential building in Stuttgart, the Klösterle, which was originally built in 1563. It was most recently renovated in 1983 and is now a restaurant. We were hoping to get coffee and/or something to snack on there but it was after 2pm and they close from 2pm to 5pm. We were able to stick our heads in and see some of the amazing wood work in the dining room.

I liked walking down the winding medieval streets because the area's full of beautiful old buildings. A random old house:

A shop with apartments and/or offices above:

A local pub:

Another random older house:

I liked the view from the parking lot down this street:

Another restaurant in a building from 1561:

One of my favorite things that we came across that day was where one building had been taken down at some point and you can see how the "new" building next door is constructed. You'd never know it when you look at somewhat-boring, brown-stucco front of the building.

We ended up walking around for about an hour or so then got some coffee and a particularly-"non-euro-sized" piece of cake at a cafe. It wasn't Claim Jumper sized but it was big. And good. It's cool that an area with so many architectural gems so close to the center of Stuttgart survives somewhat intact for us to enjoy now.

Oh yeah, near where I grew up in Philadelphia there was a place called Cannstatter Volksfest-Verein that we always knew as "the German place up on Academy (road)". It's mostly a catering hall but they do hold a few "German" festivals each year including an Oktoberfest one. The few times that I was there I figured that it would be as close to Germany as I'd ever get. Hmm...funny how things work out...