Is Stuttgart typical of German cities?
Discussion
I have only just managed to visit Germany for the first time in my life - Stuttgart.
The positives:
Everyone we met was polite, charming and tolerant of our appalling Germanglish language skills.
Service everywhere was fast and good.
The negatives:
Very, very depressing street scenes.
Appalling architecture.
A bit grubby. No worse than much of Britain, but I was expecting it to be pristine.
Restaurants few and far between. Street coffee / pretzel stands aplenty but we struggled to find cafes / restaurants in the centre.
Smoky! Everyone was smoking. Everywhere. The hotel reeked of it, taxi drivers reeked of it, the streets were smoky. It seemed that cigarettes and cigarette advertising were everywhere.
I understand obviously that Stuttgart was badly bombed during WW11, but it seems that they put it back together quickly and haven't invested since. Nor have they got round to finishing the outskirts, which in the October gloom looked like a dystopian nightmare in some areas.
Had I set my expectations unrealistically high? Or is Stuttgart not representative of German cities?
The positives:
Everyone we met was polite, charming and tolerant of our appalling Germanglish language skills.
Service everywhere was fast and good.
The negatives:
Very, very depressing street scenes.
Appalling architecture.
A bit grubby. No worse than much of Britain, but I was expecting it to be pristine.
Restaurants few and far between. Street coffee / pretzel stands aplenty but we struggled to find cafes / restaurants in the centre.
Smoky! Everyone was smoking. Everywhere. The hotel reeked of it, taxi drivers reeked of it, the streets were smoky. It seemed that cigarettes and cigarette advertising were everywhere.
I understand obviously that Stuttgart was badly bombed during WW11, but it seems that they put it back together quickly and haven't invested since. Nor have they got round to finishing the outskirts, which in the October gloom looked like a dystopian nightmare in some areas.
Had I set my expectations unrealistically high? Or is Stuttgart not representative of German cities?
dcb said:
It is one of the most affluent of German cities, home of Porsche,
Bosch and Mercedes Benz and a host of other engineering companies.
Indeed, which is why I was surprised that it seemed so lacking in some areas.Bosch and Mercedes Benz and a host of other engineering companies.
The Porsche and Mercedes offices / museums were and exception. Fantastic architecture, pristine environs. But it a cab ride of a few hundred meters had us in much less impressive surroundings.
I think I might be guilty of having made too many assumptions about Germany. We spend a lot of time in Italy and meet a lot of Germans there (in fact we are often the only Brits). They usually seem very smart, polite and erudite. Not to mention demanding about the quality of their surroundings. I assumed that their homeland would reflect their holiday demeanour.
Perhaps also I was seeing German frugality first-hand. They are after all the strongest European economy and maybe that's because they don't spend money on prettying up their towns.
Benni said:
Stuttgart in general never was a georgeous place to begin with (expect in the posh areas in the outskirts),
but for the last years Germany is running a "zero new debts" policy which is wearing and tearing on the infrastructure,
short-termed if you ask me , it will cost more to rebuild things than to maintain them constantly.
Top priorities are elsewhere, in Stuttgart there will be 8 Billion € (up and counting) spent to relocate the main railway
station under ground Level, allowing the huge overground railway area to be sold for "city development" aka speculation.
Traffic was always difficult with the city located in a pan,
it will be a pain in the butt with all the roadworks and diversions for the next 10 years.
There seemed to be a lot of road works going on in the centre this week.but for the last years Germany is running a "zero new debts" policy which is wearing and tearing on the infrastructure,
short-termed if you ask me , it will cost more to rebuild things than to maintain them constantly.
Top priorities are elsewhere, in Stuttgart there will be 8 Billion € (up and counting) spent to relocate the main railway
station under ground Level, allowing the huge overground railway area to be sold for "city development" aka speculation.
Traffic was always difficult with the city located in a pan,
it will be a pain in the butt with all the roadworks and diversions for the next 10 years.
We were at the Graf Zeppelin and the view outside our window was one of construction and road works. Oh and a poor Porsche Cayenne that managed to get crushed horribly by a lorry...
Are they planning to flatten that station opposite then? Whilst it is ugly, it's less ugly than most of the other local architecture.
Benni said:
So the existing station structure will remain. Positive I think, given that Stuttgart needs to cling on to anything that isn't post-war concrete nastiness.I must say that Stuttgart has piqued my interest in Germany and I am going to visit again soon. Berlin is quite easy from here, so I might give that a try.
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