Plucky Survivors See Europe Day 38: Stuttgart

Laundry was the first task of the day and it was yet another bit of sleuthing to figure out how to use this laundromat – every one has been slightly different – and how to use a German parking pay box.  Pro tip: if you are ever traveling in a country where you don’t know the language, I highly recommend an app like TranslatorGo.  Aim the camera at the sign, snap a picture, and it’ll translate it for you.  It’s not 100% perfect, but it gets the job done.

Then it was on to the REAL first stop of the day, SchweineMuseum Stuttgart, AKA The Pig Museum.

It was started by Erika Wilhelmer, a restauranteur and avid collector of all things pig.  The first museum was in Bad Wimpfen, about 50 miles north of Stuttgart where it moved in 2010.  Now located in a former slaughterhouse, SchweineMuseum carries on the legacy of Erika, who has since passed away.

I think I was expecting a few rooms with a bunch of pig figurines and stuffed animals.  Oh no, my friends, this goes waaaaaaay  beyond that.  The museum is on two floors with more than twenty rooms absolutely stuffed to the gills with everything related to pigs.  Figures and stuffed animals, sure, but also jewelry, statues, porcelain, games, money, and so much more that it absolutely boggled the senses.  I couldn’t believe it.  I kept thinking, well this has to be the last room… nope, it just keeps going and going and going.  The official line is that there are more than 50,000 items in the museum, but I think it’s significantly more.

I took a ridiculous amount of pictures but trust me when I tell you that what you see is only a fraction of the full collection.  If you’re reading this on PluckySurvivors.com, the story continues after the photos.

Conveniently, there is a pork-focused restaurant on the main floor and of course that’s where I decided to have lunch.  A plate of sausages – pork and beef – with some super crispy fries.  Every bite was a little bit of pig (and/or cow) heaven.

On my way out I picked up a couple of souvenirs.  A magnet and a figurine of a pig at the beach in sunglasses.

From there, I drove my German car through a German city to a German automobile museum.  Yes, I’m driving an Audi and the museum in question is for Mercedes, but I’ve decided not to let that get in the way of my quasi-literary attempts at turning a phrase.

The Mercedes Museum consists of eight floors taking you through the history of the manufacturer and the world. It starts with a horse, of course, and carries you through early automaking in the late 1800s to pre- and post-wars to the modern era with some stunning works of art on display.

If you don’t think an automobile can be a work of art, you aren’t paying attention.  Just look at some of these photos and tell me the subjects don’t belong in a museum.

Interestingly, along the ramps that lead down from floor to floor, they have history of the world in lighted displays, which carry you from one era of Mercedes to the next.  It didn’t shy away from the parts of German history that were less than flattering, but very, very little of the displays had anything to do with Mercedes.  There were panels on Elvis, AIDS, the Montgomery bus boycott, and more, which was a cool way of adjusting your mind and providing context for the next set of automobiles and their place in society.

That these panels gloss over (putting it mildly) Mercedes’ part in WWII – most of what they made during that time was for military purposes and most of it was made by forced laborers, prisoners of war, or concentration camp detainees.  I understand why they chose to not spend a lot of time on that particular nugget of history.

I loved the sausages I had at lunch but they had decidedly mixed feelings about me, so I went back to the hotel and chilled for a while (a nap may have been involved) until it was time for the Katy Perry concert.

First, I was hungry again – go figure – so I hopped the subway to the Schlossplatz area where the concert was happening and picked the first restaurant I saw, an Italian joint with what looked like a good menu.  There was no A/C and I got ignored for 10 minutes so I left and went to the Italian place next door, L’Osteria Stuttgart.

The menu was all in German but I was able to figure out something called “pizza bread” and tagliatelle with bolognese.  I figured the pizza bread was going to be something like garlic bread with pizza-esque toppings.  Nope, it was a pizza.  A full pizza.  It was good and so was the pasta but I didn’t eat a lot of either.

Now, why, you may be asking, is Katy Perry is performing at the Stuttgart Jazz Festival?  An excellent question and one she asked herself from stage (“Why the hell am I here?”).  Yes, they had lots of jazz artists throughout the two week event but they also had Diana Krall, Nick Cave, Teddy Swims, Jamiroquai, Lenny Kravitz, Joss Stone, and Moby so I guess it’s not just for jazz anymore.

The setting was in the plaza at Schlossplatz, the historic palace in the center of Stuttgart.  It’s a relatively small venue holding about 7,000 people, when compared to the 70,000 people at Hyde Park is much more manageable.

I know Katy Perry is one of those love/hate kind of entertainers, but I kinda love her.  She’s funny, doesn’t seem to give a crap about what anybody thinks, is relentlessly offbeat, and puts on one hell of a show.  This one was all about technology with giant iPhones and computers on the stage that she played with while cranking out her hits like “California Gurrls,” “Teenage Dream,” “Hot & Cold,” and “Roar” among others.

She took a rainbow flag from someone in the audience and wore it when she sang “I Kissed a Girl,” cracked herself up when she strapped on a giant selfie camera, and even poked a little fun at her space travel expedition (“I spent 5 seconds in space!”)  an extended bit with her dancers as astronauts leading into her hit “E.T.”

A sweet moment was when she went down into the audience to greet who she called her most ardent German fan, a guy she nicknamed Bubbles because 18 years ago when he was a teenager, he stood outside her hotel blowing soap bubbles hoping she’d notice.  She did and they have had a weird connection ever since.

The most incredible part was when she got into a giant plastic water bottle and crowd surfed in it.  Who does that?  Katy Perry, that’s who.

The whole thing ended with “Firework” as she sprayed the front of the audience with foam.

Even if you’re in the “hate” camp, I don’t know how you could go to a show of hers and not leave with a smile on your face.

Afterwards, I walked a few blocks to one of the few gay bars in the area called Monroe’s, as in Marilyn.  The whole thing is decked out in photos, busts, and paintings of the iconic star.  Why?  Who knows.  They were playing Disco music and the beer was good, so who cares?

That’s it for Stuttgart.  Tomorrow, I go back to Austria with a visit to Salzburg.