My companion and I spent the next day checking out the route to the workplace.  Google Maps shows a 2 km walk, but it’s uphill.  It’s always a good idea to check out the place first so we don’t get lost trying to get there on the first day of work.

The trek to the workplace showed us both how physically unfit we were.  After climbing many flights of stairs, up many slopes, taking a few wrong turns, and thirty minutes later, we made it there.

Needless to say, this walk provides VERY good exercise for the both of us.  I think I’m going to try walking up to work everyday.  Hopefully this habit will stick!

Where we were headed

The terrain around here makes hillside houses to be very common.  It’s not like Vancouver where most of the land doesn’t allow for this as much.

Half-way there

We climbed many of these

I found it interesting how there were little ramps there that strollers could follow.  The person pushing the stroller could walk on the steps in between.  I’ve never seen any of those in Canada.

Looking down the mountain

Finally arrived!

In addition to the Königsbau, and the Neue Schloss that I visited and wrote about in Part I, I also visited the a church known as the Stiftskirche.  The history of this church extends to well over 1000 years, starting from its roots in the 10th and 11th century.  However, much of the church’s original features were lost due to the church’s near destruction from Allied bombing raids near the end of World War II.

The church’s clock tower and entrance

Looking up the clock tower

The rear of the church

Since the restoration of the church in the 50’s, it’s interior features historical as well as modern elements.

Interior of the church

Statues of the Counts of Württemberg

Before entering the main atrium of the church, there was a display that told the story of the history of this church.  Unfortunately, it was all in German, so I could not understand.

Before actually doing any sightseeing, our landlady had discovered a mistake to our residence permit that we completed the day before at the Rathaus (town hall) in Gerlingen, so our trip to go back there to get it fixed. The next thing we had to do was apply for something called an “Aufenthaltstitel” at the Landratsamt (literally translates to District Office) in Ludwigsburg. Trying to get to where we wanted would be impossible if we didn’t have a map to guide us. On the way there we came across some interesting sights.

A Church in Ludwigsburg

Looks like Government Offices of Some Sort

Inside the Landratsamt, we knew exactly which room we needed to go and who we needed to see. When we got there, we ran into a slight problem: the person we needed to see didn’t speak English. Neither of us spoke German. We ended up using a pay phone to call our supervisor to see what we could do. Luckily, he managed to help us complete our paperwork there by talking to the people at the office over the phone.

While they were looking at our passports, my supervisor and the person working at the office had a long conversation about the visa that we acquired in Canada. Although, I can’t speak German, I was able to catch some words in their conversation and looked it up in the German translator on my phone. I caught two words. One word meant “peculiar” and the other word meant “circumstance”. Juxtaposing these words did not make our situation look good. If we failed to complete the paperwork at the Landratsamt, we could not legally start our internship until we get the proper papers. Luckily, everything went well. That was a relief.

Since it was only noon when we finished in Ludwigsburg, we decided to go to the city center of Stuttgart. Unfortunately, our lack of familiarity with the city’s metro led to us taking the wrong train. It took us further away from our destination. After looking a bunch of transit maps, we took the correct train to Stuttgart after a 25 minute wait.

Typical Train Station in the Stuttgart Region

Upon arriving at the city center, we were greeted by sights of very distinct architecture. Many of these buildings had been around for hundreds of years.

The Outside of the Train Station

The Königsbau, Now a Mall, Was the Former Home to the Stuttgart Stock Exchange

das Neue Schloss (The New Castle), Home to Many Kings of Württemberg

The castle here is slightly different than before since Allied bombing during World War II destroyed just about the entire castle.

We pretty much wandered around town to see as many of the cool attractions as we could. Part II to come soon!