We couldn't find the information center because of the vendor fair going on in the square. We finally found it but it turned out that to get the tickets for the Petrusse train (sight seeing train) and the hop-on / hop-off bus we had to walk to Consitution square which wasn't too far away. But by this time, I really wanted to just sit somewhere and people watch.
Once at Constitution square we scored a bottle of water which was pricey but when you're thirsty, you'll pay! We bought the combination ticket and saved a few Euro. First the train. It's really not a train but more like a bus that looks like a train. The train took us down through the Grund which is a large valley. People have built homes down in the valley.
View of the valley.
View from the Grund.
The train we rode to the Grund - which is the area in the valley. It's not really a train but more like small train cars pulled by a tractor to look like a train.
The gardens below the train station at Constitution Square.
Double bridge as seen from the train.
One of the squares we passed when on our hop-on hop-off tour.
A church in the city.
The history of this city and country is amazing. This city got taken over 20 times by various nations over the course of 400 years! As a result, there are various styles of architecture throughout the city. They have three national languages: French, German and Luxembourghese. Plus many of the people speak English as well. Amazing!!
It was a beautiful day and somewhat warm. I wished I had brought lighter clothing. No matter though, it was fun.
After the train ride, we boarded the Hop on / Hop off Bus. We got off at the Vileroy - Boch store because I wanted to pickup brochures for the beautiful china I had seen a few years ago. There is a particular set that I absolutely love because you can mix and match the patterns! What a store!! They have been producing ceramics since the 1700's! My husband, found a chair and promptly fell asleep while I was looking around. We walked around a bit and wanted to find the palace. Ted thought we could tour it but apparently the first family lives there. It was behind a gated fence with a gate house. It's beautiful but I didn't want to get too close in case the police came around.
When we got to the end of the tour, we decided to go see the Casemates which are underground tunnels (within the city walls). It was dark, damp and narrow. Because my feel were killing me, I only went so far but Ted went a bit further. There are miles and miles of tunnels down there and I didn't want to get lost underground.
When we finally emerged, we were going to go directly to dinner and then back to the hotel but it turns out the restaurant that we wanted to go to didn't open until 7pm and it was only 5pm. We were going take a taxi back to the hotel since by this time our feet and legs ached but there were none to be found. Instead we tried to not think about our hurting limbs and walked back to the hotel. For the next several hours, we rested our tired and sore feet. It was then that we decided to take the taxi to the restaurant since we didn't know where that was either...and we didn't think our feet were up to any marathon walking tonight!
We laid down and promptly fell asleep for an hour. When we awoke it was time to go to dinner.
I asked the front desk to arrange transportation and the cab was there within minutes. The drive didn't take too long.
It turns out that the restaurant that I had planned to go to required reservations. Funny their website didn't say anything about reservations and the hostess was impolite about it too. No matter though as we exited the restaurant, I turned to see my second choice of a restaurant right around the corner. We decided to see if they required reservations. They didn't!
I was a bit worried about whether the food would be any good but I worried for naught. It was fabulous!!! A salad with warm goat cheese and fruit along and entrees of grilled scallops and risotto and Cordon Bleu. Ted, the chocoholic in our family, had the chocolate lava cake and I settled for pineapples with mango sorbet. I had never, ever seen pineapples sliced this thin before...I even ate the centers!! It was, by far, the best meal we have had during our travels!!
We got the name and telephone number of the taxi driver and asked if he would take us back to the hotel. We called him and he was there within minutes to whisk us away to our hotel. We slept soundly. Tomorrow we drive back to Stuttgart.
Saturday 4/24/2010
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