It is official now, I have been exiled from Swabia for not being miserly enough. One has to know that in Swabia, money is the highest good and has to be valued above all else. Financial status is of utmost importance and the average citizen is so tight, you couldn’t pull a penny out of their arse with a tractor. As it happened, I have split restaurant bills evenly (“just make it twenty for each of us”) on too many occasions.

Nice day-trip to the area of the Swabian Alps with a ~10km hike from Bisingen to Hohenzollern Castle. The route lead mostly through foresty grounds with quite a lot of up and downs. Bit slippery due to recent rain but good fun.

Best thing about Stuttgart Volksfest is the closing fireworks. The river was very quiet with hardly any wind going. Made for some interesting shots.

Overlooking Stuttgart from the west is Birkenkopf, a 500m high elevation. It grew by 40 metres in the years 1953 to 1957 when 1.5 million m³ of rubble were cleared from the bombed city and moved to the hill. Most locals know it by its unofficial name “Monte Scherbelino” which roughly translates to “Mount Shards”.

For those who would like some food for thoughts for the festive season: Your Lifestyle Has Already Been Designed (The Real Reason For The Forty-Hour Workweek)

“Cannstatter Wasen: prepare for overcrowded trains, delays and maladjusted people” - that message was showing on train departure displays at main station last weekend. The comedian in charge got into trouble with his superiors. Personally I think he should have gotten a commendation but there is no arguing with the wimps in charge of political correctness. Anecdotes aside, the bi-yearly mass intoxication that gets tourists and every farm boy in a hundred kilometre radius wasted beyond believe came to an end this Sunday.

Glemseck 101, the annual motorcycle event near Stuttgart on the former Solitude race track. Loooooots of motorcycles. Some of them quite… unusual. Anybody remember that Mel Gibson movie, Mad Max? This bike seems fit for the post-apocalyptic road-trip. Others featured a more morbid outfit. How many times does one get pulled over by the cops on a thing like this? Apparently some vendors have discovered little girls as their target group.

Two weeks ago, at “Flammende Sterne” in Filderstadt.

Christopher Street Day in Stuttgart - queer people in a square city.

The Solitude palace near Stuttgart. Not too shabby, eh?

A couple of pictures from a recent walk/hike in the hills surrounding Stuttgart.