Showing mom and Larry around Stuttgart

I am writing from my office during lunch hour, so this is a really quick recap of the past week.

After landing in Amsterdam, Mom and Larry jumped on a riverboat to sail up the Rhine, just like Apocalyspe Now, except for the heart of darkness replaced by the heart of cuteness. The pretzels! mom whispered into the darkness as the encroaching vineyards crept closer, The pretzels!

They took a train from Basel to Stuttgart and Saori and I met them on the station platform. (Actually, I had just barely finished up a meeting with my boss and the chef, and as soon as the chef was gone, I tossed my notebook on the desk and took off, walking at high speed to the train platform via a series of shortcuts, beer garden cuts, and temporary bridges). The sunny warm weather that day was the best they had had the entire trip. We exchanged happy greetings.

After dropping their luggage at the hotel we came back to the city and walked along Konigstrasse to Zum Pauliner for lunch in the leafy square in front. Stuttgart obligingly provided a local wine and food festival to walk through on our way there to demonstrate one of the charms of the city- festivals untainted by wide tourist draw.

Lunch was great, we got all the Schwabian hits: potato noodle dumplings, pretzel dumplings, pork, pork, spaetzl, maultauschen, and more pork. Mom and I split a crispy pig knuckle, and we all washed everything down with beer.

After lunch we walked to the neighborhood where Saori and I will be living, and then took a train back to do some shopping in town. For my birthday, mom bought me a big ceramic knife. Ever since I used one belonging to Saori's roommate, I thought, I need this knife. They are expensive and brittle. They are all made in Japan and razor sharp. Saori called it my 'Whale-killing knife'.

I guess its a good sign I'm entering my thirties when the top of my wish list consists of cooking items.

Anyway, after shopping, we took them to have coffee at Cafe Planie, one of my favorite cafes in town, and then over to Old Bridge Gelato afterwards. When mom is on vacation, gelato is fair game. After gelato, they decided to call it a night and headed back to the hotel.

I headed back to my apartment to pick up my travel bag and headed back to Saori's for the night, so we could take off to Munich in the morning.