For those of you loyal Trespassers who, like me, don’t sprechen sie Deutsche, the title of this article translates to “Christmas cheer and sausage action”. I just find myself amused by the ridiculously long words that the German language comprises of!
So no prizes for guessing that this is a travel article relating to Germany, more specifically the city of Stuttgart.
Now, I’m pretty sure that you’d agree with me when I say that Stuttgart wouldn’t be the first place to come to mind when thinking, “Euro city break.” So why did I go? Simple! I won the one-night holiday from the Moevenpick Hotel Group.
Food Review
The market food was excellent, which is of no surprise being in a country that celebrates the sausage. What I normally reserve for the 3am drunken hot dog becomes an acceptable snack throughout the day and night, and you end up being spoiled for choice with bratwurst and currywurst, and for those who are game, the ½ metre sausage. Keep an eye out for the deli-style stalls that sell local Buffalo salami-style sausages. They are mouth-wateringly amazing!
If you’re looking for a great restaurant that won’t blow the budget but has a good vibe and excellent traditional fare, then look no further than weber on Calwer Str. (conveniently located near the Stadtmitte train station). I had a young beef entrecote, with onions and a “Lemberg” (red wine) sauce, and butter spatzl. Hands down the most amazing piece of meat that’s ever passed my lips. My travel companion had the traditional Swabian (regional specific) ravioli with sausage and rocket. With an extensive wine list, this restaurant ticks all the boxes and doesn’t break the bank.
Accommodation Review
As this was a free holiday, sponsored by Moevenpick, we stayed at the Stuttgart Airport Moevenpick hotel. This is a world-class hotel group that is brilliantly designed, well-staffed, but flawed nonetheless.
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The very sweet welcome card (with a Konfuzius quote) not only had poor grammar, but was printed at a bad angle, and was missing capitalisation.
- We were upgraded to a Junior Suite (their second best room) and had early check-in (quite a luxury in top hotels), but the room hadn’t been cleaned properly, with loads of empty bottles sitting around. Even when asked to remove this during turndown, they were left behind.
- Our room came with a free Nespresso/Krups coffee maker and Konnefeldt leaf tea, but there were no plugs for the kettle, nor were there plugs in the bathroom for the hair dryer.
- The bathroom was embellished with Bvlgari products and a heated floor, but they only provided one bathrobe and slippers set.
The conflict between excellence versus attention to detail slips, disappointed me and detracted from the other exciting parts of the hotel such as:
- The massaging shower, free bath salts and a rubber duck in every room (the duck is free to keep).
- The hotel reception presents a selection of local chocolates and gingerbreads on a tray on a daily basis, so you can always pick up a sweet treat when strolling on through. They also have jugs of mango juice (random choice but delightful nonetheless) and water.
- As it is an airport hotel, noise is an obvious concern, but the entire hotel is brilliantly soundproofed.
- The elevators are illuminated in different colours which brings a bit of spark to a corporate environment. 
They also make excellent use of mirrors.
- I personally also loved their take on the clocks indicating international timezones: local cuckoo clocks are sectioned off in reception representing global times. The restaurant and lounge areas are decorated according to a Hansel and Gretel theme which is actually local to the area.
- The smorgasbord at breakfast – there were 14 types of bread, cakes, Moevenpick jams, freshly smoked salmon, six types of meat, eight types of cereal, three types of milk including gluten-free, yoghurts and fruit, an omelette-making chef, local ravioli, crispy bacon (really crispy – none of this soggy business), hard-boiled eggs that sat in a giant design case that resembled an egg itself, a variety of juices and probiotic drinks – the list quite literally goes on.
When it comes down to it, if I had been paying for my accommodation, I’m not sure if I would have felt like I paid for a sterling experience. Moevenpick Stuttgart Airport is great, but it could have been a smidge better. And that smidge is exactly what makes hotels great. As someone who worked in the five-star hotel industry for 5 years, I’m all about the experience.
City Review
According to the Tourism bureau, some of the adjectives used to describe the city are “welcoming, cosmopolitan, light-hearted, exhilarating and exciting.” And the city itself is lovely. It hasn’t been completely ruined by excessive tourism but instead, still retains a lot of its traditional German authenticity, although I did lose count of the number of Starbucks I saw. The Christmas Markets are what has put Stuttgart on the map, and they are indeed breathtaking and worthy of their title of “Europe’s oldest and biggest Christmas market.”
Allegedly, the city also has the longest shopping street in Europe at over 1000 metres long called, Konigstrasse. The pedestrianised street is nice and wide, and accessibility is great. The shops are excellent, ranging from high fashion to cheap but cheerful. There’s some interesting architecture around the city, and a decent park that comes off Schlossplatz, which is easily found by looking for the Jubilee Column. The city is sweet in its simplicity and authenticity.
From the rooms in the hotel, the view is just quite bizarre. Airports always inspire modernity due to the commercial and capitalistic values that they represent, but it was odd to see a mix of stale grey and glass, futuristic-style, techy buildings dwarfing the farms and other remote representations of ‘real life’ that I could see in the distance. We unfortunately didn’t have enough time to go out into the countryside, which is meant to be lovely (and the bits we could see ‘over yonder’ looked delightful).
I wouldn’t say there are “must-sees” in the city centre, because it’s so tiny that you’ll see it all anyway. It’s worth climbing the Mercedes Tower in the main station Hauptbanhof – there’s a great view from the open-air top. Around the Oberer Schlossgardt park are some cute buildings including the Playhouse, Opera House, New Palace and House of Art. These are contrasted by the Modern Art Museum on the shopping street – it’s a giant glass cube that overlooks Schlossplatz, and stands out against its neighbouring building, the Konigsbau, which was built in the 1860s in the Late Classicist style, and has 26 ionic columns along its facade.
We were expecting more from the Bean Quarter, which is the oldest area of Stuttgart and was modelled on Prague’s New Town for craftsmen, winegrowers and Jewish residents. The name of the area stems from the garden bean which was cultivated as the main source of food for poor people at that time. I suspect it’s busier in summer.
To Conclude…
Stuttgart is very cute, and an ideal city for a short break. I highly recommend the Christmas markets, but honestly can’t see why you would go any other time of year, unless of course you were a business traveller. The Moevenpick Hotel at Stuttgart serves its purpose as a largely corporate destination, and was lovely but not as edgy as it could and should have been. We did see several central hotels that looked lovely, so leisure travellers would have no issues with finding a place to rest their heads.
