Michelle's blog

So since Justin was in meetings all week, I had a lot of time to myself. I took that time to explore Stuttgart on a couple of walking tours. The walks always took me up into the hills and provided a lot of historical information about Baden-Württemberg. I walked past the old castle, the new castle, a couple of palaces, lots of viewpoints, climbed a ton of stairs, wandered thru a bunch of parks and past lots of beautiful old homes. I really enjoyed walking along the Blaue Weg (Blue Path), which was the first Swabian Walking Associations footpath that went as far as the Black Forest.

I also visited some museums. The first one was the Württembergishes Landesmuseum of Stuttgart. This was in the old castle of Stuttgart, which was most recently rebuild in 1969 and now houses the "State Collection of National Antiquities." The best of which was glass from the Egyptians, the oldest deck of European cards dating from 1430, celtic burial objects, and the crown jewels of Württtemberg and the Russian gold service of Queen Katharina. Very sparkly and very pretty.

Another day I went to the State Museum of Natural History at the Rosenstein Palace Museum. This museum was located inside a beautiful building and surrounded by rose gardens. Inside was a collection of mammals and lots of information on native species. Sadly I did learn that the last bear seen in Baden-Württemberg, which includes the Black Forest, was over 200 years ago. And that wolves had not been seen even longer. Kind of upsetting to me that the home of Grimms fairy tales no longer has bears and wolves in it.

The third location I visited was Ludwigsburg, this was further outside of the city, but well worth the trip. Ludwigsburg is home to a magnificent palace built between 1704 and 1733, which includes 452 rooms in 18 buildings. And the majority of furniture and wallpaper is as it once was as Ludwigsburg did not receive any damage from the war. The place is drippingly gorgeous, and is often compared to Versailles. Unfortunately it was raining when I was there, so I didn't even get a chance to wander about the lush gardens. I don't know all the history on this place, but it was originally built as a hunting lodge for the Duke, then expanded as a home for his mistress. Then built into more of a palace when Napoleon made him a King.

Finally on Friday I visited the Mercedes-Benz Museum. I thought I should go there, cause its what everyone does, and this is where it all started, but I didn't think I would like it all that much. And, now I am the first to admit that I was wrong, it was really fun. The building itself was pretty cool, you start on the top and work down beginning with the first engine and car and you end up in a Mercedes-Benz showroom, just in case you wanted to place an order (think of it as a high end museum gift shop). I learned a lot, saw lots of pretty cars. Picked out a couple that I thought would be fun to own (Dad, let me know if you are having a hard time figuring out my birthday gift, I have some suggestions for you). The museum is built as part of the plant, so from the windows I could watch cars being road tested. I got to see one of the popemobiles, and lots of winning race cars.

The rest of the time I spent relaxing on grass or in park benches. It was a great place to people-watch, listen to German, and read. If you ever get the chance to visit southern Germany, I wouldn't miss it.

• Mercedes-Benz museum
• Ludwigsburg Palace on Wikipedia

We are back, and have lots to update on. Germany was fun and I really enjoyed it there. The reason we went to Stuttgart was because Justin had 'geek week' and I just went to go explore.

First full day there, we spent some time gathering information at the tourist office and walking around the parks. Stuttgart has lots of big open green spaces even in the downtown aspect, and its full of paths. Everyone seemed to be outside either walking, biking or just chilling on the grass. We walked to the Wilhelma botanical garden and zoo first. This zoo was much larger then the one in Fuengirola and had lots more animals. Not to mention that it was also a botanical garden so there were lots of greenhouses to walk in.

There was a great primate section, and seemed to be built around the same time as the great ape house in the national zoo, it had about the same layout, including indoor and outdoor space for all the groups. We saw a large bonobo group, maybe 14 or so, Chimpanzees, Gorilla, Orang, White Cheeked Gibbons, and some old and new world monkeys. We had never seen bonobos before and this was a treat. The highlight was watching a mom bonobo take care of her newborn, who really wanted to go explore, but she kept him close by to her. The gibbons were super active and had a huge outdoor climbing enclosure, one of the females was so much fun to watch swinging everywhere as she played with her brother.

The coolest part is that Wilhelma Zoo has a 'kindergarten' for primates. Meaning that if any primate infant is abandoned by its mom or something happens that the infant is alone, at any zoo in Europe, they are sent to Wilhelma. The kindergarten is just about the coolest thing ever, and would be the BEST JOB IN THE WORLD. Because these infants are orphaned, their human keeper takes on the role of primate mom. They get to spend the day inside the enclosure teaching the infants how to behave as an ape. In this case there were two little gorillas. They were together and playing with their 'mom'. It was just about the coolest thing I have seen. I wasn't able to understand the process all that much since everything was written in German. But it looked liked as the gorillas got older they would mix in with older gorillas until they were able to integrate into a troop.

The weather was excellent and exploring the zoo was a lot of fun. We saw elephants getting lunch, tigers playing together in the water, a kids zoo/petting zoo area, baby pigs, lots of birds... oh yes and the second best part.... the EISBÄR (polar bear) baby.

The baby eisbär in germany is on the same level as the baby panda in DC. There are signs everywhere, books written about him, stuffed animals, people lining up to see him. And he is very cute, we saw him hanging out with his mom, swimming some. Just for the record his name is Wilbär.

We were exhausted after spending hours walking over the zoo, it was a bigger zoo that DC. It was a full day, and by the time we got back in town only had enough energy to have some pretzels, fries and beer.

Wilhelma Zoo website

So things may be quiet for about a week. Justin and I are leaving this afternoon for a week in Stuttgart, Germany. I am excited to travel to another country, and I have never been to Germany before. Lots of updating when we get back, I promise.

Took a morning day trip today to Torremolinos. This is actually the second time there, and it was much better than the first trip (more on that another day). I managed to get to the used bookstore, and pick up some new reading material. Made it home before the rain, read a little and fell asleep on the couch. Living in Spain is rough!

Earlier this week, Matt and I traveled to Ojén. Ojén is a small mountain town about 30 min north of Marbella. We had read about a wine museum located in the town that sounded fun and wanted to check it out. Had no problems getting a bus, in fact we were the only people on the bus initially and it was a very scenic drive up the mountains. Had a great view of the sea from the top, and the weather was wonderful. We arrived before the museum opened, so decided to follow the main road (continuing up the mountain) to look for some better views. The road is very curvy and there is no such thing there as a sidewalk, so we had to be on guard for cars, not that there was much room for us since one side of the road was rock and the other usually was a strong slant down into the valley. We walked for a while stopping at some exercise stations (I don't know why they were here, or who the target population is for these things) on the way, saw some older people walking the road with us, and went up til we got tired. Figured by the time we got back to town, the museum would open.

Went into the museum, hoping to be able to taste some local wines. Only to find out it was more of a gift shop then museum and the main guy was on the phone, so it didn't look like we were going to get any tastings. Disappointed, we headed back into town to get the bus back to Marbella. It was a wonderful day after all, and thought we could redeem the disappointment by spending the afternoon on the beach. Turns out the next bus wasn't until 2pm, that left us with 2 hours to wait! So we continued to wander around this very small place, happened upon some historic caves. And ended up spending the rest of the time in a small cafe, watching the old men gather. I have to say, they were pretty adorable, they obviously knew each other and going to the cafe was part of their daily routine. They would just wander in, sit with their friends and the waiter would bring them their regular drink (either wine or beer), they would talk (or argue depending on their tone) get up and leave.

Time passed... and I learned all about gaming. And we finally got the bus back. Managed to get in some beach time. All said, it was a cute town just rather not have spent so long there.

I have had lots of interesting trips to the grocery store. It takes me forever to go food shopping, first because I have no idea where anything is and second because I have to read everything very carefully. I have made some dumb mistakes because I have not spent time reading, for instance buying olives stuffed with anchovies (when it was printed in english)! And for some reason I got it in my head to make rice krispies treats, and I was motivated in this because some of Justin's colleagues have never even heard of such yummy goodness.

First bit of difficulty was finding marshmallows. I didn't see them anywhere. And Justin and I didn't know the word for it in spanish, and how do you go about explaining what they are to someone (white, soft, sweet, gooey) without making more confusion. Then a few weeks later, they just appeared in a store that I have looked in multiple times. Only odd thing about them was that they were pink, but thats alright isn't it?

Earlier this week I made a batch of rice krispies treats. This is where I run into the second challenge- I didn't have any wax paper, and they were WAY too sticky, Matt had to help me because everytime you touched something you would only make things more sticky... and I think I could have added more rice krispies... but they turned out not so bad, and made for a tasty treat.

The past two weeks I have been wandering around the Marbella market. Its held every monday and its a combination of flea and farmers market. I haven't explored as much around the nonfood part all that much, but the farmers side is excellent.

So far I have found yummy tasty strawberries, and a gigantic box of cherries. I am still working on learning how much food is actually a kilo and stuff like that, since I am not used to thinking in that way. And I am working on learning the spanish words to my fruits and veggies, like how do you ask for a bunch of bananas? They also have some crazy looking stuff that I don't even know what you do with. But you can be sure that this is going to become part of my weekly routine.

So just a side story... I was spending the afternoon in Puerto Banús, picking up some reading material, this is the closest english bookstore to me. I was waiting in line for the bus to get back home and this woman runs up to me:

British Woman: Do you speak english? I hope you speak english.
Me: Yes I do.
Woman: Oh good, I have been really unlucky today finding people who speak english.

She goes on the ask about where the bus is going, what stop to get off etc... Meanwhile her husband walks up next to her:

Husband: Did you find out where the bus is going?
Woman: Yes, this lady here helped me.
Husband: Oh good, she speaks english then?
Woman: Oh yes, and she has the most lovely accent. (directing her question to me) Where are you from?
Me: Uhhh... the US.

Now personally I would never think of my accent to be 'lovely', and I'm pretty sure its recognizable from just about everywhere. I am about as American sounding as you get, at least I think so. Her husband was kinda funny, after he heard me answer he looked at his wife like she was kinda crazy and said something like 'yeah she is american'

Anyway, made me laugh.

Sorry for the delay in the posting...

Last weekend we took our first bus trip and went to Fuengirola and they just happen to have a zoo! I desperately miss the National Zoo so this was a treat for me. Fuengirola has a relatively newly built zoo, the animal enclosures were really well done and have a very naturalistic feel to them. Overall the zoo is on the small size, but not bad for city. No volunteers though, and they really could have used them for explanations and to keep the people from banging on the glass and worse, throwing food to the animals!

One of the most fun features, something we would never see in a US zoo, is that visitors are able to go inside the animal enclosure with the lemurs. We both loved this and actually went on the tour twice! They had 3 types of lemurs (all of which got up nice and close for photos) Ringtail, Black and White Ruffed, and Red Ruffed lemurs. One of the ringtails had a 6 day old baby clinging to her and they came up to Justin and grunted at him, it was great!

We (of course) spent some quality time with all the primates. They had 2 gorillas on view, which I thought was kinda a small troop size. They were pretty much being energy minimizers and spending their day lounging in the sun. The zoo did have a good group of chimpanzees. Neither Justin or I have seen chimpanzees before, so this was exciting. One of the moms had a young baby, who was just the cutest thing ever to watch. Adorable! They also had an orang mom with a baby... they had some of the best hairstyles ever. Oh and hanging out with the orangs were 4 otters, a strange grouping but they didn't seem to bother eachother. I wonder what Em would think of living with a pair of orangs? Not the mention, that I wonder what the orangs think of the otters. I was surprised that they didn't keep going over to them and picking them up. Oh and I couldn't forget the gibbons, there was a family group of white cheeked gibbons, with another baby clinging onto her mom! I can't get enough of primate babies, too cute!

We visited the bird enclosures, one of those open air kinds, they always freak me out. I don't like the idea of birds having the potential to fly at me or to peck my eyes out. Needless to say, I rushed thru this exhibit quickly. One highlight was the bats hanging from the ceiling, and get this the bats were called flying foxes or in spanish zorros voladores, that is a pretty cool name. Hmmm... lets see, we also saw tigers, Nile Crocodiles, hogs with tusks, flamingos, porcupines, a pygmy hippo and meerkats. The meerkats were very exciting to watch, we kept coming back to go see them. They had about 4 juvenile meerkats in the enclosure. I don't know what is with all the babies at the zoo, but you will not hear me complaining about it.

After visiting the zoo we went out for some tapas (Taberna del Pintxo), it was a tapas selectas? Basically they kept coming around to the tables with different dishes and you would take one if you wanted. It reminded me of that sushi on conveyer-belt place we went to in Portland with Russ and Jaci. In a similar style the food had different colored toothpicks that corresponded to the price. All I can say was that it was very tasty.

After that we pretty much headed home. Got home early enough in the evening to try another bus ride, this time we went to Puerto Banús. Our guidebook tells us this is one of the flashiest marinas on the Costa del Sol, with many floating palaces docked. We walked around, saw the flashy yachts and cars, and went out for a late dinner at Don Leone.

Sunday we spent a lazy day, hanging on the beach and working on Spanish. It was finally nice and hot and Justin took a chilling dip into the sea!

The time has finally come for some laundry to be done. I didn't expect it to be anything interesting, but I had some concerns from what I have heard of others and their experiences with European washing machines.

Challenge 1: There is no information or directions regarding wash cycles, just a whole pile of numbers. I just picked one, which did absolutely nothing, the towels just spinned around with no water or soap seemed kind of useless to me. After about 20 min of that (I couldn't figure out how to stop it), I went to the next setting.

Challenge 2: I was delighted to see water fill up the machine and the soap get used, the machine spun around and I thought I had mastered things. But the lavadora had other plans for me still... when the machine stopped (another 30 min or so) I opened the door, and water comes rushing out all over the floor, and the towels are very, very wet. At this point I am frustrated, I didn't pay that close attention to what settings I had used and didn't know what I hadn't tried yet. I went for a walk, searched the internet for tips, came up with nothing.

Challenge 3: Back at it (I wasn't giving into this thing), next cycle... goes for about 1+ hours, my laundry at home never takes this long. Ends with success, the clothes are clean and not soaking. I hang them on the rack outside. I am so proud of myself I go for a beach walk to enjoy what is left of the day. Only to find that the wash will not let me forget who is in charge.

Oh well, I will continue on... crazy that this is what occupies my day with now.