On the way to Stuttgart

After leaving Munich the first thing we came to was the Fuggerei Township.  A man named Jakob Fuggerei started the town for those people who couldn’t afford to pay for a home. It was the first example of modern day housing projects. Any family who qualified to live there could. The town gates closed at 10pm every night, with only one gate allowing you in afterward, but with a fee. It also had its own church and school on the grounds. Each house is the same typical layout 1-2 bedrooms, a kitchen, living room and bathroom. The town has been open since it was built, although it was damaged during the war and rebuilt to the conditions of those times, and today they are also modeled after the current living ways, with indoor plumbing and electricity. The Fuggerei was opened for the people who needed it and today it still operates on the same system, todays rent for a home there is only about 0.88 EUR….a year.  The most interesting thing about the actual houses was the doorbell, they were old fashion and on a pulley system, but each pull was different. Apparently this was because back then there were no street lights so people would feel each doorbell pull to find the one that was uniquely theirs to find their homes. Another interesting fact is that Mozart’s grandfather lived in Fuggerei.

 

Hohenzollern Castle is about a three hour drive form there and about a 3min shuttle up the mountain, and once your at the top you can see everything. My favorite part was the elaborate paintings in the rooms where the royal family stayed. It was funny because we had to put on these protective shoes that looked like giant oversized house slippers, and we were sliding across all the floors.

Mercedes Benz Musuem was our last stop for the day and it was pretty cool, my only complaint is that I wish we would have had more time there. Seeing the evolution of the car over time was crazy, we went through so many designs and types that I never knew about.