Stuttgart; Saturday, 23 July, 2011

Heathrow on the first day of the school summer holidays is never a nice place to be. However, for once everything appeared to be running pretty smoothly, a few flights with twenty minute delays but nothing cancelled or delayed for hours.

Sure enough almost to the minute the gate was advertised as opening we were called forward to board.

Of course not everything can be as smooth as this, and we then proceeded to sit at the gate for 15 minutes waiting for a take-off slot due to congestion. However, only 15 minutes late we took off for a uneventful flight down to Stuttgart.

With a quick journey through the airport and a relatively speedy journey into the city centre I found myself at the hotel just before 8pm. Having checked in and dropped off my stuff I headed back out into town.

When I had visited a couple of years back the TV tower had been closed for refurbishment, but it was open today so I headed out over there, the stadtbahn still winding its way perilously up the hills.

By the time I got to the top of the tower there was the end of a stunning sunset bathing the city in a warm red glow. I took a few photos whilst watching the light finally disappear from over the city, then popped down a floor to the Panorama Café for a bite to eat before heading back to the stadtbahn (they are not trams, but there also not U-Bahns!) stop and catching the train back to the hotel.