Stuttgart wine adventures

The history of wine and vineyards is closely related to Stuttgart and it's suburbs. Before reaching the city center you can see the vineyards which surround downtown.
The wine City owns more than 400 hectares or 2 % of wine-growing area. Most of the 23 districts grow Grapes, mostly as secondary occupation. The 18 single vineyard Locations all belong to one General Location Weinsteige.
Most of the production is red wine, about 70 %.
On the wine hiking trails, called  Stuttgarter Weinwanderwege you have the possibility to walk your way between vineyards and have a view of the City.
If you want to learn more about the history and technique of wine, visit the Uhlbacher Weinbaumuseum

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Of course there is also the possibility to take part in one of the countless wine tastings, held by
 Weinakademie or one of the  theme degustations, organized by Stuttgart-Marketing.
You might even connect the hike and the tasting. This possibility is offered again on the 15th of September 2013 during the wandering wine tasting -  wandernden Weinprobe on the Degerlocher Schnarrenberg.
If you wish to enjoy your wine in a more rustic ambiance, we recommend one of the local winegrowers which sell local wine and open their doors from time to time. Here you will find the Event calendar - Veranstaltungskalender, which inform you about their opening hours.
And - just one more week, on the 28th of August, the Stuttgart Wine Village will start.
 Here you will find a large variety of local food like Maultaschen and Schupfnudeln.

Stuttgart Summer Festival

This year Stuttgart presents the 23d Summer Festival from the 1rst to the 4rth of August 2013.
The program is not yet published for this year but you will find a large variety of different live acts like every year. Just have a look at the program of last year.

It hadn't been planned like that in former times. Originally the festival was supposed to be a one off event for the final of the bicycle world championsship in 1991.
The festival was a great success and has been repeated for 22 times until now. Still it is very successful and appreciated by lots of visitors.

The castle square in the center of Stuttgart is packed with white tents, last year there were 29 different locations where you could try specialities and have a glass of beer or wine. 36 bands were playing live on 5 stages during these 4 days.

Bicycle riding on a car-free road

Last week end we went the second time to "Pfalz" - about 2 hours from Stuttgart in car. Every last sunday in August the "Deutsche Weinstraße" (German Wine Road) will be closed for cars on 80 km from 10 am to 6 pm. Lots of people take advantage of this fact by going on tour with bicycles, inline skates, wheel chairs or even on foot. It is more a social than a sportive event - sometimes you will find crowded streets, especially in the center of the towns. Every few meters there will be stands with food, wine, music, bicycle repair items and other stuff. It is a great collective event and highly recommendable. In Pfalz people don't drink quarters of wine like we do in Baden-Württemberg, they drink "Schoppen" im "Dubbeglas" (= Tupfenglas/ Spot Glas) which holds a quantity of half a liter. The "Schorle" (usually 1 half wine and 1 half water) tends to be at least 3 quarters of wine with just a litte space left for a splash of water. Specialities to eat are "Saumagen"- stuffed pork stomach, potato soup with plum tart (yes, they eat them in one course), liver dumplings and many more.