2014-03-30 48 9

Location

A tram line in Stuttgart.

Participants

Plans

Catch bus 007/033 leaving Zurich at 7am, reaching Freiburg at 9.15
Have extended breakfast in Freiburg
Catch bus 008 leaving Freiburg at 9.15, reaching Stuttgart at 1.40pm
Since the hashpoint is on a tram line, reach Dobelstraße station
Catch tram U5, U6, U7 or U12 to Olgaeck, passing over the hashpoint
Be back at the station at 5.30
Look for a grey Citroën suited as an escape vehicle

Expedition

It was the second time that Calamus sat in the bus to Freiburg on a Sunday morning at 7am, but this time the daylight saving time wasn't in his favour, and it was basically 6am. Good thing Calamus's biological clock didn't account for days of the week. The journey to Freiburg went as smoothly as the last time, and once again Calamus ordered breakfast in the same restaurant at the same table from the same waitress to fill the wait for his connection to Stuttgart.

This was the first time after some political shifts that Calamus travelled to Europe in his free time, and he made sure to blend in as well as he could. Being Swiss wasn't a good idea right now.

Another bus ride later Calamus arrived in Stuttgart. Well, almost. The bus actually stopped in the outskirts, and Calamus went the last few miles on foot. Stuttgart turned to be pretty much a larger version of Zurich. Maybe a little bit dirty, a teeny bit smelly and a weeny bit lake-less, but otherwise quite okay. And having a hashpoint on a tram rail. Approaching it from the street would have been stupid, so he rode the last part of his way to the city centre by tram. Bing, minesweeper get! And now he was pretty thirsty, so he had a German beer (tastes like Swiss beer, but highly diluted) and some ice cream (yummy) in the palace garden before proceeding to the station.

Stuttgart probably has one of the most controversial train stations of Europe. In Germany, structural changes of public buildings, even important ones, can be decided by officials without even calling for a vote. In 1996 they did just that: They decided to move most of the train station below the ground. Due to enormous costs, the destruction of ancient trees, substantial amounts of harmful emissions, corruption and allegedly illegal financing, pretty much the whole of Stuttgart had something to say against the project. Yet it was not aborted, and a referendum was simply declined – that constitution must be completely broken. This is why the Stuttgartarians organize protests every Monday, spend their free time planting trees, and hate their government. At the time of this writing, guillotines are not part of Germany's legal system.

For the way back, Calamus had appointed a ride on a car pooling platform. The driver, who turned out to be generally awesome, was at the rendevous point in time and brought Calamus back to Zurich in about a third of the time the bus had taken.