Stuttgart, Porsche and Esslingen Christmas Markets – Thurs 24th Nov

Today was our final factory tour, this one at Porsche. We were a but rushed getting there because one of the trains out there was cancelled so we had a wait for the following one but we made it just after 10 am and had time to jump into the tour.phones and bags have to be left in lockers. This tour we had booked to see the 911 production line. We saw the upholstery and engine shops but couldn’t go into the assembly because they had new prototypes on the line that need to remain secret. Instead we visited the Taycan line which is their electric car. This may have been better because it has a lot more automation than the 911. The line is similar to what we saw at VW but here we were able to get closer. Watching the robots put in the windshields was pretty impressive. The 911 engines are still built mainly by hand and the upholstery shop has a lot of hand done work too.

Afterwards we visited the museum which is where we started and ended the tour. G and E were just keen to look at all he cars, I got the audio guide so I could learn a bit more about it all. Soon we had seen enough cars and went back to our apartment.

We had some down time. E’s cough had now turned into a full blown cold so he decided to stay home while G and I went to Esslingen for the Christmas Markets. But first we dropped into the Stuttgart library to check out the architecture.

All through Germany we’d seen markets being set up and during my research I’d seen that the Esslingen one opened on the 23rd. Esslingen has many medieval half-timbered houses and is a very picturesque town only 20mins by train from the centre of Stuttgart. There is a normal Christmas market and a Medieval Christmas Market. We were very lucky with the weather, although it was still cold, it was milder than some weather we’ve had and no rain. We had a sausage in a roll and mulled wine for dinner, then checked out all the little stalls. I picked out some Christmas decorations for the girls and E’s girlfriend, then we headed back home. It was a lovely night and I’m so glad we got to experience a Christmas Market and a cute medieval town while we were in Germany.