A quick tour of Stuttgart

CNN showed men playing chess in the center of Stuttgart in the reportage of the German election. It was a place where men played chess on a life sized chessboard with pieces two and three feet high.

I walked by that spot almost daily when I lived there as a new bride back in the sixties. Stuttgart was the reason why I fell in love with Europe. My ex was not enthused. He was homesick. I relished it from buying a wurst and brotchen at a stand where the owner would give my German Shepherd, Kimm, a free wurst, to the black forest cakes that I could afford once or twice in the beginning of the month. Things like that are a treat when you are poor and can't have one anytime you want.

I loved the fashings with its costumes and fests under tents where the Army band that my husband was in played, but to this day I cannot look at sauerkraut, because when you eat sauerkraut five nights a week for several weeks, you build almost an allergy.

I’ve forgotten most of my German, although when I am there each day is a little better. I will never forget my pleasure at living there.