In Stuttgart, Preceding the Prime Minister!

When it was a fact that Victor Ponta, the Romanian Prime Minister would officially visit Germany, and during his visit he will arrive also in Stuttgart, I thought I could tell him some places not to miss in the capital city of Baden-Württemberg State. My visit preceded his with less than a month. The Stuttgart Region hosted the

 39th GTM Germany Travel Mart 2013. The German National Tourist Board (Deutsche Zentrale für Tourismus - DZT) invited and welcomed, from May 5 to 7, more than 610 buyers, tourism professionals and journalists from 42 countries, and more than 350 German providers from the hotel, inbound and transport sectors, as well as local and regional tourism organizations.
I was one of the lucky journalists invited and I had the chance to see Stuttgart, with its Volksfest and gourmet restaurants, its car museums and Wilhelma Gardens, the vibrant nightlife and fantastic exhibitions, Stuttgart full of exciting contrasts. The tours I took in the city and in the region gave me a large perspective about the culture, the wines and the cars from this region.

• Mercedes-Benz and Porsche - dreams on wheels!

As also the Romanian Prime Minister found out, in fact the reason of the visit was this, Stuttgart is home to two of the leading names in the automotive world, Daimler-Benz and Porsche, both not only with factories, but also with spectacular museums in the city. The breathtaking Mercedes-Benz Museum looks back on some of the finest feats from the world of mobility. Nine floors are needed to display a total of more than 1,500 exhibits tracing the history of the brand.

Visitors can learn all about the legendary Porsche at the Porsche Museum in Zuffenhausen. The exhibition space at this glittering white museum is leaving you breathless.

But it’s much more to visit than the two museums. In the medieval town of Schorndorf is the house where Gottlieb Daimler was born in 1834, and where it all started… Today, the house where he was born, which has been bought and restored by Daimler-Benz AG, serves as a museum and conference venue. Inside is the famous postcard on which Daimler wrote: “From here a star will rise...”, the first mention of the star that would later become the hallmark of Mercedes-Benz.

The Gottlieb Daimler memorial in the Bad Cannstatt district of Stuttgart is located in what used to be a greenhouse. This is where Daimler, together with Wilhelm Maybach, transformed his ideas into reality. The models of the engines and tools bring to life the pioneering work of the two inventors.

Sindelfingen is home to Daimler AG’s largest car manufacturing plant. This is where the premium and luxury models are made and during a tour, visitors get to experience at close hand the different stages involved in car production.