One sleep left

Stuttgart has not changed much since I was last here in August, 2010. However last night at thirty minutes past midnight I do not think I noticed very much. Today has gone well but I have been tired. I cleaned the road off of my bicycle and then disassembled it. Thankfully all of the parts went back into the bicycle suitcase perfectly. I have now saved enough on bicycle carry-on luggage prices to pay for the couplers, padding, cable connectors, and suitcase that it takes to make a bicycle fit into an airline acceptable case. In reality that only took two trips. I am now working on the savings from having a rental bike for each trip. Enough of that. I finished about noon with packing and getting stuff ready.
I went downtown to get a few things for grandchildren and Beth. It was an uneventful trip. No surprises, the same trains and bus run in the same place as two years ago. I went tp Spielwaren Kurtz in Stuttgart. It is a great toy store. I first shopped there in 1983 on a National Guard trip and have been there many times since. I did not ask if they remembered me. It is five stories of nothing but toys. The top story is nothing but electric trains. I now think that because of global marketing that there are very few national toys. The store was full of the same name brands that you can find in major and minor toy stores everywhere. To me that is a little sad. I also visited a few other shops that I have made purchases in during the last thirty years of coming to Stuttgart with the National Guard and as a place to start bicycle trips. I am probably more comfortable in Stuttgart than any other German city.

I now rest and finish packing for a good flight home and a great reunion with my family and then my friends.  The next trip is to the beach. Thank you all for being with me in heart, mind and spirit.