great views, great tram ride for fans, "regular" public transport in Stuttgart!…read more
Since our hotel was right on Marienplatz and since the Zacke cog railway started right from this plaza, we as railway fans couldn't resist taking a ride, especially since there was no extra charge - the Stuttgart Zacke is part of the normal city transport system!
For a Sunday morning there were quite a few passengers of all sorts - mothers with baby carriages, cyclists with their bikes (there's a special open carriage for the bikes), and a few obvious tourists too like us. Although we'd have taken the tram anyway, the view alone is worth the ride with panoramas of the entire Stuttgart skyline on the way to the last stop. Our only slight disappointment - after eight stations, a bit more than 2 kilometers, and about a quarter of an hour we'd reached the top, which curiously has the word "hole" in the name ("Degerloch") although it's actually 200 meters higher than the starting point.
At least we had the return trip to enjoy and also another tourist attraction for transport buffs in another part of town to look forward to: the Stuttgart cable car / Standseilbahn!