Ritter-Sport | absolute honesty

For Day 11, we visited Sachsenhausen Memorial and Museum which used to be a concentration camp for Jews during WWII, it has now been converted into a memorial to educate people on the horrors of what happened to the prisoners during the war. The place was pretty far out from the city centre but still accessible by their local train network. We took the S-bahn to Oranienburg station followed by another 15-20 minute walk with numerous signs guiding the way; if you don’t fancy the long walk, there are also buses that take you there from the station but they only arrive in an hourly interval.

Entry to the memorial is free and we paid 3€ for the audio commentary guides to help us understand the exhibits a little bit better. The amount of information provided by the audio guides was extensive; each exhibit have at least four sections to listen to and almost all of the sections included sub-sections such as interviews of the actual inmates describing the conditions of the camp during their internment. It was heart-breaking to hear how the prisoners were treated, and we got really cold because of the strong winds so we couldn’t imagine how bad it must have been. The memorial now is mainly open space with only a few buildings preserved to show the cramped and inhumane living conditions of that time. We spent about 3 hours and we only managed to listen to about 60% of the guide; we went away humbled but very impressed by the efforts to dedicate this site to mourn and remember of those who have suffered.

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After the rather somber day, we made a visit to the Panaromapunkt. It was one of Berlin’s best lookout point to get a bird’s eye view of the rest of the city and our WelcomeCard gave us a small discount off the admission prices. We went up at a good timing as we caught a magnificent sunset together with the rest of the city view.

Finally, on a more joyful note, we visited Ritter Sport Colorful Chocoworld! Conveniently located near Brandenburg Tor, it was a Ritter Sport themed shop where we could custom make our own very own Ritter Sport chocolate bar. The chocolates here are slightly more expensive than the ones in Stuttgart and have lesser variety but it is a good alternative if you have lesser time in Germany.

3.90€

tons of flavours to choose from

special ingredients of the month

gift shop

free chocolates when you visit the cafe!

our masterpiece

simply delicious!

We (or I) were really looking forward to taking the Bahn; I love taking trains and German trains are known to be punctual and comfortable. To ensure we sat together we paid 4€ per person (6€ without the Bahncard) to reserve our seats on-board in second class. Food can be purchased while onboard from the Bordbistro and our luggage was too huge to be placed next to or above us, so we had to leave it in the designated area.

second class cabin

Bordbistro

we chose the seats with the table

Stuttgart Hbf

Seasoned travellers on the Bahn don’t usually reserve their seats. We gradually realized how it works the more trains we took. If a seat is reserved, you will see an indicator on top of the seats. The following seat 66 and 68 here states ‘Stuttgart to Mannheim’ which means that the seat is reserved for two passengers travelling from Stuttgart to Mannheim.

travel route of the train

seat reservation

What this translates to is that the seat is free for anyone travelling to Stuttgart. These passengers will just have to change their seats when the rightful two passenger who reserved the seats board the train at Stuttgart. Once we knew how to do this, we started to move around to different seats just for the fun of it.

After about 2 hours, we arrived in Stuttgart. It took us some time to find the tourist information center where we purchased the 3 Day Ticket that gave unlimited rides on all buses and rail lines within the Stuttgart area. Before using this ticket, it has to be validated by inserting them into the validating machines found on the platforms on all railways.

We made our way to Ruben’s apartment in Rathaus using the U-bahn, the cobbled streets were beautiful but it was not as nice when we had to drag our luggage on them. After settling down, we headed to Esslingen! It was already pretty dark when we arrived and there was a light drizzle, but that didn’t dampen the spirits of the Medieval Christmas market. The owners of the stalls were all dressed up in Medieval costumes; there was even a games section and some theme rides, this is a great place for kids. Having some energy in us, we climbed up the steps of Esslingenburg for a stunning night view of the city.

Stadtkirche St. Dionys

the balancing man on Schelztor Tower

Esslingen Christmas market

Christmas pyramid

live performance at Altes Rathaus

hamburger steaks

bratwurst with kinderpunsch

lots of sausages

pistol game

archery game

climb up to Esslingen burg

what a view!

Day 4 was a visit to Mercedes-Benz Museum! The entrance ticket came with an audio guide which you can activate and listen to the details of each exhibit as you visit, this really helped since it was quite tiring reading the exhibits one after another. I found the modern designs to be more interesting while the wife prefers looking at the classic designs.

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Next up was Museum Ritter! The wife was extremely excited about this trip and even though I wasn’t a fan of chocolates, I eventually found it a great place for purchasing gifts for friends and family. It was not an easy place to get to; we had to take the S-Bahn to Leinfelden station, take bus 86/826 towards Waldenbuch, alight at Waldenbuch Postamt. Once we got off the bus, there were various signs showing us how to walk to the museum. The shop had the widest collection of Ritter Sport chocolates with every flavour and size imaginable. They even have testing flavors for sale and also random combination of assorted flavours that were selling at a discount. We exited the shop after an hour with 7 kilograms worth of chocolates; we had to buy a Ritter Sport bag to carry them.

on the bus

get off the post office (marked by H on the right of the map)

there it is!

definitely to the shop

so many flavours, spoilt for choice!

holiday flavours

more flavours

even more flavours

this is a great gift!

1kg of chocolates

flavors under testing

assorted flavors

hazelnut

had to buy a bag

small musuem

We dropped our chocolates in Ruben’s apartment and went to the Stuttgart Christmas market situated mainly in Charlottenplatz, but it extends far beyond the area. This Christmas market is highly regarded as one of the best and largest Christmas market in Germany and we couldn’t agree more! There are numerous stalls selling gluwein, sausages, roasted chestnuts and there’s even a skating rink! The crowd was massive, there were Christmas lights and decor everywhere and it was such a great feeling to be able to experience it together.