Where was I? Oh yeah, I step foot at Stuttgart, Germany, the land of automobiles!

As usual, our entourage went over to the conveyer belt to get our luggage and everyone got theirs pretty early because our bags had a fancy “Golden Club” bag tag on it. I waited for mine and after 20 mintues or so, the belt stopped and I’m left bagless.

I went over to the “Baggage Claim” counter and asked for my bag. Without even checking, the counter staff told me that my bag is still in Amsterdam. She was pretty sure that it’s still there. I filled in a few forms, told them the name of my hotel and I’m assured that my bag will be delivered to me by 5pm because the next flight from Amsterdam is at 2pm. It was about 10.30am then.

I figured I couldn’t do anything there and left with the others on a Mercedez Benz Sprinter, one of the largest vans/buses I’ve been on!

All public transport in Germany has GPS and it’s not like the ones we have here. Theirs are built with a receiver to receive traffic information! The technology is not new but I’ve yet to see it here in Malaysia.

The GPS device

My ride

I checked into my room at Marriot Sindelfingen and my room number is 515. I contacted Nokia Malaysia’s PR, the ones who arranged my air ticket, to see what are the insurance claim procedures. It seems that I need to get a report document from the airport. Since I’ll be going back to the airport when I leave, I might as well do it then.

My room

My press tag and “license to party” tag

We washed up and rested a bit and left the hotel to go to the town center for lunch.

I had nothing to change into and after scouring my hand luggage, I found an old CHIP T-shirt that I put inside for protecting my camera. I changed into that and went with the rest. The town center is about 25-30 minutes walk but since it’s a good weather, it was a nice walk.

Some sculptures at the town center

We found a really nice and quaint restaurant and had lunch there. The menu was in German but luckily the waitress spoke decent English and translated every single item in the menu for us. I ordered something along the lines of “traditional”, “beef”, “potatoes” and salad. I’m still not sure which part is traditional but it’s REALLY GOOD!

“Traditional”, “Beef”, “Potatoes”

My large orange juice

Potato salad

On the way back, we saw a dodgy looking service center but it was filled with Porsches. The older ones.

Dodgy looking service center filled with Porsches

We spent an hour or so at the town center as it was a really small town with nothing much to see there and walked back to the hotel. We’re supposed to meet up at about 6pm at the lobby for our transport to the Porsche Museum for Forum Nokia’s Call For Innovators winner announcements. The dress code was “Business Casual”. I’m dead as I only have a CHIP shirt I’ve been wearing for the past 24 hours and a really old and worn out CHIP T-Shirt. I went to the lobby and asked them to call the airport to check if my back is lost or just lost in transit so I know if I should buy everything or just buy some stuff until my bag comes back. No one was answering the phone at the airport so I had no choice but to walk about 20 minutes to the nearest mall (which name I still can’t pronounce), went into H&M (the only brand I know a the mall) and bought a shirt for 19.95 Euros.

Anyway, we went to the Porsche Museum and the first thing I saw was the new Porsche Panamera on its room. I took a picture of it.

Porsche Panamera

The building is really nice. Modern, simple and beautiful. We were served “something like champagne but not champagne” (according to the waitress) and it was good.

Bubbly

I don’t know what you call this

The workshop

Porsche race cars

Trophies won over the years

Me with Porsche 911 (997) GT2

After the tour of some of the rarest cars in the world, we were led to the top floor where the announcement was made. Had dinner at the Porsche Museum and left the place at about 11pm I think.

I went back to my room and I found this.

My bag!!!!

I’ve never been so happy in my life to see my bag! I opened it up and everything was in good condition. I took a shower straight away and went to bed.

Next: Work!