This summer, unlike the winter semester where there wasn't a single written exam, I had to write 5 exams, and complete two practical reports. The workload was quite heavy and I had to regularly be in the library to cover up the lessons taught during the lecture hours.
13. Stuttgart: Fast forward, the exams for the summer semester were over and I planned to visit the city of Stuttgart in southern Germany to spent the vacation with one of my friends. Stuttgart, capital of Germany’s Baden-Württemberg state, is also known as a manufacturing hub due to the presence of numerous mechanical engineering industries. Ideally, I spent the entire month of August in Stuttgart, trying to complete the practical reports and often engaging into some manual stuffs by the city. I also had a chance to meet one fellow Bhutanese friend who was in Stuttgart for quite sometime now. being in a faraway land, meeting fellow countrymen not only gives the sensation of joy but also brings us intimately close even though we have never met before. 
While in the city I visited the Mercedes-Benz museum there, which has an amazing display of the evolution of automobile in general and Mercedes-Benz brand and its associates in particular. Telling story through a series of display of vehicles of all type manufactured with age under its brand, the Museum celebrates the automobile invented by Carl Benz in 1886. The display range from some of the oldest automobiles ever built to legendary racing cars and futuristic research vehicles. One interesting part of the display is that the evolution of the brand also relates to various historical events in the world like world wars, records of submitting Mount Everest to mention few. Besides the city of Stuttgart also have a lots of green-spaces, which wrap around its center, which are refreshing to visit to.
One of the random thoughts that I scribbled while in Stuttgart reads as follows;
ལུས་ས་ཕྱོགས་ཐག་རིང་སྐོར་རུང་ར།།
སེམས་སྐྱིད་པའི་ཕ་ཡུལ་ཕྱོགས་སུ་གཡོ།།
ཕྱི་རྒྱལ་སྤྱི་དཔལ་འབྱོར་རྒྱ་ཆེ་རུང་།།
ནང་འབྲུག་ཡུལ་དགའ་བའི་འོད་ཟེར་ཆེ།།
ལུས་ཨ་ཐང་ཆེ་བའི་འཛམ་གླིང་ནང་།།
སེམས་འབག་ཕེབས་སྐྱིད་པའི་འབྲུག་རང་མས།།
ཉིནམ་ཟླཝ་དང་ལོ་ལུ་འགྱུར་ཚེ་སྨོ།།
རང་ཕ་ཡུལ་དྲན་འདི་སེམས་རེ་འཁྲུལ།།
loosely translated as;
As my body traverse the distant places,
My mind drifts toward hamlet of peace.
The outside world, though economically vibrant,
The rays of happiness are brighter in Bhutan.
In materialistic world filled with fatigue and discontentment,
Bhutan remains the abode of eternal bliss.
Days pass into months and when year is felt like eons,
My heart aches in missing memories of home.
14: Zurich: Switzerland, a dreamland to many avid traveler is just near from Stuttgart. However knowing the fact that Switzerland is the most expensive city country in Europe, it is not quite wise to plan a lavish trip to see the beautiful hills and homes of Switzerland. However, for the sake of travelling to Switzerland, I planned a day trip to the city of Zurich, which is about 3 hours drive from Stuttgart. I took an early morning bus at 8 and reached Zurich by 11:00 AM and my return journey is planned at 6:00 PM ideally leaving me with 7 hours in Zurich. And being a loner, many couple of minutes are always wasted as I get myself lost amidst the crowds and finding the right direction.
In the case of this trip, I thought Zurich would be hard to read but with the sights of interest loaded on my google map, I could explore the vibrancy of Zurich without too much haste. While Lake of Zurich appears like the center of attraction, a refreshing rest by the Rieter park offers some scintillating and panoramic view of the city by the river. For such short duration visit, it is not wise to visit the famous Beyer Clock and Watch Museum as queuing is time consuming. My short day trip however remains as a good memoir in my travel diary.
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