Now there is a Summer job for you. Ride a beer bike around town! Watch a video after the jump!

Stuttgart 21 has begun!

Toto – Home of the Brave. Still big in Europe!

So, of course my goal here is to find and promote cool European products and the even cooler lifestyle, but every now and then I find something and I ask myself… what the what??

Tirol. A place in the Austrian Alps. All my life I’ve known that logo and associated many happy family vacation with it. It hasn’t changed in many, many years. I still love it.

After talking last night at the Brotherhood with some people I had to google Stuttgart some more. Stuttgart is of course the City I grew up in, or outside of. Not too big, not too small, kinda like Portland in size compared to other cities in this country. But I was reminded of a project that has been in the works in Stuttgart for many, many years now. Stuttgart is, and that was news to me, a example city of urban planning, which is probably why I like well designed cities so much ;-). But Stuttgart has been working on a huge and I mean HUGE project converting a railroad complex in the heart of the city. Moving the main passenger lines underground and completely reverting the flow of traffic from a dead-end station to a ride-through. This would free up many hectares of buildable land above ground.

Above is an amazing fly through video highlighting the new train connection line from Stuttgart to Ulm.

Oh, and and I should mention that the project is around 4 billion EURO – nice chunk of change!

It’s fun and bizzare at the same time to watch and and follow another country from afar. “The grass is greener on the other side”, is the motto – perhaps.

Two interesting tidbits I’d love to highlight together, cause they are just so fantastic together.

News highlight of this weekend:
It’s LOVE PARADE again. So many people, so much flesh and techno music and even a mass stampede that several people died as too many people pushed through a tunnel into the main area where the festivities happened. Crazy Germans and their huge parties. (LIVE Ustream on their website…)

Have you ever been around over a Million people? It’s crazy!

Second story:
The German economy is booming. Great. Why did I leave the country?

I remember sitting in high school and the job prospects were grim. Now, in this global recession Germany is doing well, hiring people, in general feeling good about thei growth.

I left the party too soon, perhaps??

Not long ago, a tourist visit to Berlin meant ticking off the Brandenburg Gate, TV Tower, Museum Island and Hackescher Markt one after another. These days, plenty of visitors avoid the big sights altogether. Instead, they ‘experience’ the Berlin lifestyle, snapping pictures of street graffiti outside a Lidl supermarket, exploring underground art in Neukölln, taking a Sunday jaunt through Mauerpark’s flea market or soaking up elusive neighbourhood flair in Kreuzberg.

Tourism in Berlin contributes around 7 percent of GDP. In New York, it’s around 3.5 percent. Many people would be surprised at this.

Brilliant article by another great new website I just found: Exberliner: Berlin in English – enjoy!