Schloss Monrepos is the privat property of the Herzog of Würtemberg. Built more than 200 years ago as a hunting seat, it is normally not displayed for people unless you pay alot to get married there. The reason we went there was actually that I didn't manage to find a parking space in Stuttgart West a Saturday in the beginning of October. That meant that I failed to catch the train to Heidelberg with my friends and instead I went to Schloss Solitude to the west of Stuttgart with the Americans Alicia and Kyle. There we talked quite a lot to the man selling tickets - a candidate for the doctor's degree in historical architecture or someting in Karlsruhe - and he invited us to his guided tour of Schloss Monrepos which is held once a year.

It was a dark cloudy Wednesday late afternoon and almost 50 people had shown up. Mostly old people but there were also six young exchange students from Universität Stuttgart, including Hans, John, Marie, Rafael, a Frenchman (can't remember the name) and me.

The guided tour of the small castle lasted quite long and carried very much local Würtemberg history, maybe a little bit too much for us foreigners, but to the great joy of the local elders. Hans managed to take some nice pictures though and we went home having seen a place not seen by any other exchange students(!). ;-)