After a great meeting in Bruges, it was off to the next country on our adventure.  A short trip to neighbouring Germany (via Denmark!), we were greeted at the airport by Professor Thomas Wirth.  

Our Sunday started with a visit to Prof Wirth’s home to meet his family.  We hiked up Birkenkopf, a hill that is composed of 1.5 million cubic metres of rubble from the destruction of over 45% of Stuttgart during World War II.  A stunning view of the city!  A walking tour of the city centre with his wife Yvonne oriented us to the layout and demonstrated the mix of preserved and rebuilt architecture.  We toured an adjacent wine region and visited the Wurttemberg Mausoleum. 

The highlight of our afternoon was a trip to the incredible Mercedes Benz Museum - a building that is truly remarkable inside and out.  Thoughful architecture and design befitting its subject and content. 

Our day ended with a family dinner at Prof Wirth’s home with his family.  Local cuisine and libations were enjoyed by all!

Monday signified the return to the work week and our first visit to Olga Hospital.  We had the opportunity to present our individual research programs as well as participate in a review of the trauma cases from a busy weekend for the house staff.  We met the orthopaedic residents from the hospital as well as the full orthopaedic faculty: Drs Oliver Eberhart, Micha Langendorfer, Michael Wachowsky and Francisco Fernandez. We spent the day in the operating room observing a variety of cases where we were impressed not only by the pathology but the efficiency of the operating theatres.  At the end of a busy clinical day we had the opportunity to tour the new hospital facility with the orthopaedic faculty and their full complement of residents.  A very exciting time for everyone there seeing their new offices, clinics and wards for the first time.

Our second clinical day started with more sharing of cases and research presentations followed by a half day in the operating room.  The afternoon included a once in a life time experience - a private tour of the Porsche factory and museum.   Due to the unparalleled access of our tour, we were not allowed to bring our cameras - Top Secret!  The museum presented the history of Porsche and the evolution of their iconic cars over the past 100 years.  We re-joined the rest of the Olga Hospital orthopaedic faculty for a dinner in one of the oldest buildings in Stuttgart where we enjoyed traditional Swabian food and drink. 

     

Our final morning in Stuttgart was capped off with a working rounds of the wards where the residents presented each patient in remarkable detail in English for our benefit.  Yvonne kindly drove us to the airport and bid us Auf Wiedersehen.  Next stop Turkey!