Esslingen am Neckar is a town of about 95,000 people fifteen minutes by train from Stuttgart, and the reason to go is a comparison the town itself makes without saying anything. Stuttgart was an armaments city and was bombed accordingly, so its centre is almost entirely post-war. Esslingen, a few stops down the Neckar, came through with its medieval core substantially intact: timber-framed houses from the fourteenth century, a town hall with a working astronomical clock, a castle wall climbing the vineyard above the roofs. It is the old Swabian town that the region's capital no longer has.
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What Is Here
THE HALF-TIMBERED HOUSES ARE AMONG THE OLDEST IN GERMANY AND THE OLDEST ROW IS DATED, NOT ESTIMATED. The buildings behind the Heilige-Geist-Spital have been dated by their timbers to the 1320s and 1330s, which makes them some of the oldest surviving timber-framed dwellings in the country rather than merely old-looking ones. The first image is the Markt Platz, which is the concentrated version: leaning frames, painted infill, the street narrowing as it goes.
THE ALTES RATHAUS CARRIES AN ASTRONOMICAL CLOCK AND A GLOCKENSPIEL, and it is the second image. The building is fifteenth century behind and Renaissance in front, the clock shows the moon phase and the zodiac alongside the time, and the carillon plays several times a day. People gather for it in the way people gather for the Munich Glockenspiel, with about a hundredth of the crowd.
THE STADTKIRCHE ST DIONYS HAS TWO TOWERS JOINED BY A BRIDGE, an arrangement almost nowhere else has, and it sits over the remains of a much older church that has been excavated beneath it. Its medieval stained glass is the serious thing inside. The third image is the winter aerial, which is how to understand the shape of the town: the church in the middle, the roofs tight around it, the hill rising straight out of them.
THE VINEYARDS COME INTO THE TOWN, WHICH IS THE PART PHOTOGRAPHS UNDERSELL. The Burg above the centre is reached by the Burgstaffel, a stairway of roughly three hundred steps running up through working vines, and at the top are the Dicker Turm and the Hochwacht with the whole Neckar valley below. This is wine country and the slopes are planted to the edge of the houses rather than kept at a distance from them.
GERMANY'S OLDEST SPARKLING WINE HOUSE IS HERE. Kessler was founded in 1826 by a man who had worked at Veuve Clicquot in Reims and came home to make the same thing in Swabia, and it has been producing Sekt in the town ever since. The cellars are under the old town.
THE CHRISTMAS MARKET IS A MEDIEVAL MARKET AND THAT IS NOT A MARKETING WORD. Esslingen runs a Mittelaltermarkt alongside a conventional Christmas market, with craftspeople working at the stalls, open fires, and staff in period dress, and it is one of the largest of its kind in Germany. It fills the squares the half-timbering surrounds, which is why it works here and looks staged elsewhere.
When to Go
May to September is warm, the vineyards are green, and the outdoor tables along the canal and in the squares are the point. Swabia gets properly hot in July and August, into the low thirties.
Late November and December are the markets, and they are the busiest the town gets. Accommodation in Esslingen itself is limited, so many people stay in Stuttgart and take the S-Bahn, which works well and runs late.
September and October bring the wine festivals and the grape harvest on the slopes, which is arguably the best time to come and is much quieter than December.
January to March is cold, grey and quiet. The town still looks like itself and you will have it largely to yourself, which is a fair trade if you do not mind the weather.
Getting There
By train from Stuttgart, which is how nearly everyone arrives: the S1 S-Bahn runs every few minutes and takes about fifteen to twenty minutes to Esslingen station, from which the old town is a ten-minute walk across the Neckar.
By air into Stuttgart airport, which is about half an hour away by S-Bahn with one change, or Frankfurt for long-haul with a high-speed connection to Stuttgart.
By car, the B10 runs along the valley. The old town is pedestrianised and the streets around it are narrow and one-way, so use a car park on the edge.
You do not need a car. This is a day trip from Stuttgart for most people and an easy base for the region if you stay, which makes it one of the simplest places in southern Germany to visit alone.
The Esslingen Packing List
Warm continental summers, cold winters, cobbles throughout and a steep stepped climb to the castle.
Our merino base layers are 100% Australian merino at 17.5 micron, and a long sleeve merino wool base layer for women earns its place here on the December trip in particular: standing at an open-fire market stall for two hours, then a heated restaurant, then the cold walk back to the station is the cycle wool handles and synthetics do not, because it keeps working when it is damp and does not chill you when you stop moving. From November to March add a heavyweight merino base layer.
A Columbia Fast Trek II fleece as the mid layer across three seasons, and a Marmot PreCip Eco rain jacket, since the summer here breaks into heavy thunderstorms rather than settling into drizzle.
Walking shoes with real grip matter more than usual, because of the Burgstaffel: roughly three hundred stone steps, worn, often damp under the vines, and the single best thing to do in the town. Merino hiking socks for the same reason.
Merino glove liners are enough alone in October and go under a heavier glove for the market season.
Not linked and worth packing: A HAT AND A SCARF for December, because the market is an outdoor evening rather than a walk through one; A WATER BOTTLE; CASH IN EUROS, since market stalls and smaller wine taverns are frequently cash only and much of Germany still is; SOMETHING TO COVER YOUR SHOULDERS for the churches; AND A FOLDING UMBRELLA.
Recommended Tours and Experiences
Essential Resources for Women in Esslingen
Emergency numbers: 112 for police, ambulance and fire, free from any phone including a locked mobile, with operators who will find an English speaker. It is the single number across the whole European Union.
GERMANY'S NATIONAL TERRORISM WORDING NAMES MARKETS, AND ESSLINGEN'S BIGGEST EVENT IS A MARKET. The FCDO states that terrorists are very likely to try to carry out attacks in Germany and lists markets, places of worship, shopping centres, crowded public spaces and sporting and cultural events among potential targets. That is a national assessment and says nothing about this town in particular, and the practical response in a dense medieval square in December is the ordinary one: know where the exits onto open streets are and do not plant yourself in the single thickest part of a crowd when you have a choice. THE GROUND IS THE REAL DAILY HAZARD. The old town is cobbled, several lanes run at a noticeable gradient, and the Burgstaffel is three hundred worn stone steps that are slippery wet and genuinely difficult in ice. WINTER IS COLD AND CONTINENTAL, regularly below freezing, with ice on cobbles that is not cleared early everywhere. SUMMER HEAT IS REAL in July and August, into the low thirties with little shade in the squares. CRIME IS AT UK LEVELS, with the FCDO naming mugging, bag-snatching and pickpocketing, which calls for ordinary urban care in a market crowd; it also warns about counterfeit currency and advises changing money at banks, ATMs or official exchange offices and checking your change when paying cash.
US State Department travel advisory: the Germany advisory. Read the current level there directly rather than relying on a figure printed in any guide.
UK FCDO travel advice: gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/germany, and read the safety and security page rather than only the landing page, because that is where the substance sits.
Main hospital: The Klinikum Esslingen is a large hospital in the town with a full emergency department serving the district, so an emergency here is treated here rather than transferred to Stuttgart. Dial 112 for ambulance and fire and 110 for police, both free from any phone, and 112 works from a mobile with no SIM. Pharmacies, Apotheken, post the night and Sunday duty rota on the door under the heading Notdienst. Germany is in the EU, so a UK Global Health Insurance Card or an EU European Health Insurance Card gives you state-provided medically necessary care on the same terms as a resident. That is not the same as free: German healthcare involves patient contributions and the card does not cover repatriation or private treatment, so travel insurance sits on top of it. German hospitals are excellent and English is widely spoken in them, particularly in university cities. An Apotheke, marked with a red A, handles minor problems without an appointment and the duty rota for out-of-hours is posted in the window. Tap water is drinkable everywhere. Dial 112 for an ambulance and 116117 for the non-emergency medical service.
Official health authority: the Robert Koch Institute, Germany's public health body, covers the national health service information and the pharmacy duty rotas
US Embassy: the United States Embassy in Berlin.
Official tourism authority: the German National Tourist Board, covers the Christmas and medieval market dates, the Altes Rathaus glockenspiel times and the Stuttgart regional transport network
Takeaways
It survived the war. Stuttgart did not. That is the trip.
The timber-framed row behind the Spital is dated to the 1320s.
Three hundred steps to the castle, through working vines.
December is a medieval market and the town is full.
Solo women safety assessment: Esslingen is about as straightforward as solo travel in Germany gets, and the reasons are structural. It is small, the old town is pedestrianised and walkable end to end in twenty minutes, the station is ten minutes from the centre on foot, and the S-Bahn to Stuttgart runs frequently and late, so being stranded is not really a possibility. The centre is busy and well lit into the evening, particularly in market season, eating alone in a Swabian tavern is completely unremarkable, and there is no district a visitor needs to avoid. Germany's crime levels are comparable to the UK's and the FCDO names mugging, bag-snatching and pickpocketing, with a specific warning about counterfeit currency that argues for banks and ATMs over private exchange offices. THE NATIONAL TERRORISM ASSESSMENT NAMES MARKETS EXPLICITLY, which is worth holding in mind in a packed December square without letting it make the decision for you. 112 REACHES AMBULANCE AND FIRE AND 110 REACHES POLICE, free from any phone and from a mobile without a SIM, and the town's own hospital has a full emergency department. The hazard a visitor is most likely to actually meet is the ground: cobbled lanes on gradients and a long flight of worn steps up to the Burg, slick in rain and treacherous in winter ice.
Reading On
Esslingen is a Stuttgart day trip for most people, and the Stuttgart packing list covers the city, the airport and the car museums most visitors pair it with. Elsewhere in Baden-Wurttemberg, the Heidelberg packing list covers the castle and university town up the Neckar, the Baden-Baden packing list the thermal spa town, the Black Forest packing list the uplands to the west, and the Konstanz packing list the lake city on the Swiss border. East along the Danube, the Ulm packing list covers the town with the tallest church spire in the world. For the Bavarian old towns that make the natural next trip, the Rothenburg ob der Tauber packing list and the Nuremberg packing list cover the Romantic Road and Franconia's own famous Christmas market. For the country, the Germany travel guide for women carries the transport, the regions and the seasons in full. For why wool suits a day that runs from an open-fire market stall to a heated tavern and back out into the cold, read the guide to merino wool base layers for women. Every destination we cover is indexed at the travel packing guide for women, and the base layers are at the Roman Trail collection. For the other town in this part of the library whose medieval centre came through the war while its big neighbour's did not, the Erfurt packing list covers Thuringia's cathedral city and its inhabited bridge.
If the outer journey is calling you, the inner one usually is too. Explore SoulMap at romantrail.com/blogs/soulmap.
