High in the sky

Today I had a cup of tea on top of the Fernsehturm (television tower) in Stuttgart. It was the first television tower in the world, and it has become the technical prototype for nearly all television towers throughout the whole world. It was built from 1954 to 1956. Before that time they only had big antennas to broadcast television signals. You can see the tower from nearly every place in the city. It has been landmarked 20 years ago and is a famous buildig for this area. There are 7 floors in the head of the tower. Two observation decks, one floor contains a café, one floor hosts a restaurant, one floor for the kitchen, and the lowest floor of the head is for the technical staff. You can have a wide look over the city, the vineyards of the Neckar-Valley and then over the Swabian landscape to the Alb in the South over the Black Forest in the West and the Odenwald in the North.

Last time I've been on top of the tower was back in school or with my family when I was about 7 years old. I hadn't planned the visit of the tower and unfortunately didn't take my cam with me. Actually Jim wanted to buy a kitchen for his new appartment, and I joined him. But the shop was very crowded, we didn't even get a parking lot, so we decided to have a tea on the tower instead. Hence, I took this picture off their website. They say that the Space Needle in Seattle was built by someone who visited this tower and liked the idea of a rotating restaurant in the sky. I've been told that a picture of this television tower is in the Space Needle. I regret I didn't take my camera with me, but you can have a look at the live webcam here.

Update: The restaurant is closed since last year. They did some reconstruction on the head of the tower last fall (and I guess they ran out of money), but I've read that they're going to perform plays up there. It'll be a theater up in the sky.
Talking about money. The webpage says that after 5 years they got back all the costs of the tower just by the visitors. I can't believe they've earned that much just by the elevator fees.
And something else I forgot to mention on Saturday.