First, there are many options for food at the Christmas Market itself. Personally, I love the salmon cooked on wood planks in front of a wood fire in the Finnish part of the Christmas Market on Karlsplatz which is the closest part of the market to your hotel. You can eat inside in a tepee with a wood fire to keep warm, and they also have reindeer hides which you can cover yourself with.

If you go down Uhlandstrasse (the street the hotel is on) at Urbanstrasse is the very good Italian restaurant La Piazza (I believe Charlottenstrasse 17, but at the corner of Urbanstrasse and Charlottenstrasse). Their pasta is excellent and it is our usual place in Stuttgart to dine out.

For Swabian food, turn left at the first street by the hotel, cross Charlottenstrasse and the U-bahn tracks, and go down Olgastrasse two blocks, and on your right across from the church is the Schellenturm (Weberstrasse 72) in the only remaining tower of the former city walls which later served as a prison. It has a lovely ambience.

For a restaurant almost as good as a Michelin-starred one, follow the previous directions but turn right on the first street after Charlottenstrasse for Der Zauberlehrling (Rosenstrasse 38). Make reservations if you go there.

Another restaurant for Swabian food, Weinstube zur Kiste,which is Stuttgart's oldest Weinstube, Kanalstrasse 2. This isn't really a street, but the restaurant is behind the building on the SE corner of Charlottenstrasse and one of the main highways, a block further down Charlottenstrasse from LaPiazza but on the other side of the street.

For lunch, the restaurant upstairs in the Markthalle is excellent.

Cube, the restaurant on the upper floor of the new glass cube Stuttgart City Art Gallery on Schlossplatz is very good. If you eat there, make reservations for a window front table with a view.

The restaurants in the parliament building, the Staatsgallerie, and the History Museum are quite good, as is Vinothek in Hotel am Schlossgarten.

Stuttgart's best restaurant is the Michelin-starred Zirbelstube in Hotel am Schlossgarten. Lunches won't be that expensive, if you can get a reservation.

All of these restaurants can be easily walked to from your hotel.

The hotel is a 5-10 minute walk from the Christmas Market. The easiest quickest way is just go down Uhlandstrasse, turn left on Urbanstrasse in from of the library, and then turn right and walk down the walkway to Charlottenplatz. Go down the steps to the U-bahn station and exit the other side. Immediately on the left across the street is Karlsplatz, the closest part of the Christmas Market and the Finnish part, or another two blocks ahead more of it on Schlossplatz. The market takes up a good share of central Stuttgart. You can see a map at www.stuttgarter-weihnachtsmarkt.de , which unfortunately is only in German.

You could also go down Gaisburgstrasse and take the U-bahn 1 or 2 stops if you don't feel like walking the short distance. A Kurz (short) ticket costs 1€ and is good up to 3 stops (to Hauptbahnhof- main train station).

For the Mercedes Benz Museum, there are a few options. You can take a U-bahn to the Hauptbahnhof and then the S-1 to the stop after Bad Cannstatt (second stop), they have recently renamed this again for the third time in a few years, and I believe it is now called Neckar Park. The museum is a fair walk away and sign-posted. Otherwise, you can take the U-1 or U-2 north from the Charlottenplatz stop to Wilhelmsplatz, and cross the street to in front of the train station and then take a bus which will drop you off directly in front of the museum. You could also get off the S-bahn from the main train station (S-1,S-2,S-3) at Bad Cannstatt and take the bus from there. Make sure to check the return times of the buses when you get off. My preferred way would be U-bahn and bus.