my porsche
04-06-2010, 09:11 AM
I just realized that after all the help I got in this thread (http://www.ultimatecarpage.com/forum/miscellaneous/37697-little-help-european-members.html) I never posted a new thread about the actual trip!
So here we go:
I finally finished going through my pictures from Germany, and thought I would post them along with kind of a narrative of what we did. This will be LONG (like…long-long) and have tons of pictures.
So this trip was a graduation present from my parents, but since my dad and I are the car guys, only we would be going. I took German for 5 years prior to this, so it was also a cool way to use the language in daily life and see if I’d learned anything (more than I thought I had).
We flew (first class, if you've never done it, you owe it to yourself, the food is great, a 5 course dinner created by Michael Cordua (a notable Houston chef/restaurateur) and you basically have your own flight attendant) into Frankfurt, and proceeded to try and rent a car. I say try because as you might imagine, a fine upstanding company like Hertz requires that you provide a driver's license to check out one of their automobiles. I had mine, however you have to be 25 years old to rent a car, leaving my dad, who decided he didn't need it (he didn't forget it, he just though a passport would be sufficient). While it was 11AM in Frankfurt, it was 4AM at home, so naturally my mom wasn't awake to fax a copy over. We had to wait until she was awake and then get her to go to a police station and have them fax it to us.
On our way finally after about three hours. We got a brand new (71km on the odometer) BMW 320d wagon, surprisingly quick for a 2 litre diesel, and the navigation system was invaluable (actually it was 100 euro, but we got it for free since the car we'd reserved, a C350 was unavailable). We topped out at 241kmh and honestly I don't think it could have done any more, that was flat out down a hill on smooth tarmac.
So we drove from Frankfurt to Neckarsulm, to see the factory that builds the Audi RS line and I believe the A4 also (a pilgrimage to see my dad’s RS6’s (RIP) birthplace). Unfortunately the actual factory was closed for St. Christopher’s day or something, so we ate at the restaurant there (awesome) looked around the shop and display cars and then drove to Stuttgart. The next day we visited the Porsche and Mercedes museums, both were amazing, absolutely burgeoning with historically important cars. The Porsche museum was obviously car focused, with nearly every variation of every car they’ve ever made exhibited along with its entire history, while the Mercedes museum was car centric, but with a long history of Karl Benz’s inventions and the general creation of Mercedes-Benz. Way too much stuff here to absorb in one day. The outsides and insides of both museums were incredible.
In Stuttgart the first morning I had my first taste of what would become my daily obsession, breakfast. The breakfasts in Germany are amazing, typically I would eat two or three rolls, brie, different kinds of wursts, Swiss cheese, jams, Nutella, fruit salad and a cappuccino. That particular occasion I also had an apple streudel with vanilla cream. Fantastic. It was so much food we would generally just eat the breakfast and a late lunch, no dinner, but maybe a coffee break.
I had to laugh at the Mercedes factory store that a base model E350 cost 89.500 euro, which is $125,000. In the US the E350 starts at $48,000 - or 250% of the cost for the same car. The same thing with the M3 at the BMW dealership, we asked the salesman why this was and he said it’s just that in the US they have to actually compete to sell cars, but German manufacturers basically have a monopoly in Germany, so they can charge whatever they want. I’m assuming there is a tax incentive to buy German, because nearly every car on the road was German. Mostly Audi A4 wagons, BMW 3-series wagons and Mercedes C-Klasse wagons.
From there we went to Nürburg, the “bases” are located just a few hundred yards across the street from the track, Audi, Aston Martin, Ford, GM, Porsche, Maserati, Alfa Romeo, BMW, all have offices there on top of countless other brands. We wanted to drive our mighty 320d for a few laps around the track but it was only open the next evening to the public because the day we were there and the following morning there was a race, but we at least got to watch the race cars during practice on the Nordschleife.
We signed up to do a Formula 3 driving experience on the Sudschleife. This was AWESOME (there's no better adjective here...so forgive my repetitive use of "awesome"). We got to drive Renault Formula 3 cars around the track, receiving some basic instruction. Interesting to note, reading magazines on the flight home, I came across one of the instructors posing next to a Carrera GT3. Apparently, he’s one of the best drivers of the Nürburgring there is, and so Evo Magazine contracted him to help test the Carrera GT3 against the new GT-R Spec-V on the ring. So that was cool. The driving was a blast, the cars do 0-100kmh in under four seconds, which was a new experience for me, since even Der Beast did it in 4.8 when it was stock, and probably 4-4.2 tuned.
After Nürburg we went to Hohenschwangau home to the Hohenschwangau and Neuschwanstein castles. Both were just absolutely gorgeous. Hohenschwangau was King Ludwig’s son’s summer residence/hunting residence, and had a much more homely feel. Neuschwanstein was intended to be Ludwig II’s home, but when he mysteriously was found drowned in a lake (he was suspected of being gay, thus not likely to bare a son to continue the family, and removed) the castle was left unfinished. Something like 60% of the rooms are just shells and were never completed or furnished. The little town was great, and the waitresses in all of the restaurants there wore traditional Alpen outfits with low cut tops. I approved.
From there we drove to Munich, home to BMW, the famous Höfbrauhäus München, and tons of great architecture. We ate at the Höfbrauhäus that night, you don’t go for the food. The beer hall seats something like 6,000 people, and as touristy as it is, is something you just have to see. We returned to our car to find a parking ticket, no big deal, only 20 euro, which is considerably cheaper than a parking ticket in the states. Then we went to the BMW museum, another awesome museum, technologically the coolest of the 3 car museums we went to. These tables were awesome, they had certain topics listed, and you touch the one you want and it pulls up a menu on that car. The next morning we went to the BMW factory for our scheduled tour. It was amazing to see how precise the factory was, and how efficient, they can turn out 900 3-series per day. We also went to Dachau, which was really overwhelming and somewhat sobering. There was a film and all kinds of information on the holocaust and Nazi party, simply horrific. That night I had a fantastic black truffle tagliatelli, that was a terrible transition from the holocaust, but I'm just going in chronological order here.
We decided to try and find a book store in Munich since the drive to Dresden was several hours and I’d just finished The Da Vinci Code (pretty good read). We parked and walked around near where we had found one online, couldn’t find any good books, so we had lunch (pork loin burger + curry sauce = great) and went back to the car. We kept walking past where we thought it was, but we didn’t see it so we walked a few blocks each direction and still no car. Then I saw the silver car we parked in front of and a big empty spot where we parked. Then I noticed the garage door we had parked in front of. The garage doors there blend REALLY well into the store fronts that neighbor them.
We locate our towed car at the police station a 25 euro taxi ride from where we ate, and them dealt with some seriously asshole cops. They didn’t accept credit cards (wtf?) so we had to walk 3km to find an ATM, and 3km back to get our car out of the impound. We noticed about 10 other 3-series wagons were towed, and right as I said “I wonder if anything besides BMWs get towed.” I spied an Audi R8 right next to our car. R8s are everywhere there (probably something with the tax incentive pricing again) akin to how you might see 5+ Bentley Continental GTs a day here in the states.
So we finally left the Dick Polizei behind and got on our way to Dresden, and then the next morning drove to Berlin. We visited the DDR museum which was oddly ambiguous in whether it was anti or pro-socialism. We also saw the Brandenburg gate and the Reichstag building, which was a very neat fusing of modern and historical architecture.
The next day we decided to do a Fat Tire Bike Co. tour. They have these in Berlin, Brussels, Paris and London, so if you ever visit one of those cities TAKE THE TOUR! It was an awesome way to see almost all of the city, and actually learn about what you were seeing. It was so cool. Our tour guide was friendly, funny, knew what he was talking about, and was an American who grew up half and half in the US and Germany, so he had insight into German life to share. The company is basically for Americans abroad, so it’s all native English speakers giving the tour, making it easy to understand. Definitely check these out if you’re going to one of those places. $20 for a 4 hour bike tour.
That night we ate at the restaurant our tour guide had suggested, I had a grilled watermellon and scallop appetizer, grilled venison with a black cherry reduction, and an apricot dumpling. It was the best meal of the trip, and we had already had some very good meals. The next day we drove to Frankfurt, spent the night and then flew home. Everything went smoothly except for the baby across the aisle throwing up, that freaked me out big time.
So here we go:
I finally finished going through my pictures from Germany, and thought I would post them along with kind of a narrative of what we did. This will be LONG (like…long-long) and have tons of pictures.
So this trip was a graduation present from my parents, but since my dad and I are the car guys, only we would be going. I took German for 5 years prior to this, so it was also a cool way to use the language in daily life and see if I’d learned anything (more than I thought I had).
We flew (first class, if you've never done it, you owe it to yourself, the food is great, a 5 course dinner created by Michael Cordua (a notable Houston chef/restaurateur) and you basically have your own flight attendant) into Frankfurt, and proceeded to try and rent a car. I say try because as you might imagine, a fine upstanding company like Hertz requires that you provide a driver's license to check out one of their automobiles. I had mine, however you have to be 25 years old to rent a car, leaving my dad, who decided he didn't need it (he didn't forget it, he just though a passport would be sufficient). While it was 11AM in Frankfurt, it was 4AM at home, so naturally my mom wasn't awake to fax a copy over. We had to wait until she was awake and then get her to go to a police station and have them fax it to us.
On our way finally after about three hours. We got a brand new (71km on the odometer) BMW 320d wagon, surprisingly quick for a 2 litre diesel, and the navigation system was invaluable (actually it was 100 euro, but we got it for free since the car we'd reserved, a C350 was unavailable). We topped out at 241kmh and honestly I don't think it could have done any more, that was flat out down a hill on smooth tarmac.
So we drove from Frankfurt to Neckarsulm, to see the factory that builds the Audi RS line and I believe the A4 also (a pilgrimage to see my dad’s RS6’s (RIP) birthplace). Unfortunately the actual factory was closed for St. Christopher’s day or something, so we ate at the restaurant there (awesome) looked around the shop and display cars and then drove to Stuttgart. The next day we visited the Porsche and Mercedes museums, both were amazing, absolutely burgeoning with historically important cars. The Porsche museum was obviously car focused, with nearly every variation of every car they’ve ever made exhibited along with its entire history, while the Mercedes museum was car centric, but with a long history of Karl Benz’s inventions and the general creation of Mercedes-Benz. Way too much stuff here to absorb in one day. The outsides and insides of both museums were incredible.
In Stuttgart the first morning I had my first taste of what would become my daily obsession, breakfast. The breakfasts in Germany are amazing, typically I would eat two or three rolls, brie, different kinds of wursts, Swiss cheese, jams, Nutella, fruit salad and a cappuccino. That particular occasion I also had an apple streudel with vanilla cream. Fantastic. It was so much food we would generally just eat the breakfast and a late lunch, no dinner, but maybe a coffee break.
I had to laugh at the Mercedes factory store that a base model E350 cost 89.500 euro, which is $125,000. In the US the E350 starts at $48,000 - or 250% of the cost for the same car. The same thing with the M3 at the BMW dealership, we asked the salesman why this was and he said it’s just that in the US they have to actually compete to sell cars, but German manufacturers basically have a monopoly in Germany, so they can charge whatever they want. I’m assuming there is a tax incentive to buy German, because nearly every car on the road was German. Mostly Audi A4 wagons, BMW 3-series wagons and Mercedes C-Klasse wagons.
From there we went to Nürburg, the “bases” are located just a few hundred yards across the street from the track, Audi, Aston Martin, Ford, GM, Porsche, Maserati, Alfa Romeo, BMW, all have offices there on top of countless other brands. We wanted to drive our mighty 320d for a few laps around the track but it was only open the next evening to the public because the day we were there and the following morning there was a race, but we at least got to watch the race cars during practice on the Nordschleife.
We signed up to do a Formula 3 driving experience on the Sudschleife. This was AWESOME (there's no better adjective here...so forgive my repetitive use of "awesome"). We got to drive Renault Formula 3 cars around the track, receiving some basic instruction. Interesting to note, reading magazines on the flight home, I came across one of the instructors posing next to a Carrera GT3. Apparently, he’s one of the best drivers of the Nürburgring there is, and so Evo Magazine contracted him to help test the Carrera GT3 against the new GT-R Spec-V on the ring. So that was cool. The driving was a blast, the cars do 0-100kmh in under four seconds, which was a new experience for me, since even Der Beast did it in 4.8 when it was stock, and probably 4-4.2 tuned.
After Nürburg we went to Hohenschwangau home to the Hohenschwangau and Neuschwanstein castles. Both were just absolutely gorgeous. Hohenschwangau was King Ludwig’s son’s summer residence/hunting residence, and had a much more homely feel. Neuschwanstein was intended to be Ludwig II’s home, but when he mysteriously was found drowned in a lake (he was suspected of being gay, thus not likely to bare a son to continue the family, and removed) the castle was left unfinished. Something like 60% of the rooms are just shells and were never completed or furnished. The little town was great, and the waitresses in all of the restaurants there wore traditional Alpen outfits with low cut tops. I approved.
From there we drove to Munich, home to BMW, the famous Höfbrauhäus München, and tons of great architecture. We ate at the Höfbrauhäus that night, you don’t go for the food. The beer hall seats something like 6,000 people, and as touristy as it is, is something you just have to see. We returned to our car to find a parking ticket, no big deal, only 20 euro, which is considerably cheaper than a parking ticket in the states. Then we went to the BMW museum, another awesome museum, technologically the coolest of the 3 car museums we went to. These tables were awesome, they had certain topics listed, and you touch the one you want and it pulls up a menu on that car. The next morning we went to the BMW factory for our scheduled tour. It was amazing to see how precise the factory was, and how efficient, they can turn out 900 3-series per day. We also went to Dachau, which was really overwhelming and somewhat sobering. There was a film and all kinds of information on the holocaust and Nazi party, simply horrific. That night I had a fantastic black truffle tagliatelli, that was a terrible transition from the holocaust, but I'm just going in chronological order here.
We decided to try and find a book store in Munich since the drive to Dresden was several hours and I’d just finished The Da Vinci Code (pretty good read). We parked and walked around near where we had found one online, couldn’t find any good books, so we had lunch (pork loin burger + curry sauce = great) and went back to the car. We kept walking past where we thought it was, but we didn’t see it so we walked a few blocks each direction and still no car. Then I saw the silver car we parked in front of and a big empty spot where we parked. Then I noticed the garage door we had parked in front of. The garage doors there blend REALLY well into the store fronts that neighbor them.
We locate our towed car at the police station a 25 euro taxi ride from where we ate, and them dealt with some seriously asshole cops. They didn’t accept credit cards (wtf?) so we had to walk 3km to find an ATM, and 3km back to get our car out of the impound. We noticed about 10 other 3-series wagons were towed, and right as I said “I wonder if anything besides BMWs get towed.” I spied an Audi R8 right next to our car. R8s are everywhere there (probably something with the tax incentive pricing again) akin to how you might see 5+ Bentley Continental GTs a day here in the states.
So we finally left the Dick Polizei behind and got on our way to Dresden, and then the next morning drove to Berlin. We visited the DDR museum which was oddly ambiguous in whether it was anti or pro-socialism. We also saw the Brandenburg gate and the Reichstag building, which was a very neat fusing of modern and historical architecture.
The next day we decided to do a Fat Tire Bike Co. tour. They have these in Berlin, Brussels, Paris and London, so if you ever visit one of those cities TAKE THE TOUR! It was an awesome way to see almost all of the city, and actually learn about what you were seeing. It was so cool. Our tour guide was friendly, funny, knew what he was talking about, and was an American who grew up half and half in the US and Germany, so he had insight into German life to share. The company is basically for Americans abroad, so it’s all native English speakers giving the tour, making it easy to understand. Definitely check these out if you’re going to one of those places. $20 for a 4 hour bike tour.
That night we ate at the restaurant our tour guide had suggested, I had a grilled watermellon and scallop appetizer, grilled venison with a black cherry reduction, and an apricot dumpling. It was the best meal of the trip, and we had already had some very good meals. The next day we drove to Frankfurt, spent the night and then flew home. Everything went smoothly except for the baby across the aisle throwing up, that freaked me out big time.