my trip to Germany

[GLImax]

yeah, I have to say the autobahn is nothing special. I'd much rather drive on a highway system similar to back home. Germans just don't know how to drive "laid back". On the other hand, where could you otherwise feel the gust of a Porsche flying passed you at 120+ mph.
Guess I'm just a complainer, but I hate speeding up and slowing down all the time. I'd much rather drive slower at a consistant speed.

[rootrider]

yeah.. the constant speed changes are a bit disappointing, but I'm hoping that it's less of an issue the farther I get from a big city (?). But as I said, it's an amazing experience having those nice cars fly past you

[rootrider]

so here's a mk2 I saw in Worms... color-matched ATS wheels, grille, flares.. wooden steering wheel.. smoked heckblende.. and this grille

odd tourist bikes.. I'm guessing they're foldable

did Mercedes build this or is it modified from a sedan?

Worms towncenter.. looking toward a Protestant church built maybe 50 - 60 years ago.

my first ADAC sighting.. helping a Fiat

[RATHERSMART]

Quote, originally posted by rootrider »

We ate in an "asian restaurant" tonight. The menu was basically either fried rice or fried noodles, mixed with your choice of meat (chicken, sausage, beef, duck, etc.).. with sushi also on the menu. The flavor was pretty good, but I have to laugh at the American and Asian food sold here. I have yet to walk into a McDonals or Burger King yet (the two most common American chains that I've seen so far) but I'm told their menus (especially Burger King's) are more "tuned" for the Europeans. I have no real plans on buying food from either of those places, but I'll have to go in and look at the menus anyway

the menus are almost the same as the ones here. it's the actual food that tastes different

you HAVE to try it, but if you're used to the american taste and like it then you might hate it

[rootrider]

the cathedral.. it's amazing, and easy to see from miles away (search for Worms, Germany on google.. cool images of the town)..

a model out front..

tomb containing nine people... mostly of the same family.. who all died around 1000 ad

the church used to have several buildings attached on the sides that have since fallen down, or whatever. So they patch up the holes.. and remove the stairs as well, in this case.

you can see the old door those stairs led to on the left here

[rootrider]

"spaghetti ice cream"... weird

some small town we ended up driving through.. very curvy and skinny roads going through it.. ended up having a street fair/festival of sorts going on. So we found it and got out to check it out. We saw this along the way..

thought this was funny/interesting.. the dude carrying a keg down the street

part of the town.. with all the cars parked for the festival

the countryside around here was amazing... we ended up driving through hills like that for about half an hour afterward.

.. I thought this was a tacky mod until I saw another Kia van with the same sort of hood scoop on it a few minutes later

my first sighting of a car that (apparently) has actually been on the ring (note the ring decal)

two cheap shots of my mk6 rental..

I also saw my first mk5 Golf GT today... pretty cool looking cars.

the mezzo mix

and a shot of the other room (ie. the living quarters/kitchen) in this apartment

[Arsigi]

Good stuff!

[JIIP]

awesome. I want to go back.

[GLImax]

Quote, originally posted by rootrider »

yeah.. the constant speed changes are a bit disappointing, but I'm hoping that it's less of an issue the farther I get from a big city (?). But as I said, it's an amazing experience having those nice cars fly past you

Yeah, some spots are better than others, but there is just so much that is regulated these days. Early September is still at the tail end of the main vacation for many, so that contributes to the traffic. I live in southern Munich, and traffic coming up from Italy and Austria was horrible during the last few weeks of August. Today was pretty nice cruisin though.

[Pretty Hate Machine]

best thread ever. keepit up. and the ice cream spaghetti is awesome!!!!!

[EK20]

Loving all the pictures.

No pictures of all the hot German chicks?

[-freak-]

Quote, originally posted by EK20 »

Loving all the pictures. No pictures of all the hot German chicks?

WOW, that is exactly what I was thinking as I was looking thru the pics.. I kept expecting for the next one to be a picture of a hot German chick!!

I love all the pics Joel... Keep it, it's almost like I'm there with ya!

[Alfredo_mk3]

awesome pics of the cathedral, for real though

[rootrider]

Quote, originally posted by -freak- »

WOW, that is exactly what I was thinking as I was looking thru the pics.. I kept expecting for the next one to be a picture of a hot German chick!!

haha... I haven't seen many yet. And it's just a habit of mine to try to avoid having people in my photos anyway

[EK20]

Come back soon. I'm all alone defending the hotness of redheads.

[rootrider]

well..... starting off on my own now. I'm heading east, south of frankfurt, then more north toward Erfurt, then back toward Cologne before finding a place to stay tonight. Then I'll head south along the Rhein tomorrow, back toward Nuerburg.

[VW914]

Quote, originally posted by rootrider »

well..... starting off on my own now. I'm heading east, south of frankfurt, then more north toward Erfurt, then back toward Cologne before finding a place to stay tonight. Then I'll head south along the Rhein tomorrow, back toward Nuerburg.

whats the time diff? im assuming its morning now eh?

[rootrider]

seeing two Polizei 7 series drive by you at 100+ mph.. awesome

driving a nearly 200kph (this car seems to have a hard time getting past about 195)... awesome. I think that's the fastest I've driven yet... and it's with the smallest engine I've ever driven

I need to get off the Autobahn soon and find some place to pick up some snacks and drinks for the trip today...

[rootrider]

Quote, originally posted by VW914 »

whats the time diff? im assuming its morning now eh?

10 hours ahead of the west coast

[Bart Taylor]

me and the woman (who backpacked europe a couple times) have talked about goin to germany.....now its certain....i must go there SOON

[dunhamjr]

driving that fast can be a trip.

i once set the cruise control at 120mph... where it stayed for 2 hours. that was fun.

its actually a little disappointing you are in a gasser mk6 though... was kinda hoping you would end up in something diesel and something that we can't get in the US...

[rootrider]

Quote, originally posted by dunhamjr »

driving that fast can be a trip. i once set the cruise control at 120mph... where it stayed for 2 hours. that was fun. its actually a little disappointing you are in a gasser mk6 though... was kinda hoping you would end up in something diesel and something that we can't get in the US...

I am also quite disappointed that I didn't get a diesel. This 1.4 isn't too bad on mileage compared to what we can get in the US, but I was really counting on better fuel consumption when driving here. And at 130+ kph it just doesn't do very well. It's still fun though

[rootrider]

I really like these volkswagen touran's... they're nice looking vans, and they look a ton better than the Chrysler we got in the US

I need to stop cruising at 180+... because it seems every time I get up to speed there's a tunnel (down to 80kph usually) or some other thing causing the speed limit to drop.

[mikegilbert]

Great thread, Joel- I hope the trip is going well.

[rootrider]

i just paid $88 to fill my tank up.... ouch!

[Arsigi]

Quote, originally posted by rootrider »

seeing two Polizei 7 series drive by you at 100+ mph.. awesome

[rootrider]

it looks like I'll be staying at a hostel in Kassel tonight... the area is supposed to be quite interesting, so I'll probably spend a little time there tomorrow before heading toward the ring (!)

I love it here.. I just had a bratwurst at a gas station that was as good as anything I've had in the US, and I walked out to see about 6 wagons parked next to my hatch

[GLImax]

Quote, originally posted by rootrider »

10 hours ahead of the west coast

9 hours actually .

[rootrider]

bah.. you're right. I don't know where I got 10 from

[GLImax]

Quote, originally posted by rootrider »

i just paid $88 to fill my tank up.... ouch!

I feel your pain man. But hey, where else can you buy 100oct at the pump?

[JIIP]

decide what you will be driving the ring in yet? Are you going for something track prepped, or just fast? ive been told the track prep alfa 164's are a blast.

[rootrider]

still hoping to drive the 'stage 1' alfa 75's... so not very powerful, but higher performance tires, suspension, and a mostly stripped interior. If I can get one of those it'll be cheap and pretty fun.

Just got into Kassel and staying at a hostel. The other guy in the room just arrived here today from Olympia for school... go figure!

I'll try to work on some photos shortly.. this will be my first time using the UMTS cell connection instead of the wireless I've had in an apartment for the last two nights.

[pocketrocket84gti]

very cool stuff dude

[rootrider]

day 3.. first day out on my own. Monday...

Today I left at about 9am and drove north toward Frankfurt before heading east toward Wüzburg then north toward Erfurt and then Leipzig. I then cut back in the direction of Frankfurt, on the north side, and have stopped in Kassel for the night.

Google Maps tells me it's a 700km drive.. and nearly 7 hours. I paid $88 to fill the ~14 gallon tank today. I really need to drive slower. Those unresticted zones on the Autobahn are amazing though!

I drove from 'A' to 'B' today:

found this in the neighborhood where I've stayed the last two nights

my first venture out on my own on the Autobahn.. construction zone (the yellow marks are temporary and supersede any white marks. The lanes can get very narrow.

I love european wagons... and I love these cars

just about the cheapest fuel costs I've seen so far.. this was at an Autohöfe (basically a truck stop) just off the Autobahn.

part of the Autohof

looking toward the truck area... solar panels aren't extremely common here, but they're still much more common than what I've seen in the US

I don't think I'd ever buy one, but I do love seeing Alfa's

is this an S3? had a different bumper, headlights, and a midhatch spoiler. I didn't look inside. It's a little more difficult to know what model cars are here since rear badging is often optional at dealership. The lady driving this car was going pretty slowly on the Autobahn..

This is what I saw parked next to me when I came back out of the Autohof where I had my dinner (mmm.. Brätwurst mit Brochen (oh, btw, currywurst is awesome)). There are so many wagons here, and I love it.

wind power also seems to be quite common

some view from a side road I took while looking for a place to stop and look at a map. There are almost no shoulders are places to pull over on roads here, and it's illegal to stop on the Autobahn (thankfully there are plenty of rest stops and Parkplatz's). This makes it almost impossible to take photos of the country side that I'm seeing

the side road... with curbs, so I have no idea how they expect a car to pass another. Most skinny roads have soft shoulders so you can at least pull off if you need to.

another view as the sun is setting, from a Parkplatz

the Parkplatz (basically, they're like the rest stops we have on most of our interstates)

Today was awesome. That said, I won't be able to drive quite as freely as I had hoped since this 1.4 engine just isn't getting the mileage I had planned for when I was expecting to have a diesel instead. I ended up averaging about 7.5l/100km today, which is pretty good, but I know my 2L tdi would have done better. It doesn't help when I'm passed by several 2.0 tdi cars today

Tonight I'm staying in a hostel in Kassel. It cost me about 30 EUR total and it's a rather nice place. There are (so far) two other people in the room with me, one of which just happens to be from Olympia and arrived in Germany today. He's starting his Masters program in Kassel after just graduating from Evergreen.

Tomorrow I make my way to the Nüburgring. I can't describe how excited I am about this. There's a short Touristenfahrten tomorrow night, and then one all day on Wednesday. I believe I'm meeting three people from finalgear.com on Wednesday. I also just found that out that Tim Schrick (look him up) will be at the ring on Wednesday, and apparently he's giving free taxi rides!? What timing!

Before the ring I plan on looking around Kassel a bit, which is supposed to have some cool old stuff. Afterward I'll probably follow the Rhein a bit (basically following the map above) before heading thorugh the hills toward Nürburg and checking into my hotel in town (also excited about this)


Modified by rootrider at 2:28 PM 9-7-2009

[skidplate]

Great stuff so far Joel!