Dateline::: June 18; the best and worst day of my life.
7:00am and I'm standing at rent4ring inspecting the car I'd be driving that day. Black w/ red stripe suzuki swift and it was mine for 4 hours. Drove from rent4ring to the track. There I stood on hallowed ground about to drive the fabled Nordschleife. I had Dale Lomas of rent4ring drive the first lap and then coach me on the next 2. You'd need a good month to get that track down in order to drive it correctly and you'll need a coach. I'm proud to say I didn't pass a single car, but many passed me! I was having an absolute blast just driving the ring. I also have to say their Suzuki swift's are the car to rent. You can beat the crap out of those cars and still post up great times. Made 13 of my 14 allowed runs.
Lot's of interesting cars there at the track day, but not much in the way of American stuff. There was 3 corvettes that I could see and 1 grabber blue 2011 5.0 mustang. The rest was local stuff; bimmers, merc's, Chaterham's, ton's of rental cars, Porsche's, Seat's, Renault's and so on.
So after the training session, I strapped in, turned on the camera and just drove my dream with no expectations other than to have a good time and to bring me and the car back in one piece. My expectations have most certainly been met.
Towards the end of the allowed time, Dale took me on a final coaching lap and then a "hot" lap. Good Lord, that was fun!!!! His combination of car control and track knowledge made for one hellofa lap. We passed Maserati's and Aston's. I purposely didn't flog the crap out of the car, too much fun just looking around while driving the course. Dale on the other-hand did things to that Swift I didn't think were possible. Just an amazing driver.
Then 6 months of waiting and anticipation was over. My dream satisfied, I was content in the knowledge I'd driven the ring and was know a card carrying member, literally. I have a credit for additional lap on the ring, so now I have to come back!
We left rent4ring and headed to Andeau to just look around. On the way, we went to the "gas" station and bought shirts and such to bring home. In Andeau we stopped at a local eatery and I had the largest hamburger I've ever tried to eat, it was the size of a small Frisbee, and that was the regular sized burger!. The small villages and old architecture in the area was amazing to see.
So around 3p, we headed off towards Stuttgart for a 3 hour drive. I've learned one thing, finding a hotel in Germany is NOT an easy task. Parking is ALWAYS an issue. We wound up finding a hotel in downtown Stuttgart called the Mercure. The had 2 rooms left for WAY too much money. I was absolutely beat, but I told Pam to tell them "no, we'd just head on home. She came back out and said they'd lowered the price. I needed to sleep so I said OK. Pam said the staff had said to drive the car around the back of the hotel and into the parking garage. There was no "back" of the hotel after I drove 2 blocks out of the way. Not wanting to get lost, I turned around and drove back to the main street. You could not cross the street due to the local cable cars running, so I had to turn right and go a mile out of the way and then U turn and come back to the hotel and then into the garage. Found the garage and found a spot on the 2nd level.
Enter the worst time of my life. Funny thing about the German language, I can't read any of it. I left the car and entered into a hallway full of doors. I went to end of the hall and found a very nice looking stairway. Went up 3 flights of stairs to the top level and tried to open the door. Locked. Went back to where I came and tried to open the door. Locked. OK, a little panic starting to set in now. I tried every damn door in the stairway. All locked. Ok, a lot of panic now. I've been missing for a good 20 minutes now and Pam has no clue where I am; locked in a stairwell.
Went back to main door at the top of the stairs and started to knock, several minutes I knocked louder. A few more minutes and I was literally pounding and kicking the door yelling HELP! I was in a complete state of panic and wanted out. Finally a door below me opened and I leaped down the stairs screaming "don't close the door!!!!". Turned out the be the maintenance guy. Never so happy to see a complete stranger in my life. As we left the stairwell and closed the door he turned around and pointed to the words on the door that obviously said "don't enter, locked stairwell". Told him I couldn't read it.
He took me to the elevator door and then into the lobby. Pam broke down when I walked in. I'd been MIA for about 25 minutes now. You could see the relief in her face. After a $20 ice cream and water in the over priced restaurant, I crashed at 11p and woke up at 10 the next morning. I reflected on what an interesting birthday I'd had. This is one for the books.
Having woke up so late, we decide to do the Porsche museum and head on back. The Porsche museum is great and worth the money to see. Didn't have time to do the factory tour. Spent 3 hours there looking at all the great cars. Starting back to Berlin around 3p. Stopped in Bamburg along the way back. Gorgeous town, but there like everywhere else, it's impossible to park.
The autobahn is wonderful. Being able to drive triple digit speeds on a public road is a cheap thrill.
So that's it for now. Some museums planned for the rest of the trip. I just want to go back to the "ring"
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