Vilhuer

I think new A20 between Rostock and Lubeck is such place once it's finished totally (if not already done). I can't believe they were putting up "Frei" signs there in May. Would think greens have killed idea of ever again making more roads without speed limit.

Nicole

Great news: the sun has peeked out a few times, and the weather forcast is positive for next week. I'm not holding my breath, though...

Got a ride in a Mercedes 270 CDI (turbodiesel) on the Autobahn today and made my first attempt to photograph an "End of all limits" sign for Heinrich.

Mongo

Hey Nicole, how is Germany so far? See any Porsches on the Autobahns yet? I hope I can go someday...

BTW, if it's not out of your way, I have a favor I was wondering you can do for me. It seems to be related to your business of selling automobile memoriabilia and I am looking for something in particular that may only be available in the Eastern Hemisphere now. I'll PM you if you're interested, again if it's not out of your way

Nicole

Well... I need to know what it is before I can tell you, if I can do it...

No Porsches on the Autobahn yesterday, but sat in my friend's 964 convertible.

Finally sunny around here, but still rather cool (about 70 degrees). I'm so spoiled...

Nicole

We had a mini-928 meet here yesterday evening. The Bugatti Blue 928 with the super clean engine, a midnight blue 95 GTS with about 23k kms on the odo, and two slate grey 89 S4 participated. And the 89 I rode in was sooo quiet, despite 226k kms on the odo. So I did not buy the TechArt RMB and decided to spend the money on replacing more bearings at the time of my next timing belt change.

The German 928ers are equally excited as we are in the US, and they are very knowlegeable about technical issues. To circumvent the high prices of Porsche parts and services, they are quite creative and are starting to to their own rebuilds of parts.

One thing I might still look for are a new kind of windshield wipers from Bosch, which don't have the metal pieces anymore. The guys love them, despite the unusual looks. Apparently they wipe better, particularly at high speed.

However, they also complained that there are so few places left where you can let it fly... Certainly you have to drive quite a wile from the Stuttgart area until you can go fast. It might be different in other parts of the country.

Thaddeus

Hearing that driving in Germany is becoming no longer fun makes me pretty sad.

Ron_H

Nicole, will you come back here and work on this project please? The offer is expected to be accepted. And Anders got into trouble with your V-1 in Nevada. Things are falling apart here.

Nicole

Thaddeus: I did some southbound travelling this week, and must say that outside the Stuttgart area, driving does not appear to be as bad. Still many ridiculous speed limits, but not quite to the level of annoyance as around here. So, if you come to Germany, avoid the big towns.

The weather has been perfect since the last weekend. I was down at the Lake Constance, which is one of my favorite areas in Germany. I wished to have more time to spend down there, especially given the beautiful weather.

Ron: I'll be back Monday night. Is Anders in jail? I've been wondering how long until I have to bail him out... Are you at least sharing the same cell?

John Struthers

Nicole,
Your folks still living around Esslingen?
Try Lake Neckartailfingen out past the Airport -Eckterdingen- I lived in a little Burg called
Groetzingen and got there from that side.
Enjoy the trip And slam a Hoffbrau or two for me.
Say you weren't one of those Schwaben Brau guzzlers were you? Talk about a 'LIVE' beer....
If you can, take some flicks of a typical Deutchlander's Autozimmer for us.
I know we are spoiled compared to the Brits and Continental Europeans but I need a reminder every now and again.
Say! If you will stoop to taking flicks of garages how about a flick or two off the Valve/hot water room of a typical German 3 floor house...those gangs of valves, gauges, levers and tubing/pipe
always amazed me.
Are the Stuttgarters' still gabby? I could spend a couple minutes on greetings and farewells during the course of buying a few delicious pastry's ... torture it was the smell of a warm Backerie (sp) on a cold day.
So in the end ... you could find the time to hang out half naked at a lake and not make the pilgrims crawl in sackcloth to the sacred Porsche Shrine... Stoke the fires Satan ... Nicole is on the way! Truthfully, I was hoping that you could get over there and swipe that tear down engine and that crate engine they have on display ... a little gratuitious sex for two 928 motors sounds like a fair deal to me.
I'd do it but I'm not their type.
Grusse Gott!

Ron_H

Nicole, you need to hurry back and bail me out. Anders escaped and is at large terrorizing the neighborhoods and roads around the Bay Aea, but I remain, unable to post bail and bankrupt from higher gasoline prices. Maybe I can hide in a laundry basket and get out soon. The project is progressing though.

69gaugeman

Those windshield wipers are available here at our Canadian Tire stores and are called Reflex wipers. I have them on all my vehicles and they do work great.

http://www.canadiantire.ca/assortmen...romSearch=true

If anyone needs help getting some across the border I can probably help. Just pm me

Rod.

Imo000

My local Canadian Tire pulled them from the shelves. I think the $25/each price had something to do with it.

993MAN

Hi Norm.
I thought that I would share this. Whether it is right or wrong I am not sure, but...I was in Berlin recently and was told that that old church in the middle of the city was actually built that way. I was told this by a German bloke and for all I know he was having me on! It looked well and truly bombed to me but he said it was built like that as a reminder of what the city had been through.
I actually really enjoyed Berlin (apart from the traditional food) and thought the city was great. In fact all of Germany is brilliant. I will go back and spend more time. I might need a better guide next time though?

69gaugeman

Although getting a little off topic, I bought some in Guelph last week. You might try there.

Nicole

John:

You would get totally lost around here. So many roads have changed, not all for the better. Some towns or villages have actually bult back roads to make it unattractive to drive there. Lots of 30 km/h speed limits in the villages, and even on the hiways around here you are often limited to 60 km/h. You need to go further out to have fun!

I wish I would have known sooner that you are interested in the brains of German houses. Two of my friends just recenty built or purchased supermodern homes, but I won't get there again before I leave. One of the houses has a wood pellet heating system that I have never seen. This house, as well as my dad's also have weather dependent climatization (no AC). This means, that certain windows that face the sun are covered, uncovered, opened or closed automatically depending on sun, wind or rain exposure. Pretty neat stuff...

69gaugeman: These are not the same wipers the local 928ers are using. The ones here are made by Bosch and have the spoiler integrated.

993man: Glad you liked what you saw. I have to say that when the weather is good, as it was in the past week, Germany is really nice. The problem is that 3/4 of the year the sky is grey and it's cold or rainy. 13 years ago I had enough of that...

Ron: Gas here is Euro 1.43 per liter of regular. Let's see. That would be approximately $1.85/liter, or about $6.95 per gallon. Still wonder why American cars and trucks are not the most popular over here? In fact, all I see are turbo diesels - they use only about 2/3 - 3/4 of comparable gas engines, yet, they are both clean and very quick (lots of torque).

Yesterday my dad bought us tickets to the musical "Mamma Mia", which plays here in Stuttgart. They built a Las Vegas like entertainment complex with two theaters, cinema, casinos, and lots of bars and restaurants outside of the town. The musical was mega-awesome!!!

Last day today for me, but the weather is so perfect I'd like to extend a bit. Oh well...