Normy

-If you went to visit Germany, where would you go?

[She went to visit relatives that live there; leave familial obligations out]

Me: Germany in August is the Love Festival in Berlin. I went to Berlin about two years ago, and I was amazed at this city: The Berliner Mauer (Berlin wall) is still indicated at Potsdamer Platz- you look at the ground and you can see where the wall ran- they put granite instead of concrete the whole way around so that you can track where the wall actually was. I think this is great! The only way to avoid repeating history is to make it clear to later generations. My continuous effort here on Rennlist and a few other places.

The other interesting thing about Berlin is the separations of the public transporation. West Berlin had its "U bahn", but the East had the "S bahn", and you can revel in the terminals: the West German government spent little on the public transportation stops, while the East Germans made a gigantic effort with these. When you consider that the West German state produced the 928 while the East German state provided the Trabant....I guess you realize why public transportation around the East German capital was a bottle-neck~

-Stare carefully: The East side, around "telespargle" or "toothpick" has a very carefully crafted future look. But the buildings are cheap, and you wind up wondering if your are walking through Cedar Point in Ohio or some other amusement park. It's really bizarre to see these relics from when there were two German states-

Outside of Berlin: I want to go to Stuttgart!

-my airline flew in there when I worked out of Brussels. My best friend Lucy got to do trips there, and she was amazed at the shopping! She did the DaimlerChrysler tour of the factory, which I'm sure is great, but she didn't tour the Porsche works. You know which place I'd be touring! I understand that the Porsche tour is rather small compared to the DaimlerChrysler tour.

I've never been to Munich. It would be nice to go there, but I'd rather go to either Wolfsburg [home of Volkswagen], Weissach, or Freidrichshaven, home of the Zeppelin airships.

Where would you go?

N!

CWO4Mann

If you have time, visit Heidelberg for the castle; visit Idar Oberstein for the gemstone mines; visit Bad Kreuznach for the Roman legion's hot baths and mud baths -- oh and the bridge houses over the Nahe River (look for the cannon ball embedded in the house wall from the 100 years war); visit Roxheim am Nahe for the wine, vinyards, and micro brewry next door to the city hall (since 1520). Rent a car and go really really fast on the A64 highway's straight-a-way (+20 miles). In Berlin, go to Mexikoplatz and the international bookstore in the area underneath the S-Bahn station. Walk across the traffic circle and have coffee and torte in the Mexikoplatz Bakery (there since the 1700's, same family), visit the Berliner Schueltheise brewery and have lunch in their dining room with the beer spigots coming out of the walls -- help yourself as they provide you with 1 liter mugs to fill up. Finally, visit the Kurfurstendamm (Ku-Damm) and the giant department store; have lunch in their 7th floor dining room and have the pastry meister explain how he made the 10 layer fresh fruit torte with fresh wipped cream on top.

Viel Spass!

Dave

Normy

Bombed out chuch not restored in the center of Berlin. They ran a huge battle against the church next door- the horrid collum is actually not required!

N!

bwebb77

They call it IIRC lipstick and compact.

Normy

This little bit of dumb stone might explain to some stupid from the United States precisely why he needs to be concerned about public wirks!

N!

jheis

I wouldn't go in August.

Everyone in Europe is on vacation for the month of August and the roads are absolutely clogged - at least if you're traveling south - which everyone is. Pick any other month.

James

marton

Go to the Nurburgring, some of us will be there with sharks on the weekend of 18th September

BTW, Berlin does not do the love festival any more. If you want that then you have to go to Zurich Switzerland to see the Street parade - for thousands of pictures go to
http://ch.tilllate.com/DE/specialpage.php?pgid=551
click on any of the fotos at the bottom of the page and on the next page look around for the foto album link

Marton

bwebb77

I'd go to Berchtesgaden. We have been three times now and it is very beautiful and peaceful. You can walk in the Alps and see the Koenigssee, along with the other things there. Take the MiniBus Tour to see all the WWII sites, it's all in English and a way to see all those sites in a half day, about 5 hours. The scenery is the best. We stayed at the Hotel Alpenhof. A great beautiful place close to hiking trails, ski lifts and the Koenigssee.

Mongo

You German tourists better visit the Nordschleife!!!! BTW, I hear Manthey Racing is letting people rent GT3s to drive on the Nuburgring too....*hint hint*

Rez

Here's my Belin experience.

I was traveling from Prague to Holland and figured I could get there faster by changing trains in Berlin. The other way had me going through Munich. Once in Berlin I had to take the S baun to get to the other station. I thought, not a problem, since there was a 1/2 hour in between. Mind you this is at 11:30PM. So I get to the S baun and the thing is just creaping. It felt like I could walk faster. There was this couple from New Zealand that had ben turned away at the Czech border. They realized my and my girlfriends panic and conceded that we weren't going to make it. We decided to team up and find accomodations together. Almost everything was closed. I think by that time it was midnight. The hostel only had room for 2. We found a hotel and it was a little too costly. We told the guy we wanted to look around for a cheaper place and said we wouldn't find one. Looked around and yep, he was right. We went back and the guy let us all stay in the same room for the standard rate. Took off in the morning and never saw the New Zealanders again.

Normy

Rez- that's a perfect story. Some people want everything to go right when they travel; others want things to go right too...but they enjoy it when something goes wrong [me]. And they have to compromise. I'd have bought a bottle of wine and sat around the courtyard/patio and talked SHEEP to the NZ types!

N!

Nicole

Checking in from Dad's house outside of Stuttgart:

I have not seen any overcrowding around here, as most are probably still looking for the sun elsewhere - at least I have not seen it, yet. It's a shame that in the 13 years I have not been here during the summer, the Germans still have not figured out how to make good weather. Kind of like the people in Oregon...

I don't know, if I'll lmake it to the opposite part of town where Porsche is located - there are so many errands to run and friends and family to visit, that time is pretty short. We'll see...

Dad complained that the government does everything to take the fun out of driving here. Extreme gasoline tax, photo radar everywhere, the cities and villages make streets narrower to slow down traffic and make it unattractive to drive through, and generally traffic around here has increased to a level where you can't get very far without getting stuck in a traffic jam. He is glad he is retired and does not have to drive that much anymore.

However, he says there are still a few stretches of Autobahn further away from here where you can let it fly. That's where it would be fun to take the 928.

I noticed that by comparison, his BMW is sooo quiet! As generally, everything here seems very solid and quiet. All doors of the house are solid, the handles have no play, and they close almost like a vault. This morning when I made breakfast it struck me that the appliances in the kitchen are all super quiet. I guess that is one sign of the German drive to perfection...

Off to start catching up on the shopping I missed since my last visit...

Nicole

Went to downtown Stuttgart today and - among many other shops - visited a model car shop. They had two 928 models - one that I also have in my store (the purple metallic 1:43 scale) and a Minichamps S4. The latter I bought for my collection, along with a few other models.

Had a long conversation with the shop owner about the business and his frustration with driving in the area. He needs to drive to downtown every day because as a business owner he needs to get around running errands every now and then - and it takes him forever to get to and from work every day. He said that he and quite a few of his friends have recently scaled down or delayed their car purchases because it no longer makes sense to own fast and expensive cars when all you do is stop and go.

I hear a lot of such frustration and pessimism, because even if the ruling parties would change, they could not fix this anytime soon. The country is locked into $6+ per gallon gas prices, because the eco tax is needed to pay for unrelated government services, and can't be cut. It's a mess...

Bill Ball

Nicole: Get back to sunny, optimistic CA, even though we have no real reason to be optimistic. We just don't know any better.

Nicole

LOL! I certainly don't plan to stay here...

The local 928 owners have organized a little meeting for Monday evening. I will let you know how it goes.