NVRANUF

+1

worf928

After our stop in Sinsheim we headed north. It was Friday. I guess lots of folks were cutting out early for a long weekend because the roads were pretty packed. I was following the "European" break-in rules rather than the lawyered-up US rules; once everything was nicely warmed-up I was hoping for a bit of open road. Instead we got construction zones.

One thing about German roads: there's rarely much of a shoulder. When they need to work on one section of 4-lane divided Autobahn they divert one lane to the other side and make three lanes out of two. Because there's almost no shoulder the resulting lanes are a bit narrower than normal. Luckily German road signs provide the target width for the narrower-than-normal lanes on the lane diversion warning signs. The trouble is that the selection of target widths is 2m, 2.1m, and 2.2m.

Anyone care to guess on how wide the a$$ on a Turbo is?

It's 74.02". But actually, that's a lie. The a$$ sticks out as far as the mirrors and the mirror-to-mirror width is 77.87". What's that in SI units? 1.978m

Shooting the 2m slot with a barrier on the left and a tandem truck on the right is ... disrecommended. And unless you've eaten your Wheaties and you are sure no one on the right is texting a 2.1m-wide lane for a 2.0m-wide a$$ is a white knuckle experience.

So, yeah, I stuck to the normal width lane. We were the Porsche meat in a truck sandwich for many kilometers.

And then it rained.

Day 6 ended here:



Another relaxing view from the rear:


We had dinner with my Uncle at a Gasthaus a few minute drive from our place.

Day 7 was low key. We slept in a bit, did some Grocery shopping, and then headed into town to visit with my Uncle, his daughter, etc.

My Uncle, now retired, lives in the house built by his father - my grandfather - right after WWII. Opa (German word for grandfather) basically built the house himself using materials for-the-most-part scavenged from ruins of the bombings. Over the years he replaced every part bit-by-bit with non-scavanged materials. What makes this interesting in the 21st Century is that the house and its immediate neighbor are the only houses within a several kilometer radius that have a yard. It's literally a 30-second walk to the beginning of the central shopping district for the city. My cousin is the proprietress of a small Coffee and Cake shop (which is a 'thing' in Germany) that's 30-seconds further into the shopping district. Basically, that plot of land on which my Ops'a house is situated is worth 7 figures.

Oh, and it has two garage spaces!



My Uncle sent me that picture via WhatsApp(*). The caption was (translated from German) "Finally a decent car in front of my garage!"

(*) My retired Uncle twisted my arm to downloaded WhatsApp because SMS is "so yesterday." Damn it. I supposed to be the computer nerd.

With relatives reconnected-with and too much coffee and wonderful German cake stuffed down our gullets we said our farewells and headed back to the A-frame to turn in early. We planned to get up at o-dark-thirty to head back south to Switzerland.

worf928

I'm still on Reykjavík time. Thus, it will likely be day-for-day on updates during the week.

BRB-83-911SC

Dave - thoroughly enjoying the trip. Nice car, too!

WCH BOS

Great descriptions and pictures. Sounds like an awesome trip.

Another Turbo in NE!

worf928

Sunday started bright and early. We packed up and hit the road by 7:30 AM. Our first destination was Rheinfall just over the Swiss boarder. Our target arrival time was 13:30. I'd planned this leg of the trip under the assumption that early Sunday morning the Autobahns would be free of truck traffic and otherwise sparsely driven. I wasn't (too) disappointed.

After winding our way to the A5 thereby allowing our new Turbo (which would be subsequently named DDG) to get thoroughly warm, I hit the sport mode button and let her run. The A5 was indeed mostly deserted and we were able to cruise for long stretches at ~200 kph. That turned out to be the highest comfortable speed and was a consequence of a disappointing observation.

Since the last time I'd driven on the Autobahn (a long time ago), the overall condition has deteriorated. Discussions with my Uncle reveal that the causes are quite familiar: more truck traffic, heavier trucks, comparatively less money for repair and, of course, politicians finding other places to stick tax dollars.

Despite being "limited" to 200 kph, it was still a joy to drive DDG on the Autobahn. I even looked forward - a bit - to construction zones... because after they were over I could accelerate from 80 to 200. And boy can DDG accelerate!

German drivers haven't gone down hill - in terms of skill and road manners - to any serious extent. They still look in their rear view mirrors before changing to the left lane. They will still wait to get into the left lane if a faster car is overtaking. They use directionals. They will get right back in the right lane if you are coming up behind them quickly. And nobody passes on the right. (This, of course, applies only to conditions of sparse or medium-level traffic. With thick traffic they're, understandably, more like drivers everywhere else. Except they still signal.)

One memorable moment came at the end of a construction zone. I'd had to stick to the wide-a$$-vehicle lane and was stuck behind some econo-box doing the 80 kph construction zone limit. In the skinny-a$$ lane a motorcycle was doing just over 80 and closing on DDG as the zone ended. The rider saw me, saw what was in front of me and quickly figured out what he would want to do if he were me. He could see me watching him in my side view mirror. He slowed fractionally, extended is right arm to the side and turned his palm up inviting me to go ahead and waste the econo-box. I accepted his invitation.

In Frankfurt we left the A5 and headed west on the A3. It wasn't the most-direct route, but it avoided roads of the more-densely populated Rhein valley which I figured would start to fill-up. At Würzburg we headed south on the A81 through Stuttgart. We passed through Stuttgart before 11AM and were, according to DDG's NAV, just over an hour from our destination. We were making good time.

But, that's when we started losing time. I had to find a place to buy a Vignette. What's a Vignette you ask? It's a sticker you have to buy and attach in one of three very-specific places on your windshield. If you don't have the sticker the Swiss will get all Swiss-on-your-butt about it. Basically, it's a 40 Euro fee you give to the Swiss if you want to drive on their roads. For future reference you can only buy one at the last rest stop in Germany before you cross the boarder.

Figuring out how to detached it from the backing without destroying it was a head-scratcher. I think the Swiss know this and look forward to a first-timer tax of a additional 40 Euro. We disappointed them.

We made it to our destination and met up with John (aka Red Flash) and his SO. John's been living in Zurich for 14-years and had mapped out a nice tour of the highlights on our route aligned with our schedule.

The first spot: Rheinfall


It may not look like much, but because Europeans are less worried about liability I think you can have a bit more fun. For one thing there are (wet, slippery) walkways all the way down that allow you to get really close:



And there are big long-boats with crazy captains that will, essentially, shoot the rapids with 40 passengers.

After a cool, slightly wet, but refreshing hour climbing over the water fall we made the short journey to Stein am Rhien. This is a well-preserved medieval city center. It's fun to walk around and checkout the artwork on the buildings:



And, of course, you can spend money on things like Swiss watches and Swiss Army knives among other things.

With Stein am Rhein toured, John's SO made her farewells and we figured out how to stuff three people and two vacation-weeks of luggage (including two helmets) into a 911. The trick is that both passengers have to hold a bag on their lap. Thus stuffed, we made our way to John's pad in Zurich.

John had very graciously invited me to use his private garage space for DDG for the night. (He might have been slightly influenced by the fact that his 928GT has been in my garage for about 6 months.) After driving to our Hotel I was very thankful to have a safe, enclosed, locked space. Zurich is not a car-friendly place. If you are a pedestrian it's close to paradise. But driving through Zurich is like driving through a narrow maze in the dark while dodging Minotaurs (because the trolley cars share - for minimal values of share - the road with cars.) And, there are speed cameras everywhere. And red light cameras at every intersection. And most of the side roads are barely wider than DDG's butt. AND, parking spaces on the side streets are arranged in a slalom pattern to make the one-lane streets even more of a challenge to two-way traffic.

John, though, made up for Zurich's car-unfriendliness with a truly excellent home-cooked meal of wild rabbit over pasta. When John's not working or not figuring out what he wants us to do to his 928 next, he's cooking. It was one of the top-three meals we had on the trip (and the Porsche lunch, while also good, was not one of the top three.)

After dinner we traipsed around Zurich and ...

... got a distant view of where we'd be going in the morning: the Alps.

(Editors note: Day 9 will feature less werdz and moar pitchurs...)

worf928

There were two things we had set out to do in Switzerland. One was to visit John. The other was to drive some of the passes in the Alps.

But, first we had to get out of Zurich. Zurich is under construction. Picture in your mind a dark slalom-filled Minotaur-infested maze. With construction zones. This is where checking-off the box on Porsche's Configurator for the European navigation CD-ROM is worth the expense. Between that and blindly following the traffic in front of us through the construction zones we were able to make our way towards Lucerne. South of Lucerne the vistas begin to border on magnificent. Heading further south, the A2 becomes twisty in fun ways. Early on Monday morning the traffic was sparse.

As we approached Gurtnellen, I saw a sign the purpose of which was to list the status of various Alpine passes. For each pass there was a board next to its name and all the boards were red. We hadn't outwitted the Zurich minotaurs just to be turned-back by some stupid little red signs though.

We decided to head towards the first pass and drive until the road ended in a chasm or a barrier of some sort. As we entered the village in which we would need to make our first turn I spied another status sign. This one showed the first pass as open to the first village up the road. Interesting. We turned.

Within minutes the view became truly breathtaking as opposed to just bordering on magnificent.



We kept on driving and after a bit saw a road sign indicating that we were entering the village after which the pass was closed. The sign pointed down into the valley, but there was no barrier ahead on the pass. The road was open further than the second status board had indicated. We kept driving and ...

... not too long thereafter were rewarded with an even better view.



We kept going until we got to the end of the road.

The orange truck in that picture was populated by the local equivalent of a public works crew that had been busy that morning surveying the next section of the pass. We knew this because we'd watched them arrive and pile out of the truck during lunch. Lunch? Yup, lunch. There was a little restaurant right there that was in the process of being opened for the season. The proprietor had the kitchen stood-up already and was serving a handful of other patrons.

The food was what we called "Swiss Comfort Food" and was fabulous. Or maybe it was the view from our outdoor table that made the food fabulous. We didn't care to ponder the answer to that question.


After eating lunch and enjoying the sunshine on a crisp but comfortable day in the Alps we headed back the way we came.


That half of one of the four passes I'd mapped out made dodging the monsters in Zurich worth the trip.

(Now that I'm back and am reading reports of folks that ED'd a few days after we did, if we'd been a day or three later all the passes would have been open. Oh well. I guess we'll just have to try again in a few years.)

Red Flash

I am liking this thread more and more. :-)

Worf's assessment of Zürich is accurate. Generally, the number of cameras and the size of potential fines is so great, tourists should simply boycott Switzerland. Driving in Switzerland is fatiguing because the traffic sharing is ridiculously complex, the lanes are narrower than any place else and the Swiss are generally worse drivers than say Germans. Only daily-drivers can manage it. I was a little worried that something might happen to Worf, but he is a very attentive driver. It's a true measure watching foreigners drive in Zürich.

PS-Also the description of eating in Zürich is totally in line with my experiences. John is an ok cook. :-)

worf928

FIFY.

Right! Your's is the best place to eat in Zurich.

Folks, you should, however, call ahead as seating is limited.

worf928

After our drive in the Alps we got back to our hotel, rested a bit, checked e-mail, etc. and then met John for dinner at a neighborhood restaurant. As you might surmise from the above, neither the food nor the service was as good at the restaurant as it was at John's pad.

Day 10 started very early as we needed to get from Zurich back to Nürburg and to arrive with plenty of time to spare. Getting out of Zurich was, again, aided by the Euro-NAV data. On the way in, I'd been too busy dodging trolleys, paying obsessive attention to the speed limits and not running over pedestrians to pay attention to the route.

One thing I didn't describe when writing about Zurich's trolls and slaloms is pedestrian behavior. A particular dynamic has evolved in Zurich that, had John not told me about it, I would not have believed despite my observations. In Zurich, if you are a pedestrian and want to cross the street, you walk to the nearest crosswalk and, with no check left or right for traffic, step into the street as if you were protected by a force field. Drivers slam on their brakes - if necessary - to let you pass and then as soon as possible they rocket through the crosswalk. If, you - as a pedestrian - wait at the edge of a crosswalk for drivers to yield to you in some obvious way the drivers will get really pi$$ed at you.

In Boston that would be a recipe for pedestrian pâté. In Boston, if you are a pedestrian, you'd better d@mn-well wait at the crosswalk for cars to give some obvious sign that their driver's have completed sending their latest text message, have seen you, have acknowledged your right to continued existence and intend to stop.

That does suggest a diabolical prank: fly 200 Bostoners into Zurich. Give 100 of them a ride to city center along with a list of places to visit on foot. Give the other 100 the same list and a rental car. Sell tickets and broadcast rights. I think there are some folks in Zurich - recently, or soon-to-be, unemployed - with experience in promoting sports that could give me a hand with that.

Without feeding the trolls or nailing any force field-protected pedestrians we made it out of Zurich. Soon we were out of Switzerland and back on the German Autobahn. Hurray!

We arrived at roughly 14:30 in Nürburg. I doubt we could have gotten better-situated accommodations:


Our place for the night was literally only a few steps from the Pistenklausse and from Hotel Am Tiergarten. The former is the place for track junkies to hangout after doing laps. Almost every square centimeter of interior wall is covered with autographed pictures of famous racers or very cool racing art. The latter - Am Tiergarten - is owned by Sabine Schmitz's mother. Am Tiergarten has a really good lunch buffet; that's where we'd gone to lunch on Day 3 during the tour.

Who's Sabine Schmitz? TLDR - she can go around the Nordschleife in a delivery van faster than you can go around in a GT3 Porsche. Well, that may be hyperbole, but she's damn fast around the 'ring in anything.

On Day 10, during the day, the Nordschleife was actually closed to the public. However, on most days, the track is open to the public for an "after work" session from 17:30 to 19:30. On this day the track had opened early. With bags stowed at The Racers Retreat we grabbed our helmets and headed to the 'ring to secure some proof that we'd each driven DDG on the Nordschleife.


We each did one lap with DDG. These were our first laps on a dry Nordschleife. It's a different track in the dry. Even though there were few cars on the track, the ones that were on the track were - besides us - driven by the serious folks. Who else is going to be at the Nordschleife for the after-work session? They were damn fast. After my one lap I decided that discretion was the better part of valor. I wasn't going to go much faster on a second lap. The XX,XXX cost of rolling-up one of RSR's cars was looking good when compared to me getting DDG's sticky side up. CarChick decided the same thing. So we headed back ...

... to RSR. The previous week we'd not done all the laps in RSR's cars for which we'd paid. The RSR folks were quite happy - no arm twisting involved - to give us our money's worth. The lap tickets we'd just used were left over from the previous week and in exchange for the value of wear and tear on the cars that we didn't do, they offered up one taxi lap driven by RSR's owner in Godzilla:



This was a rush as you can imagine. I realized a couple of things:

- The Nordschleife is bumpy. When you watch YouTube clips of really fast laps and you hear the tires chirping? Most of the time those chirps are because one or more of the tires is loosing and regaining traction due to bumps.

- I'm years of laps from being able to go fast.

Last year they installed speed limit signs on the Nordschleife at two (IIRC) specific locations due to serious accidents. The limits are 200 kph and 250 kph. When we did our first laps the previous week, I'd seen those signs and thought they were there, possibly, for humour value. I remember seeing the 200 kph sign and, looking at my instruments, saw that I was going around 90 kph. During the 'ring taxi lap in the GT-R it became apparent that it was indeed possible to approach those speeds.

Those speeds are now enforced during races with time penalties imposed if they are exceeded. The race teams are all busy building-in GPS-driven electronic speed limiters to ensure they are not penalized.

We'd ticked off 4.5 bucket list items in 10 days:
- Drive the Nordschleife
- Drive Spa Francorchamps
- Drive the Alpine passes (score of 0.5 awarded)
- ED a new Porsche
- Drive our new Porsche on the Nordschleife

We had one more bucket list item to check on this trip. But, that would be Day 12.

For now we retired to our room and, for the first time on this vacation, kicked up our feet for a bit.

The main room in our two-room suite was decorated by someone with an interesting sense of humor:

worf928

Our agenda for Day 11 was simple: buy some souvenirs and get to Stuttgart. We slept-in, then packed, locked-up and headed to the Nurnburgring F1 circuit. You can park free for the first hour in the underground parking garage. The gift shop opens at 10. We arrived at 10:05 and filled most of our remaining baggage space with t-shirts etc. Then we hit the road to Stuttgart.

After unloading at the hotel and letting the traffic die down we made our last European trip in DDG: to the customer parking lot at the Porsche factory.

You have to fill out a form with the VIN, mileage, level of dirtiness and make notes of any damage to the car. I explained to the Porsche folks that we'd killed all of the bugs in central Germany.


DDG had 11 kilometers on it at pick up. When they saw the reported mileage they required me to describe how we'd racked up so many kilometers.


It was at this point that our new Turbo got a name. CarChick was looking at the front end and said: "She's a Dirty, Dirty Girl."

It turns out that Porsche will let you keep your temporary plates, but your wife won't let you pack them until they are clean of bug guts.


As of Day 3, CarChick had declared "Best Vacation Ever." It was now the end of Day 11 and it hadn't gotten any worse.

The next morning we'd get on the train to Frankfurt and climb on an airplane.

We had one more stop.

GrandLaker

Great pics in the mountains, thanks for sharing!

worf928

The previous day marked the end of the portion of our vacation that was car-centered. During the planning phase of our vacation we'd looked at many options. One option stood out for me: a 20-hour layover in Iceland. I've always wanted to experience the midnight sun.

A note of warning: virtually everything I know about Iceland comes from this 20-hour visit and Michael Lewis' . (Which, btw, is a fabulous book that examines some of the cause and effect of the Mortgage Meltdown in Europe. Well worth the read.)

Iceland is a bizarre place. Imagine a big jumble of millions of volcanic rocks. Now imagine Godzilla and Mothra having a knock-down-drag-out fight on top of this pile of rocks, leaving wierd prints all over and generally screwing up the landscape. Now imagine this landscape covered in lichen and, in a few places, a stringy yellow-ish grass.

Basically: imagine the landscape of another planet. A very young planet.

Now, plop-down on this landscape a bunch of buildings with 99% of them made out of variations of cubes.

That's iceland. The sun never gets more than 49.3 degrees above the horizon and that only in Summer. It's never really, what we would call 'bright' in Iceland.

It's no wonder the Icelanders like to drink.


One of maybe two or three buildings I saw that are not 'cubic'


Iceland by Day


Iceland by Night (2:45 AM)


Sunrise (3:15 AM)


The afternoon of Day 12 we strolled around Reykjavik taking in the sights and feel of the city.

That evening we had a truly fabulous meal at The Old Iceland. It's almost worth the flight just to eat there.

The next morning we did what other tourists do: we bought hand-made sweaters of Icelandic Wool (sheep will eat anything including the lichen and the stringy yellow grass.)

Then we got on the plane and flew back home to Real Life.

... which kinda sucks after The Best Vacation Ever!

Badknees

I thoroughly enjoyed reading your story. Thank you very much for sharing.

worf928

You are welcome.

Paddock at Spa on Day 3: