RacingJunkie

This is what it looks like to be on the other side of the line watching the people doing the grid walk.

pirahna

Got to Stuttgart last night. Will be leaving shortly to visit the Porsche museum and try and get on to a tour. Don't know if I will be able to post pictures later today, the wifi at my hotel is pretty lousy. If not I will be sure to catch up with posting them later.

haygeebaby

Wow - already in Germany!
I had a few meetings today - everyone asks me - "aren't you meant to be in France/Germany?"
It must be Sunday where you are - I think the museums close on Monday's. For what reason I do not know.
Get some food reviews for us as well. And hotel reviews man.
Train travel, tickets, etc.

pirahna

It is Monday here. Yes the museum is normally closed on Mondays but today is a holiday here and they are open on certain holidays so I lucked out there.

I forgot to bring a power adaptor that will work with my laptop so I can't upload any pictures from my camera until I get back. I did take a few on my phone so I will try and post some soon.

The trip from Paris to Stuttgart was longer than I expected. I rented a diesel Renault coupe from Avis at the Paris airport. It took almost 2 hours in line just to pick up the car. The drive was another 5-6 hours. The road was also a toll road and the tolls are much higher than in the US. After that and not being able to sleep on the plane I was pretty tired.

Last night and tonight I am staying at a small hotel called Adler Asperg in Stuttgart. The room is tiny but it is clean quiet so it suits my needs well. The only thing I don't like is that they give you wifi in 2 hour blocks so every two hours I have to go to the front desk for a new password. The wifi is very weak as well. There are two restaurants in the hotel, I have only tried the one that serves out on the patio. For dinner last night the menu was of course in German and the waitress didn't speak English so I had to guess on my order. I ended up getting some kind of steak with spatzl. The food was good but a bit on the heavy side not unlike all German food I have ever had.

The porsche museum is about a 15 minute drive from my hotel. They open at 9am and I was there right at opening. They have headsets that you can wear that and it will tell you about most of the exhibits, it really adds to the exerience. It took me about 2.5-3 hours to go through the whole museum and gift shop. I also took a walk around the factory just to look around. Being a holiday everthing was shut down for the day. I had lunch at Boxenstopp at the museum. I ordered the 911er, ravioli with potato salad and a stuttgarter pilsner, the food was not really that memorable.

JB 911

did you get a text from your mobile provider on landing? You may be able to add an international plan while you are there for minimal $. I have t mobile I was in Europe last month and got a text saying I had free unlimited data (3g) , unlimited texts, but phone calls you pay for. It was a nice surprise and upgrade over my last visit. 3g was a little slow for pics but for email it was great. Might be worth trying to log in to your provider. Saves having to use all kinds of 'free' wifi that you don't know how safe it is too...

pirahna

I have Verizon. I do have an international plan but it cost $25 for every 100mb of data that I have to prepurchase . Seems like rip off to me. I did get a text saying that they will charge $20 for every megabyte that you don't prepay for. What a douchy company.

JB 911

in this global age that really is douchy that they do that. I guess just got lucky as tmobile is big over there.

pirahna

Went back to to the Porsche museum this morning hoping to get on a tour but got shut down. There was one no show but the lady running it said I couldn't get on. She seemed like she liked to follow rules, how very German.

So I went to the Mercedes museum instead. It is huge and takes several hours if you read and listen to the audio guide on all the exhibits. The audio guides there seem pretty old, I had to replace mine 4x throughout the morning because they kept dying.

I changed hotels and am now staying at the V8 Hotel. It is geared towards car people. They have what they call a car museum but that seems like a liberal term of the word museum. There are a few interesting cars to see though, there is a F40, a pre A speedster and even a black 993. There are mclaren and Lamborghini dealers there as well. The bad part about it is that it 90 degrees today and the hotel has no A/C. I wouldn't stay here again unless it was a much cooler time of year.

Randy V

How about some pics?

JDHertz11

I have Verizon as well. You can add the international plan for around $5. It allows you to talk for $1.29 a minute and data is $25 for every 100mb but you don't have to pre-order. They send you a text every 100mb telling you that it's an addl $25. I user Viber and Whatsapp when I travel internationally. Enjoy the trip!

pirahna

I forgot to bring a three prong power adaptor for my laptop so I can't get the pictures off of my camera until I get home. I'm making do with my ipad until then.

Headed back to France now...

pirahna

Yeah, I think I have this plan too. I have only been using it for email and skype really. The few times I have tried to make a call it has had lousy service.

FisterD

This is so awesome! I can't wait for pics

Randy V

So post a pic once in awhile from your phone camera?

david

This truly is the making of an epic tale and speaks to the true camaraderie that we experience over and over on Rennlist.

Haygeebaby's generosity and Pirahna's spontaneity are to emulated.

Pirahna: I'll be listening in and looking for the pics! I'll chip in for whatever is required to let you properly report the race and spectacle: what do you need?!

Safe travels...