Friday, July 11, 2008
the end.
trip is over. look for synopsis of the trip, with the great pictures available sometime online in the future.
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
Sunday, July 6, 2008
July 6th, our last day.
So it's about 11:30PM again, and I can't sleep.
We're checked into our flight from here to Montreal, then will have to check in sept for our flight from there to Cbus. Tomorrow is going to be a LONG travel day but we're both ready to be at our own home, not living out of a bag anymore.
We couldn't have asked for a more perfect end to the trip, the British Grand Prix was 100% insane! In a wonderful way (well other then that Lewis had to win & Massa finished last of those that finished). It was JAM packed with action and spins and all kinds of goodness for those of us watching.
Today the weather was about 40 ( we could see our breath), COLD, and WINDY and RAINY! Wonderful for all the madness that was the race, we were a little cold but all was forgotten during race time!
I should probably call it a night soon and let the pictures we'll upload sometime after we're back do the justice for the race and it's wonderfulness.
After the race we took the bus from Oxford to Heathrow, then the train from there to Hounslow, there we got picked up by our cousins Lavi & Raj, they took us to dinner and we had a great time sharing funny stories about being married and just hanging out. Afterwards, we packed and weighed our bags (i did mention our stuff has multiplied right?). Aaron is now in bed, and I should likely also follow suit since we have such a long day ahead of us tomorrow.
Sleep on Monday night will be easy, since we'll be HOME! :D
We're checked into our flight from here to Montreal, then will have to check in sept for our flight from there to Cbus. Tomorrow is going to be a LONG travel day but we're both ready to be at our own home, not living out of a bag anymore.
We couldn't have asked for a more perfect end to the trip, the British Grand Prix was 100% insane! In a wonderful way (well other then that Lewis had to win & Massa finished last of those that finished). It was JAM packed with action and spins and all kinds of goodness for those of us watching.
Today the weather was about 40 ( we could see our breath), COLD, and WINDY and RAINY! Wonderful for all the madness that was the race, we were a little cold but all was forgotten during race time!
I should probably call it a night soon and let the pictures we'll upload sometime after we're back do the justice for the race and it's wonderfulness.
After the race we took the bus from Oxford to Heathrow, then the train from there to Hounslow, there we got picked up by our cousins Lavi & Raj, they took us to dinner and we had a great time sharing funny stories about being married and just hanging out. Afterwards, we packed and weighed our bags (i did mention our stuff has multiplied right?). Aaron is now in bed, and I should likely also follow suit since we have such a long day ahead of us tomorrow.
Sleep on Monday night will be easy, since we'll be HOME! :D
July 5th - Silverstone
July 5th
It’s 11pm on Saturday July 5th, I haven’t blogged in about 3 days but I have a ton to get out of my head, and Aaron’s asleep, so I could see this being a long one!
Last I checked in we were in London the morning we were headed towards the Silverstone area. We met the group going to the race at Heathrow Airport, hopped in a 9 person Ford van and drove about 75 miles to Oxford; where our hotel was. Just a random tidbit of info, the Mini is made here in Oxford and has been for the past 7 years. There’s a huge factory on your way into the city which is pretty neat, and you see SO many Mini’s. We arrived at the hotel, which is right on the Thames River. The location is beautiful, it’s an old manor house and has since had additions and renovations and it’s just in pristine condition, with gorgeous grounds, abundant flowers and simply breathe taking.
When we got into our room I was quite pleased with the facility, even more then I was just from the outside. We’re on the first floor and we have a walk out terrace which takes us to another courtyard, full of flowers. All the basics otherwise, but very clean, and well taken care of. This is by far my favorite place we’ve stayed (hotels wise) on our trip. The showers had hot water, with water pressure that was up to par, air conditioning, a fan in the bathroom to clear up all the fog post shower, (basically things that we think of as basic but that aren’t really across some of the places we’ve been). The icing on the cake was finding a floor fan in the closet, which I’m used to sleeping with at home!!!
When we got here we explored the hotel, and found a really nice pool and hot tub area in the gym, and ended up having a light lunch at the café. We unpacked, and relaxed and then later met the group for lunch. We went into Oxford the city, also where the university area is. It’s awesome, I can see a lot of what is trying to be done on OSU’s campus (and likely other campuses in the US) in terms of nice shops and eateries, around the perimeter of the campus; oddly one of the main roads is even called High Street!
We ate at a place called the Quod, decent food, nice atmosphere, and in general fun. Afterwards we walked a little, and I saw a ton of things I wanted to explore in more detail, unfortunately all the shops shut down at 5:00PM or 5:30 (at the latest)! Even on the weekends. So we headed back to the hotel, got our race day tickets and called it a night.
The next morning we got breakfast, and all piled into the car to head to the track. I was filled with glee but also a little sad, knowing this was basically the last stop in our honeymoon “tour.”
I can’t explain it but Silverstone is AMAZING, it’s clean, pristinely maintained, orderly, and the atmosphere just intoxicates you with excitement for Formula 1. As soon as we got there I knew I was going to love it! The cool thing that we found was Friday and Saturday had roving grandstand admission, with Sunday seats being assigned. This is very cool because you get to explore the whole track and see the action from so many different spots. Mainly we watched Formula 1 practice 1 & 2 and spent the rest of the time roaming the track. We made a full loop of it. All the manufacturers really go all out with displays and souvenirs for fans, and items which can be bought. It was hard to keep in mind that we’d already been to 3 races thus far, and had bought enough cool stuff, and to keep the money in the pockets! Honda had a huge blow up dome which inside they had a model of the car, and a 12 minute video, very well done, about the heritage of Honda and Formula 1! We checked that out, and just about everything else we could, the weather was just right, rain free, but not too hot!
We found that EVERYONE had Lewis fever, (except me of course) and about 3 guys walking around with gorilla face masks and white tee’s that were anti-Lewis; otherwise the Brits love them some Lewis! Button got a few cheers when we went around, as well as David Coulthard since this will be his last British Grand Prix (since he’s retiring). Mercedes is making a KILLING off the Lewis merchandise. We managed to watch the second practice from the Pit Grandstands, and were directly across from Renault’s pit!!! It was awesome, I got to see Flavio, and took some spy shot pictures of him, sadly didn’t get to see Alonso, at least not without his helmet on! It was cool because from there we could also see the team’s “mobile home” setups, and finally laid eyes on the McLaren Monstrosity. It was quite a view.
That about sums up the Fourth of July at least from the track perspective. After the track we got dropped off (at 4:49PM) in Oxford city center again, with about 40 minutes to do it we did some power shopping/browsing, many of the places had already closed, especially in the market (very much like North Market in Columbus, just MUCH bigger); but we were able to check some stuff out. After the shops closed we walked around the city, basically aimlessly, just checking it all out. Tons of very cool architecture, and just neat things to see. We happened upon the gourmet burger kitchen, and Aaron’s eyes lit up, we had been recommended this place in London, but didn’t have time to get it. Thankfully Aaron had looked online to know there was one in Oxford, though we weren’t sure we would find it, luckily we did! I wasn’t much in the mood for a burger, but Aaron really wanted to try it, so I figured sure why not. We got a burger and a chicken sandwich. The food was brought out and I was for SURE glad we ended up eating there, it was very well priced, very very very fresh, and all home made in terms of the sauces and such. It was a GREAT meal. Full and very happy we continued to walk around some and just hold off falling into food coma. We checked out the Oxford Castle, and Christ’s’ Church. After that our feet were ready to fall off and we caught a cab back to the hotel. After relaxing for a bit we decided to take advantage of the pool and the hot tub. It helped to relax us, and officially wear us out. We got desert from the hotel café, watched Top Gear and happily went to sleep! For sure one of the BEST days of our vacation.
Now we’re caught up to today, this morning we had breakfast again at the hotel, Aaron couldn’t get over the fact that they serve baked beans as part of the traditional English breakfast, not sure why they do it, but it just didn’t sound good to us so we passed for more traditional (to us) fare. It was raining all during breakfast, so we headed to the track, with our rain gear! It was pretty chilly, if you factor in the wind all day. The sun would help, but rain was off and on all day.
We watched practice one, did some walking around, got some free Santander gear (bags, and mats) and hung out, trying to stay warm. After practice, we took advantage of our Silverstone Racing Club access which was a building and a tent which had about 10 TV’s and tables and chairs for about 150 people. It was warm, and dry.
We did catch a neat little entertainment idea by McLaren, they had 2 men on stilts, painted and dressed in silver, they were entertaining the crowd, and just looked really neat. It added to the festival feel of the grand prix, all the while still being laid back, and VERY fan friendly.
We headed back outside for qualifying, which was great, the results of qualifying were disappointing if you were a Ferrari or Lewis fan, but pretty cool for Heikki. Also both Renaults made it into the top ten! Nice. There was a brief moment of rain in Q2, but overall dry conditions. Mark Webber is also on the front row; rather unexpected, but good for him all the same.
We enjoyed the GP2 race from inside the Silverstone Racing Club hospitality area and then headed back to the hotel. After a nap at the hotel we went to dinner in Oxford again, this time a place called Browns, a fun restaurant, very similar to Marcella’s in cbus. We ate shared stories and then piled into the van. On the way back to the hotel we stopped by a college one of our co-travlers had spent a summer at in Oxford and got to step within the gate for a few. It was very neat, the colleges don’t have dorms on one end and classes on the others, and it’s more all inclusive in the same area. He shared some stories and we headed back to the hotel. On the way back, as we pulled into the hotel, we saw fireworks over the river, I’m sure nothing to do with the 4th of July, but at least we got our share of fireworks this weekend, even all the way over here (it was something I missed!). Now it’s about 11:30 and I’m pretty much caught up. Going to call it a night so I have the energy to enjoy our last whole day in Europe tomorrow!!!
It’s 11pm on Saturday July 5th, I haven’t blogged in about 3 days but I have a ton to get out of my head, and Aaron’s asleep, so I could see this being a long one!
Last I checked in we were in London the morning we were headed towards the Silverstone area. We met the group going to the race at Heathrow Airport, hopped in a 9 person Ford van and drove about 75 miles to Oxford; where our hotel was. Just a random tidbit of info, the Mini is made here in Oxford and has been for the past 7 years. There’s a huge factory on your way into the city which is pretty neat, and you see SO many Mini’s. We arrived at the hotel, which is right on the Thames River. The location is beautiful, it’s an old manor house and has since had additions and renovations and it’s just in pristine condition, with gorgeous grounds, abundant flowers and simply breathe taking.
When we got into our room I was quite pleased with the facility, even more then I was just from the outside. We’re on the first floor and we have a walk out terrace which takes us to another courtyard, full of flowers. All the basics otherwise, but very clean, and well taken care of. This is by far my favorite place we’ve stayed (hotels wise) on our trip. The showers had hot water, with water pressure that was up to par, air conditioning, a fan in the bathroom to clear up all the fog post shower, (basically things that we think of as basic but that aren’t really across some of the places we’ve been). The icing on the cake was finding a floor fan in the closet, which I’m used to sleeping with at home!!!
When we got here we explored the hotel, and found a really nice pool and hot tub area in the gym, and ended up having a light lunch at the café. We unpacked, and relaxed and then later met the group for lunch. We went into Oxford the city, also where the university area is. It’s awesome, I can see a lot of what is trying to be done on OSU’s campus (and likely other campuses in the US) in terms of nice shops and eateries, around the perimeter of the campus; oddly one of the main roads is even called High Street!
We ate at a place called the Quod, decent food, nice atmosphere, and in general fun. Afterwards we walked a little, and I saw a ton of things I wanted to explore in more detail, unfortunately all the shops shut down at 5:00PM or 5:30 (at the latest)! Even on the weekends. So we headed back to the hotel, got our race day tickets and called it a night.
The next morning we got breakfast, and all piled into the car to head to the track. I was filled with glee but also a little sad, knowing this was basically the last stop in our honeymoon “tour.”
I can’t explain it but Silverstone is AMAZING, it’s clean, pristinely maintained, orderly, and the atmosphere just intoxicates you with excitement for Formula 1. As soon as we got there I knew I was going to love it! The cool thing that we found was Friday and Saturday had roving grandstand admission, with Sunday seats being assigned. This is very cool because you get to explore the whole track and see the action from so many different spots. Mainly we watched Formula 1 practice 1 & 2 and spent the rest of the time roaming the track. We made a full loop of it. All the manufacturers really go all out with displays and souvenirs for fans, and items which can be bought. It was hard to keep in mind that we’d already been to 3 races thus far, and had bought enough cool stuff, and to keep the money in the pockets! Honda had a huge blow up dome which inside they had a model of the car, and a 12 minute video, very well done, about the heritage of Honda and Formula 1! We checked that out, and just about everything else we could, the weather was just right, rain free, but not too hot!
We found that EVERYONE had Lewis fever, (except me of course) and about 3 guys walking around with gorilla face masks and white tee’s that were anti-Lewis; otherwise the Brits love them some Lewis! Button got a few cheers when we went around, as well as David Coulthard since this will be his last British Grand Prix (since he’s retiring). Mercedes is making a KILLING off the Lewis merchandise. We managed to watch the second practice from the Pit Grandstands, and were directly across from Renault’s pit!!! It was awesome, I got to see Flavio, and took some spy shot pictures of him, sadly didn’t get to see Alonso, at least not without his helmet on! It was cool because from there we could also see the team’s “mobile home” setups, and finally laid eyes on the McLaren Monstrosity. It was quite a view.
That about sums up the Fourth of July at least from the track perspective. After the track we got dropped off (at 4:49PM) in Oxford city center again, with about 40 minutes to do it we did some power shopping/browsing, many of the places had already closed, especially in the market (very much like North Market in Columbus, just MUCH bigger); but we were able to check some stuff out. After the shops closed we walked around the city, basically aimlessly, just checking it all out. Tons of very cool architecture, and just neat things to see. We happened upon the gourmet burger kitchen, and Aaron’s eyes lit up, we had been recommended this place in London, but didn’t have time to get it. Thankfully Aaron had looked online to know there was one in Oxford, though we weren’t sure we would find it, luckily we did! I wasn’t much in the mood for a burger, but Aaron really wanted to try it, so I figured sure why not. We got a burger and a chicken sandwich. The food was brought out and I was for SURE glad we ended up eating there, it was very well priced, very very very fresh, and all home made in terms of the sauces and such. It was a GREAT meal. Full and very happy we continued to walk around some and just hold off falling into food coma. We checked out the Oxford Castle, and Christ’s’ Church. After that our feet were ready to fall off and we caught a cab back to the hotel. After relaxing for a bit we decided to take advantage of the pool and the hot tub. It helped to relax us, and officially wear us out. We got desert from the hotel café, watched Top Gear and happily went to sleep! For sure one of the BEST days of our vacation.
Now we’re caught up to today, this morning we had breakfast again at the hotel, Aaron couldn’t get over the fact that they serve baked beans as part of the traditional English breakfast, not sure why they do it, but it just didn’t sound good to us so we passed for more traditional (to us) fare. It was raining all during breakfast, so we headed to the track, with our rain gear! It was pretty chilly, if you factor in the wind all day. The sun would help, but rain was off and on all day.
We watched practice one, did some walking around, got some free Santander gear (bags, and mats) and hung out, trying to stay warm. After practice, we took advantage of our Silverstone Racing Club access which was a building and a tent which had about 10 TV’s and tables and chairs for about 150 people. It was warm, and dry.
We did catch a neat little entertainment idea by McLaren, they had 2 men on stilts, painted and dressed in silver, they were entertaining the crowd, and just looked really neat. It added to the festival feel of the grand prix, all the while still being laid back, and VERY fan friendly.
We headed back outside for qualifying, which was great, the results of qualifying were disappointing if you were a Ferrari or Lewis fan, but pretty cool for Heikki. Also both Renaults made it into the top ten! Nice. There was a brief moment of rain in Q2, but overall dry conditions. Mark Webber is also on the front row; rather unexpected, but good for him all the same.
We enjoyed the GP2 race from inside the Silverstone Racing Club hospitality area and then headed back to the hotel. After a nap at the hotel we went to dinner in Oxford again, this time a place called Browns, a fun restaurant, very similar to Marcella’s in cbus. We ate shared stories and then piled into the van. On the way back to the hotel we stopped by a college one of our co-travlers had spent a summer at in Oxford and got to step within the gate for a few. It was very neat, the colleges don’t have dorms on one end and classes on the others, and it’s more all inclusive in the same area. He shared some stories and we headed back to the hotel. On the way back, as we pulled into the hotel, we saw fireworks over the river, I’m sure nothing to do with the 4th of July, but at least we got our share of fireworks this weekend, even all the way over here (it was something I missed!). Now it’s about 11:30 and I’m pretty much caught up. Going to call it a night so I have the energy to enjoy our last whole day in Europe tomorrow!!!
Monday, June 30, 2008
Monday 6/30 back in London
Got a great nights sleep last night, back in London, where things are familiar.
It took a bit getting here, our train from Germany to Paris was smooth, it had a cool speed that was in each cabin and you could see how fast it was going, for a while it was going 320KPH! Crazy fast, it was fun to watch the speeds go up and down.
Otherwise not major drama on that train, of course when we get to Paris it's a MESS! The Euro star signage is kind of crap and figuring out where to retrieve our reserved tickets took a bit, then we had a quick lunch, and got ourselves to the area our train was to leave from.
For some reason earlier that day all the trains were behind a little because there had been a power failure in the English Channel (scary idea to be on a train in the Channel and have no lights!) So there was a mess of madness, and people who were antsy and impatient.
After a long wait (about a 40 minute delay) we got on the train, and then got back to London, the ride was uneventful. In London we had to take the underground to meet my Aunt at the station close to their house, so we got in line to buy a ticket for the underground.
Sweet victory was when the person in front of us was French, and got to the ticket counter and asked the attendant if she spoke French, the attendant looked at her like YOUR NUTS!!!
We got our tickets and made it to the right station, got picked up, and came back, vegged and ate dinner.
The entertainment for the night was watching the Euro 2008 final game, Turkey vs Spain.
I was rooting for Spain as the underdog, and they WON! 1-0. I guess Germany didn't play so well. It was fun watching with English announcers!
Today we're heading to another relatives to hang out, and then tomorrow we're going to explore some more of the city, and do a little bit of shopping. Then Wednesday will be a relax day before we head to Silverstone.
Still waiting to hear from Prodrive if we can make it to them from Oxford (where our hotel is) to Banbury (where they are) about 35 minutes apart, via public transport since we won't have a car. If we can we'll head there on Thursday, and then spend Friday/Saturday & Sunday F1'ing it!
It took a bit getting here, our train from Germany to Paris was smooth, it had a cool speed that was in each cabin and you could see how fast it was going, for a while it was going 320KPH! Crazy fast, it was fun to watch the speeds go up and down.
Otherwise not major drama on that train, of course when we get to Paris it's a MESS! The Euro star signage is kind of crap and figuring out where to retrieve our reserved tickets took a bit, then we had a quick lunch, and got ourselves to the area our train was to leave from.
For some reason earlier that day all the trains were behind a little because there had been a power failure in the English Channel (scary idea to be on a train in the Channel and have no lights!) So there was a mess of madness, and people who were antsy and impatient.
After a long wait (about a 40 minute delay) we got on the train, and then got back to London, the ride was uneventful. In London we had to take the underground to meet my Aunt at the station close to their house, so we got in line to buy a ticket for the underground.
Sweet victory was when the person in front of us was French, and got to the ticket counter and asked the attendant if she spoke French, the attendant looked at her like YOUR NUTS!!!
We got our tickets and made it to the right station, got picked up, and came back, vegged and ate dinner.
The entertainment for the night was watching the Euro 2008 final game, Turkey vs Spain.
I was rooting for Spain as the underdog, and they WON! 1-0. I guess Germany didn't play so well. It was fun watching with English announcers!
Today we're heading to another relatives to hang out, and then tomorrow we're going to explore some more of the city, and do a little bit of shopping. Then Wednesday will be a relax day before we head to Silverstone.
Still waiting to hear from Prodrive if we can make it to them from Oxford (where our hotel is) to Banbury (where they are) about 35 minutes apart, via public transport since we won't have a car. If we can we'll head there on Thursday, and then spend Friday/Saturday & Sunday F1'ing it!
Sunday, June 29, 2008
Sunday June 29th the beginning of the end.
Sunday June 29th the beginning of the end.
Sitting on the first class train from Mannheim to Paris this morning, it’s about 10am, and we took a small regional train from Heidelberg to Mannheim, got some breakfast, a latte, peach iced tea and a shared blue berry muffin.
There’s a feeling of sadness, like this is the beginning of the end of the journey, but at the same time looking forward to it a little, looking forward to going back to English speaking places where we understand signs, and menus and people. And even past that, a feeling of going back to the country where our currency doesn’t have to be converted, and where we know where things are, and don’t need adapters and converters to plug in electronics. I can’t wait to go home and drink milk, and veg on the couch, and relax. I figure that won’t happen for a few days, we’ll get back to the states on Monday the 7th of July after a LONG day travel and hopefully just pass out, then we’ll head to work, and probably suffer through the day, and THEN we’ll get home from work and hopefully just relax… that sounds fun, that’s Tuesday, Wednesday night after work we have an auto-x board meeting, so life won’t be slow getting back into our routine at all, just jumping right back in and hopefully not being too far behind!
Aaron in his boredom figured out that our train will travel 157.5 miles per hour! Cool!
Sitting on the first class train from Mannheim to Paris this morning, it’s about 10am, and we took a small regional train from Heidelberg to Mannheim, got some breakfast, a latte, peach iced tea and a shared blue berry muffin.
There’s a feeling of sadness, like this is the beginning of the end of the journey, but at the same time looking forward to it a little, looking forward to going back to English speaking places where we understand signs, and menus and people. And even past that, a feeling of going back to the country where our currency doesn’t have to be converted, and where we know where things are, and don’t need adapters and converters to plug in electronics. I can’t wait to go home and drink milk, and veg on the couch, and relax. I figure that won’t happen for a few days, we’ll get back to the states on Monday the 7th of July after a LONG day travel and hopefully just pass out, then we’ll head to work, and probably suffer through the day, and THEN we’ll get home from work and hopefully just relax… that sounds fun, that’s Tuesday, Wednesday night after work we have an auto-x board meeting, so life won’t be slow getting back into our routine at all, just jumping right back in and hopefully not being too far behind!
Aaron in his boredom figured out that our train will travel 157.5 miles per hour! Cool!
Saturday, June 29th
Saturday, June 29th we spent the day at Stuttgart, we took the train to and from Heidelberg (40 minutes) and had a day trip, it was nice since we didn’t have to cart around luggage, just our back pack with camera and other basics. We took the bus from near our hotel to train station, missed the 10am train by about 2 seconds, it was leaving as we got to the platform, had about an hour to kill, got cash for the first time on our trip (so far we’d managed to just use funds we’d converted in Ohio!), and then got some breakfast. Breakfast consisted of a fresh baked pastry, and an apple, a Latte Machiato, and some form of Orange juice/drink that Aaron didn’t favor. We also during this time found a little shop called “Piccadilly: an English Shop” where they sold souvenirs of London and books in English, along with basic English staples, one of which was naan (too funny). The owners spoke proper English as well; we bought Jeremy Clarkson’s “Don’t Stop Me Now” from there and headed back to the station. The train we took was a high speed train, to the point where our ears were popping like we were on a plane! Weird, but a very effective way of travel. After we got to Stuttgart we went to the information station outside of the train station, figured out how to get to the Mercedes and Porsche museums using the local subway. We decided to hit the Porsche museum first because it was smaller and closed earlier.
We arrived at Porsche Place (yup that was what the stop was called off the subway!) and walked outside the dilapidated under construction station to Porsche heaven, there was a HUGE dealership, with about 60 cars, all makes, models, colors. We oogled it from the outside and headed towards the museum, it was all very nicely laid out, and very nice new buildings. The “museum” was free admittance, it was only about 20 cars, but it had some very cool history in those 20 cars, they had a black carrera GT, right next to it the had the 1998 24 hours of Le Mans winner, which I think was the high light of the whole day for Aaron to see. They had lots of cool stuff to buy as well. Aaron settled for some posters that came in a cool carrying box, we figure it evens out what would have been the cost of admission. They also had Porsche rally cars, and Indy Cars, and Indy car engines. Just a lot of history, right there for you take in.
There was also an area (off limits to us of course) where you design your own car, and then probably 3 months later get it in real life! Very cool, and very exclusive.
After we left the museum and walked past numerous factory gates headed back to the train station we realized that the construction that was occurring was a super pimp Porsche Museum, we took pix of the construction and maybe some day we can do a before and after compare.
We headed into the dealership that we passed on our way to the museum, and I find something I really liked, it was a little Porsche tea set, very cool, different, and a neat decorative item. When asking to buy it I was told they weren’t sold after 1:00PM on a Saturday but that I could come back on Monday. L I told the guy I was going to be in London on Monday and thanks anyway, figures, something I really like, I can see, and see the price tag for, but can’t buy!
After we got the train back to the main station, had a lunch of Pringles (we had been carrying with us) and sprite, we transferred lines to go to the Mercedes Museum, I had second thoughts about this one because I figured I would be overloaded by Lewis Hamilton stuff! The area of the Mercedes museum is what I can see Porsche is trying to go for with their new museum and construction, very neat sleek contemporary buildings, with a lot of presence. We got to the museum, got some lunch from the café, Aaron got steak with some type of fruity sauce, and I got Asian glass noodles with vegetables (thinking it would be a safe choice). Neither of our choices were too good, I should have done what I thought about doing which was order pasta with tomatoes sauce off the kids menu! The glass noodles were cool to look at they were like transparent headphone wires, but they were super doused or immersed in soy sauce, and just not very good.
After the sub par but needed meal we started to the museum, the museum is set up like the Guggenheim, where the whole building spirals, they send you by elevator to the tip of it and then you spiral your way down, it was about 8 floors. The top started with the beginning of the car, and you worked your way down the floors through the evolution of the automobile with significant historical markers to show the progress. We found out that antilock brakes were introduced/developed in 1978 (Aaron’s birth year) and Airbags in 1981 (my birth year)! Neat little facts like that all the way down 8 stories. On the second to last level we found the entire “shrine” to racing memorabilia, Formula 1 cars, Indy cars, rally cars, racing trucks, very neat! We took lots of pictures, to the point where about ½ way through the tour we had to go back to the coat check and get new batteries out of the backpack for the camera!
After the museum, we headed back to the main station, and got our signals crossed, we were both tired, but there was a desire to go “shopping” and a desire to get on a train and safely back to Heidelberg, it was about 6:15 when we got to the train station, and there was one leaving at 6:19, so we got on it. It wasn’t like the morning train a high speed straight to Heidelberg train, this was a regional one, where we would have to get off and make a connection. We ended up making it to the station we were to make the connection, but due to not knowing exactly what was going on, we missed our connection, and had to wait an hour for another one. That really sucked! We were both tired, hungry, and patience was low. We survived though, and figured after everything we’ve seen and done if that was as “off course” as we were going to get, not a bad deal.
We finally got on the right train, got to Heidelberg, took a cab to Liberty Pizza (near our hotel), which served “American style pizza” (mind you this is the only real meal we’ve had all day) it’s like your basic carry out papa johns or dominos and there happens to be a bench out side, we sit on the bench, watch the sun go down, and wait for our pizza.
This pizza shop happens to use Smart Cars for its delivery vehicles, which I thought was pretty cool, they were all white smarts about 4 of them, which would come and go with pizza. We sat through about 3-4 different runs from each of the cars because after the pizza was done, we sat on the bench and ate. We were happy, fed, and together, what more could we ask for? It was a pretty great last meal in Germany, thank you very much.
The funny part while we were sitting there was the reactions of the delivery people, like, uh, you’re sitting there eating pizza? : ) One of the drivers came out to get to his smart, and since they all look the same, he didn’t recall which one was his, so he stood there for a minute, puzzled, and finally just got out his key fob and used the remote to figure out which was his. It was amusing. Or maybe we were just loopy after a long day.
After dinner, we walked back to the hotel, it was about 10:30 and we knew we were in for a long day today so we called it a night. All packed, and ready to head back to English speaking London, through un English speaking France, on super high speed trains!
We arrived at Porsche Place (yup that was what the stop was called off the subway!) and walked outside the dilapidated under construction station to Porsche heaven, there was a HUGE dealership, with about 60 cars, all makes, models, colors. We oogled it from the outside and headed towards the museum, it was all very nicely laid out, and very nice new buildings. The “museum” was free admittance, it was only about 20 cars, but it had some very cool history in those 20 cars, they had a black carrera GT, right next to it the had the 1998 24 hours of Le Mans winner, which I think was the high light of the whole day for Aaron to see. They had lots of cool stuff to buy as well. Aaron settled for some posters that came in a cool carrying box, we figure it evens out what would have been the cost of admission. They also had Porsche rally cars, and Indy Cars, and Indy car engines. Just a lot of history, right there for you take in.
There was also an area (off limits to us of course) where you design your own car, and then probably 3 months later get it in real life! Very cool, and very exclusive.
After we left the museum and walked past numerous factory gates headed back to the train station we realized that the construction that was occurring was a super pimp Porsche Museum, we took pix of the construction and maybe some day we can do a before and after compare.
We headed into the dealership that we passed on our way to the museum, and I find something I really liked, it was a little Porsche tea set, very cool, different, and a neat decorative item. When asking to buy it I was told they weren’t sold after 1:00PM on a Saturday but that I could come back on Monday. L I told the guy I was going to be in London on Monday and thanks anyway, figures, something I really like, I can see, and see the price tag for, but can’t buy!
After we got the train back to the main station, had a lunch of Pringles (we had been carrying with us) and sprite, we transferred lines to go to the Mercedes Museum, I had second thoughts about this one because I figured I would be overloaded by Lewis Hamilton stuff! The area of the Mercedes museum is what I can see Porsche is trying to go for with their new museum and construction, very neat sleek contemporary buildings, with a lot of presence. We got to the museum, got some lunch from the café, Aaron got steak with some type of fruity sauce, and I got Asian glass noodles with vegetables (thinking it would be a safe choice). Neither of our choices were too good, I should have done what I thought about doing which was order pasta with tomatoes sauce off the kids menu! The glass noodles were cool to look at they were like transparent headphone wires, but they were super doused or immersed in soy sauce, and just not very good.
After the sub par but needed meal we started to the museum, the museum is set up like the Guggenheim, where the whole building spirals, they send you by elevator to the tip of it and then you spiral your way down, it was about 8 floors. The top started with the beginning of the car, and you worked your way down the floors through the evolution of the automobile with significant historical markers to show the progress. We found out that antilock brakes were introduced/developed in 1978 (Aaron’s birth year) and Airbags in 1981 (my birth year)! Neat little facts like that all the way down 8 stories. On the second to last level we found the entire “shrine” to racing memorabilia, Formula 1 cars, Indy cars, rally cars, racing trucks, very neat! We took lots of pictures, to the point where about ½ way through the tour we had to go back to the coat check and get new batteries out of the backpack for the camera!
After the museum, we headed back to the main station, and got our signals crossed, we were both tired, but there was a desire to go “shopping” and a desire to get on a train and safely back to Heidelberg, it was about 6:15 when we got to the train station, and there was one leaving at 6:19, so we got on it. It wasn’t like the morning train a high speed straight to Heidelberg train, this was a regional one, where we would have to get off and make a connection. We ended up making it to the station we were to make the connection, but due to not knowing exactly what was going on, we missed our connection, and had to wait an hour for another one. That really sucked! We were both tired, hungry, and patience was low. We survived though, and figured after everything we’ve seen and done if that was as “off course” as we were going to get, not a bad deal.
We finally got on the right train, got to Heidelberg, took a cab to Liberty Pizza (near our hotel), which served “American style pizza” (mind you this is the only real meal we’ve had all day) it’s like your basic carry out papa johns or dominos and there happens to be a bench out side, we sit on the bench, watch the sun go down, and wait for our pizza.
This pizza shop happens to use Smart Cars for its delivery vehicles, which I thought was pretty cool, they were all white smarts about 4 of them, which would come and go with pizza. We sat through about 3-4 different runs from each of the cars because after the pizza was done, we sat on the bench and ate. We were happy, fed, and together, what more could we ask for? It was a pretty great last meal in Germany, thank you very much.
The funny part while we were sitting there was the reactions of the delivery people, like, uh, you’re sitting there eating pizza? : ) One of the drivers came out to get to his smart, and since they all look the same, he didn’t recall which one was his, so he stood there for a minute, puzzled, and finally just got out his key fob and used the remote to figure out which was his. It was amusing. Or maybe we were just loopy after a long day.
After dinner, we walked back to the hotel, it was about 10:30 and we knew we were in for a long day today so we called it a night. All packed, and ready to head back to English speaking London, through un English speaking France, on super high speed trains!
Friday evening, June 27th.
Today was our day of exploration in Heidelberg, we’ve walked likely over 20,000 steps, and I didn’t wear the pedo cause I got out of the habit for some reason.
We went to a local bus stop, which happened to have super market by it, we got orange juice and a fresh baked good (German pastries are actually pretty good, and more recognizable then the French ones). We hopped on the bus, rode it around some of the city and ended up by the specialized train station that would get us to the castle. We took it up and instead of getting off at the middle of the mountain where the castle was we took it all the way to the top of the mountain for a view of the city. It was very pretty, peaceful too if not for the rock cover band that was blaring out music when it was barley noon! People had their drink on as well; I’m amazed at how early the beer guzzling begins!
We walked around, enjoyed the scenery and then took the train down to the castle. It was very neat and HUGE, basically a whole city could exist within the walls of a castle and that was quite evident from the grand size of this castle. We explored it and took lots of pix and then about 2:30 decided we were well over due for lunch. We went down to the main city level and made our way to Kornplatz Marketplace, which was full of shops, very Easton style, but just one very very long narrow street lined with shops and restaurants. We did some browsing and enjoyed a meal, Aaron had Schnitzel (breaded chicken breast) and fries, and I had veggie lasagna. We did at least persue some of the regional menu, but we weren’t brave enough to try it all out. We found all kinds of cool shops and even found a Subway! Where the mascot was Sub Wayne! Lol, American Subways aren’t that cool. We planned to catch the last boat trip of the day on the Solar Boat of Heidelberg, which let us see Heidelberg from the Neckar River. About half an hour from the last boat leaving we arrived at the dock to buy tickets only to find out it had been rented out for a private party for the last trip of the day, and that we weren’t going to be able to make it… L.
After that disappointment we made our way to the train station to ensure that we would be able to go to Stuttgart to hit up the Porsche and Mercedes museums. For the first time during the whole trip we saw a Eurrail Counter (the train passes we had bought and had been using since the beginning of the trip, I think the pass is more widely used in Germany hence why there was a desk there and actual information, rather then stumbling around, trying to figure it out). After getting the details we needed we got some dinner at a place we had seen half way between our hotel and the train station. It was called Mandy’s fast food, and they have a Grilled Pollo section in the restaurant. I got a grilled chicken sandwich with corn on the cob, and Aaron got wings and rings. Nothing like a place that caters to the U.S. Army Airfield less then 2 miles away!
After we had our meal, we continued out walk to the hotel, and have come back, done laundry and are ready to pass out.
Tomorrow is Stuttgart, and Sunday is a huge travel day, going on two high speed trains from Manheim to Paris, and then from Paris to London. With little connections and the beginning, middle and end of our trips. By the time we get picked up from the final station in London we’ll have ridden the inter city train from Heidelberg to Manheim, then the high speed train from Manheim to Paris, then the metro from one Paris station to another, then the Euro Star from Paris to London, and then the London Underground from our station to the one close to the house! Quite a trip, but at the end of it we’ll be back in English speaking-ville!
No more from here for now; Aaron’s watching South Park in German, and I have to go make fun of him for it!
We went to a local bus stop, which happened to have super market by it, we got orange juice and a fresh baked good (German pastries are actually pretty good, and more recognizable then the French ones). We hopped on the bus, rode it around some of the city and ended up by the specialized train station that would get us to the castle. We took it up and instead of getting off at the middle of the mountain where the castle was we took it all the way to the top of the mountain for a view of the city. It was very pretty, peaceful too if not for the rock cover band that was blaring out music when it was barley noon! People had their drink on as well; I’m amazed at how early the beer guzzling begins!
We walked around, enjoyed the scenery and then took the train down to the castle. It was very neat and HUGE, basically a whole city could exist within the walls of a castle and that was quite evident from the grand size of this castle. We explored it and took lots of pix and then about 2:30 decided we were well over due for lunch. We went down to the main city level and made our way to Kornplatz Marketplace, which was full of shops, very Easton style, but just one very very long narrow street lined with shops and restaurants. We did some browsing and enjoyed a meal, Aaron had Schnitzel (breaded chicken breast) and fries, and I had veggie lasagna. We did at least persue some of the regional menu, but we weren’t brave enough to try it all out. We found all kinds of cool shops and even found a Subway! Where the mascot was Sub Wayne! Lol, American Subways aren’t that cool. We planned to catch the last boat trip of the day on the Solar Boat of Heidelberg, which let us see Heidelberg from the Neckar River. About half an hour from the last boat leaving we arrived at the dock to buy tickets only to find out it had been rented out for a private party for the last trip of the day, and that we weren’t going to be able to make it… L.
After that disappointment we made our way to the train station to ensure that we would be able to go to Stuttgart to hit up the Porsche and Mercedes museums. For the first time during the whole trip we saw a Eurrail Counter (the train passes we had bought and had been using since the beginning of the trip, I think the pass is more widely used in Germany hence why there was a desk there and actual information, rather then stumbling around, trying to figure it out). After getting the details we needed we got some dinner at a place we had seen half way between our hotel and the train station. It was called Mandy’s fast food, and they have a Grilled Pollo section in the restaurant. I got a grilled chicken sandwich with corn on the cob, and Aaron got wings and rings. Nothing like a place that caters to the U.S. Army Airfield less then 2 miles away!
After we had our meal, we continued out walk to the hotel, and have come back, done laundry and are ready to pass out.
Tomorrow is Stuttgart, and Sunday is a huge travel day, going on two high speed trains from Manheim to Paris, and then from Paris to London. With little connections and the beginning, middle and end of our trips. By the time we get picked up from the final station in London we’ll have ridden the inter city train from Heidelberg to Manheim, then the high speed train from Manheim to Paris, then the metro from one Paris station to another, then the Euro Star from Paris to London, and then the London Underground from our station to the one close to the house! Quite a trip, but at the end of it we’ll be back in English speaking-ville!
No more from here for now; Aaron’s watching South Park in German, and I have to go make fun of him for it!
Friday June 27, 2008
Friday June 27, 2008
Air conditioning is nice, but so is a free breakfast, so far most of the places we have stayed at have been an option of the two. We’re in Heidelberg now, at the Holiday Inn (yeah how much more touristy can I get), and we’ve had a GREAT nights sleep, cool and quiet. But if we were to get breakfast at the hotel we’d be paying 20 euros each, yeah really? Most of our lunch’s and dinners have not cost that much.
The opposite end of the spectrum was the hotel in Nurburg, great place, clean, compact, not super touristy, really great breakfast included in the stay. But wow was it hot, our room was on the side the sun came op on, and we would wake up sticky, and seemingly spend the day that way, no matter how many showers we each took in a day.
I gotta say I am willing to find my own breakfast if it’s in exchange for a good refreshing night of sleep. I’m sure normally air isn’t needed in these parts be cause the weather people keep saying what a rare heat wave Europe has been experiencing ever since we got here, so likely when we leave, all will go back to normal and it’ll be 100 and humid in Columbus!
So since it’s only 8am here and Aaron’s still kind of sleeping I’ll recap yesterday.
It was June 26, we woke up at the Blaue Ecke Hotel, showered, got breakfast, packed all our stuff (it’s amazing how our things keep accumulating, should have probably gone to the post office and mailed a package home, but instead we had packed an extra bag within our bags, which has now come out and is full), got in the car, drove to Frankfurt, spent 3 Euros and about 20 minute trying to figure out how to get into the rental car return parking lot, got lunch and then explored Frankfurt. We used the car (which we returned a few hours early) as our locker for the luggage and just walked around downtown Frankfurt, took pictures of cool stuff, and just soaked in some of the surroundings. It’s a very diverse area, but as we had been told not very touristy. We spent about 3 hours this way and then caught our train to Heidelberg.
We were in first class, and it is a little cabin with storage for luggage and air and lots of leg room, sadly the ride was barley an hour long. We both were kind of tired from the travel, and so got to the hotel and took naps. When we woke up it was because we were hungry and it was dinner time. We decided to walk around the area of our hotel, it’s not a very touristy area, but there are a LOT of U.S. service men staying in our hotel, haven’t yet found out why, assuming this is a connection point from one place to another for them. We walked about a mile one way, found nothing but cute homes and lots and lots of closed shops with barely any of them having English menus, the only places that seemed open were carry out pizza shops, and there was a ton of them. We headed back to the hotel, went to the restaurant there, got a cheese burger and pizza. Neither tasted quite like what we expected, but they took care of our hunger and that was all we needed.
We went back to the room, watched Russia vs Spain (Spain won 3 goals to 0) and then proceeded to pass out happily in the cool quiet room. Spain will now play Germany; I’m just not sure what day.
We have today and tomorrow in Heidelberg and then back to English speaking Britain!
A few things about Germany that surprise me:
Smoking, very very prevalent, for a society that is so health and earth conscious I am amazed at how many people smoke and that cigarette vending machines line almost every street corner.
Germany is very organized, unlike Paris or other parts of France, there is a way in which things are done, and you do them that way, not just anyway you feel like it.
English is pretty widely spoken and 1 out of 5 menus can be found in English.
German people are very helpful, again this might be in comparison to Parisians but we’ve had very good interactions, even in little cities and big ones with all the folks we have encountered in Germany.
The roads and driving is AWESOME; the highways don’t have a set speed limit, except in certain zones, where they reduce speeds due to intersections or heavy traffic. We saw a Ferrari come up to us on the highway yesterday and pass us like we weren’t even moving and we were going about 130kph. And it was all 100% legal. People don’t talk on cell phones and all pay attention while driving, and the system works. We tried to keep up with some fast moving traffic but our base level Peugeot didn’t have anything to offer in terms of go potential so we happily stayed with the pack of average speed traffic.
Dubbed TV in French or German is hilarious, really the only thing we’ve gotten in English since we’ve been gone from London (since June 11th) is CNN at any of the locations we’ve been at, so we’ve been watching lots of sports on mute when we’re having down time, and during channel flipping will find the likes of sponge bob, scrubs, grays anatomy or married with children on in German or French, it’s quite a hoot.
People in Europe seem to have no hang ups about personal space, not sure why, everyone who knows me knows I’m all about it, and the more the better :p A little uncomfortable when I’m used to that and here even random strangers have no qualms with getting up close and personal in lobbies of places, or on trains and such!
Chicken isn’t as widely eaten as in America, it seems like you can ALWAYS find chicken on the menu in the states, and here, it’s pretty rare, instead it’s liver, and rabbit, and duck… uh yeah, not good for a person who is not a fan of steak, and really doesn’t do seafood, and like mushy vegetables (the only veggies I really like are Indian Sabji’s and such).
Train Stations charge fees (have ranged from 50 eurocents to 1 euro) to use the restroom, it seems like a good way of keeping the riff raff out and making sure they stay in good shape. It’s bad when you drank too much, left your husband with the luggage, don’t have any money and have to travel up about 30 steps back to get some change!
Air conditioning is nice, but so is a free breakfast, so far most of the places we have stayed at have been an option of the two. We’re in Heidelberg now, at the Holiday Inn (yeah how much more touristy can I get), and we’ve had a GREAT nights sleep, cool and quiet. But if we were to get breakfast at the hotel we’d be paying 20 euros each, yeah really? Most of our lunch’s and dinners have not cost that much.
The opposite end of the spectrum was the hotel in Nurburg, great place, clean, compact, not super touristy, really great breakfast included in the stay. But wow was it hot, our room was on the side the sun came op on, and we would wake up sticky, and seemingly spend the day that way, no matter how many showers we each took in a day.
I gotta say I am willing to find my own breakfast if it’s in exchange for a good refreshing night of sleep. I’m sure normally air isn’t needed in these parts be cause the weather people keep saying what a rare heat wave Europe has been experiencing ever since we got here, so likely when we leave, all will go back to normal and it’ll be 100 and humid in Columbus!
So since it’s only 8am here and Aaron’s still kind of sleeping I’ll recap yesterday.
It was June 26, we woke up at the Blaue Ecke Hotel, showered, got breakfast, packed all our stuff (it’s amazing how our things keep accumulating, should have probably gone to the post office and mailed a package home, but instead we had packed an extra bag within our bags, which has now come out and is full), got in the car, drove to Frankfurt, spent 3 Euros and about 20 minute trying to figure out how to get into the rental car return parking lot, got lunch and then explored Frankfurt. We used the car (which we returned a few hours early) as our locker for the luggage and just walked around downtown Frankfurt, took pictures of cool stuff, and just soaked in some of the surroundings. It’s a very diverse area, but as we had been told not very touristy. We spent about 3 hours this way and then caught our train to Heidelberg.
We were in first class, and it is a little cabin with storage for luggage and air and lots of leg room, sadly the ride was barley an hour long. We both were kind of tired from the travel, and so got to the hotel and took naps. When we woke up it was because we were hungry and it was dinner time. We decided to walk around the area of our hotel, it’s not a very touristy area, but there are a LOT of U.S. service men staying in our hotel, haven’t yet found out why, assuming this is a connection point from one place to another for them. We walked about a mile one way, found nothing but cute homes and lots and lots of closed shops with barely any of them having English menus, the only places that seemed open were carry out pizza shops, and there was a ton of them. We headed back to the hotel, went to the restaurant there, got a cheese burger and pizza. Neither tasted quite like what we expected, but they took care of our hunger and that was all we needed.
We went back to the room, watched Russia vs Spain (Spain won 3 goals to 0) and then proceeded to pass out happily in the cool quiet room. Spain will now play Germany; I’m just not sure what day.
We have today and tomorrow in Heidelberg and then back to English speaking Britain!
A few things about Germany that surprise me:
Smoking, very very prevalent, for a society that is so health and earth conscious I am amazed at how many people smoke and that cigarette vending machines line almost every street corner.
Germany is very organized, unlike Paris or other parts of France, there is a way in which things are done, and you do them that way, not just anyway you feel like it.
English is pretty widely spoken and 1 out of 5 menus can be found in English.
German people are very helpful, again this might be in comparison to Parisians but we’ve had very good interactions, even in little cities and big ones with all the folks we have encountered in Germany.
The roads and driving is AWESOME; the highways don’t have a set speed limit, except in certain zones, where they reduce speeds due to intersections or heavy traffic. We saw a Ferrari come up to us on the highway yesterday and pass us like we weren’t even moving and we were going about 130kph. And it was all 100% legal. People don’t talk on cell phones and all pay attention while driving, and the system works. We tried to keep up with some fast moving traffic but our base level Peugeot didn’t have anything to offer in terms of go potential so we happily stayed with the pack of average speed traffic.
Dubbed TV in French or German is hilarious, really the only thing we’ve gotten in English since we’ve been gone from London (since June 11th) is CNN at any of the locations we’ve been at, so we’ve been watching lots of sports on mute when we’re having down time, and during channel flipping will find the likes of sponge bob, scrubs, grays anatomy or married with children on in German or French, it’s quite a hoot.
People in Europe seem to have no hang ups about personal space, not sure why, everyone who knows me knows I’m all about it, and the more the better :p A little uncomfortable when I’m used to that and here even random strangers have no qualms with getting up close and personal in lobbies of places, or on trains and such!
Chicken isn’t as widely eaten as in America, it seems like you can ALWAYS find chicken on the menu in the states, and here, it’s pretty rare, instead it’s liver, and rabbit, and duck… uh yeah, not good for a person who is not a fan of steak, and really doesn’t do seafood, and like mushy vegetables (the only veggies I really like are Indian Sabji’s and such).
Train Stations charge fees (have ranged from 50 eurocents to 1 euro) to use the restroom, it seems like a good way of keeping the riff raff out and making sure they stay in good shape. It’s bad when you drank too much, left your husband with the luggage, don’t have any money and have to travel up about 30 steps back to get some change!
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Germany WINS!
Just a quick side note, while we're in Germany tonight was the football game between Turkey and Germany and Germany won, and the streets are alive with celebration! Very cool.
All this week we have seen tons and tons of people with German flags on their cars and such to support the team. It's not quite as crazy as Buckeye Fans, but it is just a little more orderly celebration.
Secretly i wanted Turkey to win cuz they were the underdogs.
Good night.
All this week we have seen tons and tons of people with German flags on their cars and such to support the team. It's not quite as crazy as Buckeye Fans, but it is just a little more orderly celebration.
Secretly i wanted Turkey to win cuz they were the underdogs.
Good night.
Wow... I can breathe again.
Not sure if anyone is reading this, or if we're just typing to ourselves ;)
It's been nice having the web since we're both able to blog and give our perspectives, tonight will be the lat night we have it till London.
Today was, as expected to be, an INSANE day. We took it easy in the morning, got our last bit of Euro $$$ traded into smaller bills (hence the pic); then we went got lunch (burger and chicken nuggets from a little local joint), then went to find the castle in the city that we see on top of the hill. For whatever reason the road that leads up to the castle is under construction; and it seems to be the ONLY way to get there. We ended up driving around in vain, and for parts of it ON A BIKE PATH! OOPS! haha. It was a rainy day and kind of a bummer because this is the day we had the track rental :(
After not finding the castle we had a date with the Nuburgring Ring Cam (aaron had told friends to look for him at a certain time on the web cam at the entry to the track). We stood there for about 20 minutes hoping someone would catch screen prints of us (thanks BEN!!!). We will upload those in our pic album later.
After that we went to the track rental location, filled out tons and tons and tons of paperwork; during this time the BMW we had rented was getting it's brakes bedded in, kind of funny coincidence since when Aaron proposed it was all about brakes as well, since we were bleeding them on the STi then... ok had to have a weird girly moment, over it :D
Got the car to the track, and the owner of the car gave us a ride around the track as an instructional session. I sat in the back, and I thought it was going to be a calm ride. HOLY MOLY was a WRONG! I had been feeling a lil sick to my stomach all day, and then getting the ultimate roller coaster ride around the track REALLY did me in. I felt like vomiting while in the car, and was just 100% miserable. There was very few people our driver didn't pass on the track, he's got 4000 laps around the track so sure, he knows it well and can drive it to the ultimate, but wow I didn't need that!
After that I was done, and 100% sure I wasn't going to ride with Aaron or drive myself around the track. I just wanted to be on the ground. I happily took pix of Aaron going around, he did four laps. I held my breathe waiting for him to come back from his first, but after that I knew he would be fine, and was having a blast! During his third I had a heart to hear with myself, and basically told my self to get over it and not pass up a chance of a lifetime. So i went and bought my self a ticket to do a lap. Put on my helmet and waited for Aaron to get back.
He rode along with me, and though I didn't go super fast I still was pretty scared. It was very intense and I noticed I was doing what could be considered "normal high way speeds" but just knowing how insane the track was scared me.
I am SO GLAD i did the lap. It was really an awesome 20 minutes (exaggeration, but you get my point). It's a 21 kilometer track, just HUGE.
We filled up the race car with gas, and returned it.
We got some food, and now are beyond exhausted.
Thankfully the days rain was gone by the time it was our turn on the track, and now we can both officially say we have driven the Nurburgring; a pretty cool accomplishment, even if I do say so myself. Thanks to everyone who peer pressured me before we left the States to make sure I did it, and didn't come back without having driven it.
:D
It's been nice having the web since we're both able to blog and give our perspectives, tonight will be the lat night we have it till London.
Today was, as expected to be, an INSANE day. We took it easy in the morning, got our last bit of Euro $$$ traded into smaller bills (hence the pic); then we went got lunch (burger and chicken nuggets from a little local joint), then went to find the castle in the city that we see on top of the hill. For whatever reason the road that leads up to the castle is under construction; and it seems to be the ONLY way to get there. We ended up driving around in vain, and for parts of it ON A BIKE PATH! OOPS! haha. It was a rainy day and kind of a bummer because this is the day we had the track rental :(
After not finding the castle we had a date with the Nuburgring Ring Cam (aaron had told friends to look for him at a certain time on the web cam at the entry to the track). We stood there for about 20 minutes hoping someone would catch screen prints of us (thanks BEN!!!). We will upload those in our pic album later.
After that we went to the track rental location, filled out tons and tons and tons of paperwork; during this time the BMW we had rented was getting it's brakes bedded in, kind of funny coincidence since when Aaron proposed it was all about brakes as well, since we were bleeding them on the STi then... ok had to have a weird girly moment, over it :D
Got the car to the track, and the owner of the car gave us a ride around the track as an instructional session. I sat in the back, and I thought it was going to be a calm ride. HOLY MOLY was a WRONG! I had been feeling a lil sick to my stomach all day, and then getting the ultimate roller coaster ride around the track REALLY did me in. I felt like vomiting while in the car, and was just 100% miserable. There was very few people our driver didn't pass on the track, he's got 4000 laps around the track so sure, he knows it well and can drive it to the ultimate, but wow I didn't need that!
After that I was done, and 100% sure I wasn't going to ride with Aaron or drive myself around the track. I just wanted to be on the ground. I happily took pix of Aaron going around, he did four laps. I held my breathe waiting for him to come back from his first, but after that I knew he would be fine, and was having a blast! During his third I had a heart to hear with myself, and basically told my self to get over it and not pass up a chance of a lifetime. So i went and bought my self a ticket to do a lap. Put on my helmet and waited for Aaron to get back.
He rode along with me, and though I didn't go super fast I still was pretty scared. It was very intense and I noticed I was doing what could be considered "normal high way speeds" but just knowing how insane the track was scared me.
I am SO GLAD i did the lap. It was really an awesome 20 minutes (exaggeration, but you get my point). It's a 21 kilometer track, just HUGE.
We filled up the race car with gas, and returned it.
We got some food, and now are beyond exhausted.
Thankfully the days rain was gone by the time it was our turn on the track, and now we can both officially say we have driven the Nurburgring; a pretty cool accomplishment, even if I do say so myself. Thanks to everyone who peer pressured me before we left the States to make sure I did it, and didn't come back without having driven it.
:D
4 laps...
I took a ride in a Golf with a guy who owns the rental. Simi rode in the back seat. We both were sick feeling as the guy, with over 4,000 laps experience waxed every car he could and drove holding a conversation, and occasionally double apexs with one hand on the wheel, one on the window, and looking over his shoulder at Simi in the back seat. The ride was INSANE. It made Simi REALLY sick feeling, a fear of death perhaps. I shook it off, and grabbed my 3 series, gutted, caged, race buckets, and 150 hp and headed out. The first lap was pretty scary, really. No video game does justice to bumps, or elevation changes. Gran Turismo taught me a lot about where to go, and what to look for, but the "ass-to-eye" coordination of feeling what the car is doing and looking around helps in leaps and bounds. The Bimmer handled fantastically well, and was perfectly setup for the course, but it was certainly lacking for power. I topped it out at 205km but it really ran out of steam about 180km. Maybe that's a good thing that I didn't go stupid fast, cause there are many turns in which you see seemingly fresh skidmarks that run a 90 degree angle to the Armco. Ouch.
First lap, felt the car out. Returned to the paddock, hands shaking, blood flowing, and a smile I couldn't hide. The 20km of one lap is about 10 minutes worth of tire squeal, and just insanity. I was driving the 'Ring. Second lap was a little better but on blind fast sweepers, I was still braking and loosing the precious momentum. 3rd lap was even quicker, and 4th lap was right after the 3rd. The car started to get really squishy on it's tires as I had a downhill on camber decreasing radius turn that was a nice heart pounding 4 wheel drift on greasy rubber. Slowed the driving a bit, let a GT3RS whoosh by and kept on going. Passed a Boxster, TT and surprizingly a handful of motorcycles. More bikes than cars at the circuit. I got waxed buy the previously mentioned GT3RS, a M3, a RS4, and many many bikes. The track only had 12-15 cars, and about 30 bikes as it was a rainy afternoon here, drying up around 5pm, and of course the billion people watching "football" Euro 2008. Germany vs. Turkey.
So, 4 laps down, and about 40 minutes of driving. Maybe less, but that's just wishful thinking. 10 minute laps are pretty fast, maybe quicker driven on a video game, but if you screw up, the reset button is easier to push. I returned on my 4th and final lap to find Simi with her helmet on and a smile and ticket ready to go. I didn't want to push her to drive, but she recovered from the roller coaster earlier, and I rode with her, telling here where to go faster and where to not. She did GREAT!
Returned the now bug splattered, tires feathered, brake dust sodden BMW, filled with gas, and with 6km over the 130km driving limit, which they waived, and shared some stories. Stopped at a local bar for pizza a stones throw from the entrance to the circuit. Simi found sign out front said "Pizza Ricer" so we laughed and went there. Great pizza as fans slowly arrived for giant mugs of beer to root on Germany. Now, typing this, in the hotel watching the game, and just thinking about those 4 laps. Just 4, but holy hell was it FRICKEN INCREDIBLE.
First lap, felt the car out. Returned to the paddock, hands shaking, blood flowing, and a smile I couldn't hide. The 20km of one lap is about 10 minutes worth of tire squeal, and just insanity. I was driving the 'Ring. Second lap was a little better but on blind fast sweepers, I was still braking and loosing the precious momentum. 3rd lap was even quicker, and 4th lap was right after the 3rd. The car started to get really squishy on it's tires as I had a downhill on camber decreasing radius turn that was a nice heart pounding 4 wheel drift on greasy rubber. Slowed the driving a bit, let a GT3RS whoosh by and kept on going. Passed a Boxster, TT and surprizingly a handful of motorcycles. More bikes than cars at the circuit. I got waxed buy the previously mentioned GT3RS, a M3, a RS4, and many many bikes. The track only had 12-15 cars, and about 30 bikes as it was a rainy afternoon here, drying up around 5pm, and of course the billion people watching "football" Euro 2008. Germany vs. Turkey.
So, 4 laps down, and about 40 minutes of driving. Maybe less, but that's just wishful thinking. 10 minute laps are pretty fast, maybe quicker driven on a video game, but if you screw up, the reset button is easier to push. I returned on my 4th and final lap to find Simi with her helmet on and a smile and ticket ready to go. I didn't want to push her to drive, but she recovered from the roller coaster earlier, and I rode with her, telling here where to go faster and where to not. She did GREAT!
Returned the now bug splattered, tires feathered, brake dust sodden BMW, filled with gas, and with 6km over the 130km driving limit, which they waived, and shared some stories. Stopped at a local bar for pizza a stones throw from the entrance to the circuit. Simi found sign out front said "Pizza Ricer" so we laughed and went there. Great pizza as fans slowly arrived for giant mugs of beer to root on Germany. Now, typing this, in the hotel watching the game, and just thinking about those 4 laps. Just 4, but holy hell was it FRICKEN INCREDIBLE.
June 25th, Nuburgring, Germany
So it's about 1:30 here and we're relaxing at the hotel (Hotel Blaue Ecke - Nürburgring) that we've spent the last 2 nights in. It's raining outside, and nice and peaceful.
Later today we have a "track car" booked for rental to take out on the track. We've spent Monday evening, and all day Tuesday here exploring the region, catching different parts of the track (it's a 21km track) and seeing all kinds of taped off, cars driving around the track without emblems on.
Today we get to do the same in a BMW 3series with a roll cage and all. Everyone on the track has to wear a helmet and such. I'm a little scared! I will probably only do one lap so Aaron who knows more and is a better driver can get more laps in during the limited time window of the track being open to the public today. He's done a billion laps of this track on Play Station, it's like a huge deal to swap from PS2 to Real Life. The track has massive amounts of elevation change and I'm excited but nervous and intimidated as well. We'll check with our track rental car people today about 4:30.
Otherwise this area is AWESOME! It's like Hocking Hills meets Mid Ohio, the roads even off the track are pretty crazy, all kinds of bikers out in full gear (no one is even remotely stupid enough to not ride without FULL gear) just having fun. But at the same time it's lush, has huge rolling hills, and cute little towns with shops and such. Very cool mixture. By far a few of the most relaxing days we have had, a good way to recharge before the last two weeks of our vacation are over (hehe most vacations are 2 weeks, yet we're just a little over half way to the end of ours!).
Last night we walked the local town Adenau which is where our hotel is located. Did some shopping and a lot of looking at cool memorabilia and the like. Every store no matter what it is, be it a bakery or a hardware store or a book store embraces the racing history of the area and has cars or bikes and such in it's storefronts. So very cool. There is less soccer stuff around here, even though Germany is in the top four of the Euro 2008. Tonight is that game, against Turkey, I expect all the beer houses will be packed!
We had dinner at a Chinese place night, Sweet and Sour Chicken (much better then the stuff we get, even at high end places), and Beef Chop Suey. The Chinese lady that owned that place spoke great English, and German and Chinese. Pretty cool. We were just happy the menu was in English! Even this restaurant had racing pictures up in it's lobby.
The rest of the day was spent exploring the region, we got to hang out in the paddock of the Ring, see some film crews covering a concept car, saw the 4 door Porsche that is being developed, an R8, all hanging out in the paddock, and then we later were lucky enough to also see them on the track! So neat. From there we went to the main track entrance, found the web cam that Aaron watches every once in a while, saw some guys waving to the camera, kind of like we plan to do today!!! They called friends and told them they were at the camera, we don't have the luxury of a phone, but we've scheduled some time with some friends, so we'll do what we can. We had lunch at the Green Hell Restaurant, and watched more cars. After that we came back to the hotel, napped, and then took our walk around Adenau.
It's really HOT in Europe compared to what we thought, and everyone who is local is like What the Heck is going on! It's hard for us to sleep since there is no air or fans, since this is not normal. The only other thing that makes it hard to sleep here in Adenau is the church bell that is next to our hotel, it's crazy, it not only rings every hour on the hour, but at noon and midnight it rings about a hundred times, Aaron counted 247 rings at midnight the first night, I thought he was kidding (i slept through) but then I heard it last night, lol.
Otherwise that about catches everyone up on whats been going on with us.
Tomorrow after the track time tonight we'll sleep in (not too late, we have to wake up early enough to get some AWESOME breakfast from the Hotel buffet, it's GREAT!) and then pack our selves up and head to Heidelberg. There we'll be without net, but we have 2 days, Friday and Saturday to explore as much as we can. After that Sunday is basically a travel day, we are taking the high speed train from Germany to Paris, and then from Paris to London.
We'll have web access in London, we'll spend Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday in London and then head to Oxford on Thursday for the British Grand Prix . . . the last hurrah before we're back to the States.
Eek, winding down. All our pics thus far are uploaded: Link in Aarons post below.
Well off to find some lunch and prepare for the track, the rain seems to be clearing out. Yay!
Later today we have a "track car" booked for rental to take out on the track. We've spent Monday evening, and all day Tuesday here exploring the region, catching different parts of the track (it's a 21km track) and seeing all kinds of taped off, cars driving around the track without emblems on.
Today we get to do the same in a BMW 3series with a roll cage and all. Everyone on the track has to wear a helmet and such. I'm a little scared! I will probably only do one lap so Aaron who knows more and is a better driver can get more laps in during the limited time window of the track being open to the public today. He's done a billion laps of this track on Play Station, it's like a huge deal to swap from PS2 to Real Life. The track has massive amounts of elevation change and I'm excited but nervous and intimidated as well. We'll check with our track rental car people today about 4:30.
Otherwise this area is AWESOME! It's like Hocking Hills meets Mid Ohio, the roads even off the track are pretty crazy, all kinds of bikers out in full gear (no one is even remotely stupid enough to not ride without FULL gear) just having fun. But at the same time it's lush, has huge rolling hills, and cute little towns with shops and such. Very cool mixture. By far a few of the most relaxing days we have had, a good way to recharge before the last two weeks of our vacation are over (hehe most vacations are 2 weeks, yet we're just a little over half way to the end of ours!).
Last night we walked the local town Adenau which is where our hotel is located. Did some shopping and a lot of looking at cool memorabilia and the like. Every store no matter what it is, be it a bakery or a hardware store or a book store embraces the racing history of the area and has cars or bikes and such in it's storefronts. So very cool. There is less soccer stuff around here, even though Germany is in the top four of the Euro 2008. Tonight is that game, against Turkey, I expect all the beer houses will be packed!
We had dinner at a Chinese place night, Sweet and Sour Chicken (much better then the stuff we get, even at high end places), and Beef Chop Suey. The Chinese lady that owned that place spoke great English, and German and Chinese. Pretty cool. We were just happy the menu was in English! Even this restaurant had racing pictures up in it's lobby.
The rest of the day was spent exploring the region, we got to hang out in the paddock of the Ring, see some film crews covering a concept car, saw the 4 door Porsche that is being developed, an R8, all hanging out in the paddock, and then we later were lucky enough to also see them on the track! So neat. From there we went to the main track entrance, found the web cam that Aaron watches every once in a while, saw some guys waving to the camera, kind of like we plan to do today!!! They called friends and told them they were at the camera, we don't have the luxury of a phone, but we've scheduled some time with some friends, so we'll do what we can. We had lunch at the Green Hell Restaurant, and watched more cars. After that we came back to the hotel, napped, and then took our walk around Adenau.
It's really HOT in Europe compared to what we thought, and everyone who is local is like What the Heck is going on! It's hard for us to sleep since there is no air or fans, since this is not normal. The only other thing that makes it hard to sleep here in Adenau is the church bell that is next to our hotel, it's crazy, it not only rings every hour on the hour, but at noon and midnight it rings about a hundred times, Aaron counted 247 rings at midnight the first night, I thought he was kidding (i slept through) but then I heard it last night, lol.
Otherwise that about catches everyone up on whats been going on with us.
Tomorrow after the track time tonight we'll sleep in (not too late, we have to wake up early enough to get some AWESOME breakfast from the Hotel buffet, it's GREAT!) and then pack our selves up and head to Heidelberg. There we'll be without net, but we have 2 days, Friday and Saturday to explore as much as we can. After that Sunday is basically a travel day, we are taking the high speed train from Germany to Paris, and then from Paris to London.
We'll have web access in London, we'll spend Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday in London and then head to Oxford on Thursday for the British Grand Prix . . . the last hurrah before we're back to the States.
Eek, winding down. All our pics thus far are uploaded: Link in Aarons post below.
Well off to find some lunch and prepare for the track, the rain seems to be clearing out. Yay!
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
PICTURES!!!
Click here for LOTS of pictures. We are uploading more groups of pictures daily.
http://picasaweb.google.com/Simi.Ritch
Thanks!
http://picasaweb.google.com/Simi.Ritch
Thanks!
'Ring worm
So, it's certainly been a while since I've typed. Simi's been blogging and keeping updates, and she's done great. I've been soaking in the day, enjoying it as best I can and savoring it as I know we are in the back half of our vacation as the countdown clock ticks away.
Paris was Paris. Stereotypes of French people are based on facts. Is that' the definition of a stereotype, I guess? Bad service, decent food, and a general dislike for anyone who isn't French. They love their bread, as they carry around sticks of it that could be used as a Louisville Slugger.
Magny-Cours is the MidOhio of F1. A GREAT track, as our seats spotted a timed 40 second portion of the 1:15 lap times. Come to the hairpin, and away, around the inner loop, and back to another sharp turn, then again away towards the paddock. Fantastic track, nothing near by but feilds of grain, and a sprinkle of farm houses.
Our stay the French GP weekend was in a former knights castle chateau. Built in the early 100s AD (yes, hundreds) then rebuilt in the 1,000s AD and a castle for knights, then burnt in 15th century wars, then rebuilt again as a hospital. Certainly no modern medicine, so very likely many people died there, and the owners had stories to tell.
The owners, investors, and multi-lingual globe trotters were fantastic people. Loaded is an understatement. I ask the owner about the land he owned there, as the view from the balcony was outstanding, seemingly seeing forever across the French countryside. He said further than I could see.
A HOT Saturday qualifying but entertaining and enjoyable ice cream snacks. Dinner was a ant picnic, and food that seemed more like they were trying to hard to spruce it up, and hence produced worse results.
Sunday was the race, and was great to watch as the mentioned view of the track was great. Radio commentating and great action. Trulli had a great race, and the Ferrari's looked untouchable. Montreal GP was loud, boisterous, a party, while the French GP was more of a "ah, le race cars... nice... let me sip my wine, and kick back and enjoy the race..."
Sunday night dinner in the chateau which was outstanding, and learned more (ghost stories) from our hosts. Was a great time. Slept well, and up to get a ride back to Paris. Then taxi ride to our specific train station, and attempted to figure out the schedules. Nothing in the Paris area is user friendly. No one is available to help. No park benches are available to sit down on to find a moment to gather yourself and figure it all out. It just was un-fun.
Decent train ride to Frankfurt, and found the Germans are GREAT. Straight up, up front, fast paced, precise. All describing our rental car. The guy spoke English without hesitance, and was happy to help with a smile. We drove towards The 'Ring. (...with a poorly designed Hertz supplied GPS navi system as at 150kph it would say take the fork to the left, and stay left, then say, take the fork on the right, and that was after the concrete retaining wall passed by, and we had to drive to the next ramp and loop around. At first I thought it was from being tired, but it happened repeatedly and frustratingly. Saving face is the thing was really really cheap thanks to AAA discount.)
150kph is about what the rental car will do, but the BMWs/Benz/Audis go screaming by at about 200 kph. It's comical to say the least. We made it to a Burger King - a familar name in attempts to get food that is to be sure that we know what it'll taste like. Good burgers, and 70km from our hotel. On the B-roads surrounding the 'Ring, and Simi stopped and pointed our a portion of the track. We stopped and took some pix, and walked a bit of the track. It almost seems unreal.
Slept well, and had great complinmentary breakfast. Took the rental around the area just trying to find what we could find. Discovered the GP circuit, gift shop, and a couple other places in which we could watch people run their heavily camo, flat black, taped off cars around the track. We spotted a future Benz, likely a SL on steriods, maybe with gull wing doors. Their was a blue prototype Porsche 4 door behind us on a B-road, and beeped at me as we waited just a second too long at a stop sign. A heavily camo-ed Porsche 4 door was hot lapping the 'Ring along with a flat black Audi R8 that had a shrill almost of that of something around 8-9,000 RPM. It was running clean, easy 8 minute laps.
Back to the hotel to conect to the world again, and power nap. Plans later are to walk the little village streets for some little shops we saw, and find a great little place for some dinner.
Paris was Paris. Stereotypes of French people are based on facts. Is that' the definition of a stereotype, I guess? Bad service, decent food, and a general dislike for anyone who isn't French. They love their bread, as they carry around sticks of it that could be used as a Louisville Slugger.
Magny-Cours is the MidOhio of F1. A GREAT track, as our seats spotted a timed 40 second portion of the 1:15 lap times. Come to the hairpin, and away, around the inner loop, and back to another sharp turn, then again away towards the paddock. Fantastic track, nothing near by but feilds of grain, and a sprinkle of farm houses.
Our stay the French GP weekend was in a former knights castle chateau. Built in the early 100s AD (yes, hundreds) then rebuilt in the 1,000s AD and a castle for knights, then burnt in 15th century wars, then rebuilt again as a hospital. Certainly no modern medicine, so very likely many people died there, and the owners had stories to tell.
The owners, investors, and multi-lingual globe trotters were fantastic people. Loaded is an understatement. I ask the owner about the land he owned there, as the view from the balcony was outstanding, seemingly seeing forever across the French countryside. He said further than I could see.
A HOT Saturday qualifying but entertaining and enjoyable ice cream snacks. Dinner was a ant picnic, and food that seemed more like they were trying to hard to spruce it up, and hence produced worse results.
Sunday was the race, and was great to watch as the mentioned view of the track was great. Radio commentating and great action. Trulli had a great race, and the Ferrari's looked untouchable. Montreal GP was loud, boisterous, a party, while the French GP was more of a "ah, le race cars... nice... let me sip my wine, and kick back and enjoy the race..."
Sunday night dinner in the chateau which was outstanding, and learned more (ghost stories) from our hosts. Was a great time. Slept well, and up to get a ride back to Paris. Then taxi ride to our specific train station, and attempted to figure out the schedules. Nothing in the Paris area is user friendly. No one is available to help. No park benches are available to sit down on to find a moment to gather yourself and figure it all out. It just was un-fun.
Decent train ride to Frankfurt, and found the Germans are GREAT. Straight up, up front, fast paced, precise. All describing our rental car. The guy spoke English without hesitance, and was happy to help with a smile. We drove towards The 'Ring. (...with a poorly designed Hertz supplied GPS navi system as at 150kph it would say take the fork to the left, and stay left, then say, take the fork on the right, and that was after the concrete retaining wall passed by, and we had to drive to the next ramp and loop around. At first I thought it was from being tired, but it happened repeatedly and frustratingly. Saving face is the thing was really really cheap thanks to AAA discount.)
150kph is about what the rental car will do, but the BMWs/Benz/Audis go screaming by at about 200 kph. It's comical to say the least. We made it to a Burger King - a familar name in attempts to get food that is to be sure that we know what it'll taste like. Good burgers, and 70km from our hotel. On the B-roads surrounding the 'Ring, and Simi stopped and pointed our a portion of the track. We stopped and took some pix, and walked a bit of the track. It almost seems unreal.
Slept well, and had great complinmentary breakfast. Took the rental around the area just trying to find what we could find. Discovered the GP circuit, gift shop, and a couple other places in which we could watch people run their heavily camo, flat black, taped off cars around the track. We spotted a future Benz, likely a SL on steriods, maybe with gull wing doors. Their was a blue prototype Porsche 4 door behind us on a B-road, and beeped at me as we waited just a second too long at a stop sign. A heavily camo-ed Porsche 4 door was hot lapping the 'Ring along with a flat black Audi R8 that had a shrill almost of that of something around 8-9,000 RPM. It was running clean, easy 8 minute laps.
Back to the hotel to conect to the world again, and power nap. Plans later are to walk the little village streets for some little shops we saw, and find a great little place for some dinner.
Monday, June 23, 2008
Catch UP time...June 23
So I've got LOADS to share, we didn't have web but I still typed!
Copy and pasting took place and mostly caught up.
Right now we are in Germany, i have to say i LOVE it. It rocks the socks of France. If it wasn't for the 2 races I would have said France was pretty much a TOTAL waste.
Thankfully the races were great so France was ok, but wow, I fear we aren't going to have enough time in Germany!!!
We rented a car in Frankfurt, drove to Nürburgring . . . amazing drive, just very very pretty. We even got to see some of the track just while driving to the hotel. Really tired, thankful for Germany teaching it's citizens English and really looking forward to sleeping in tomorrow!
More later :D
Enjoy catching up on the last few days at work on Tuesday!!!
Copy and pasting took place and mostly caught up.
Right now we are in Germany, i have to say i LOVE it. It rocks the socks of France. If it wasn't for the 2 races I would have said France was pretty much a TOTAL waste.
Thankfully the races were great so France was ok, but wow, I fear we aren't going to have enough time in Germany!!!
We rented a car in Frankfurt, drove to Nürburgring . . . amazing drive, just very very pretty. We even got to see some of the track just while driving to the hotel. Really tired, thankful for Germany teaching it's citizens English and really looking forward to sleeping in tomorrow!
More later :D
Enjoy catching up on the last few days at work on Tuesday!!!
June 23 Train Trip to Frankfurt
Monday June 23, 2008
There ARE plugs in second class on the train.
After about a 2.5 hour train ride from France to Saarbrucken (eventually on the way to Frankfurt this just happened to be a stop along the way) without any computer (I had wanted to catch up the blog (just typing it) not getting it posted, while things were still fresh in my mind, we had a guy get on and sit in a seat near us and plug in under the seat!!! I watched amazed, I had just assumed that since we were in second class we didn’t get the same luxury of a plug (or an evil French woman trying to play footsies with me) and had just tried to veg/sleep for the duration of the train ride. For the most part live and learn has been a theme for our trip and it seems to continue to be prove it self.
This morning we woke up about 6:00, and Steve took us and the Canadian couple back to Paris in the rental van. He was flying out from Charles De Galle and said he would get us that far and from there we could figure out how to get to the train station we needed to be at to catch our train to Frankfurt. We happily took the ride instead of the train again from St. Amand.
We had done our research with the Paris info we have to establish there was a direct route of some public transport that took us from the airport to Gare de Est (the east train station). Unfortunately when we arrive at the airport and get to the area the public transport leaves, and I wait in line to ask the info desk where to catch, the person in front on me asks their question, gets their answer and moves along. As it’s my turn the help window closes, uh… ok. It was a shift change for the help desk worker. I smile and wait patiently as the lady who replaces the guy who seemed pretty nice makes a big to do about getting settled and comfortable before she reopens the help window. And when she does she doesn’t really answer my question but gives me a vague non committal answer and dismisses me to get to the next person. Right, very helpful. Not! So we weigh our options and decide for a taxi. For the first time there is no line to wait in to catch one! Something going our way perhaps? Perhaps.
We get into a C Class Mercedes cab, and tell the driver where we’re headed, he says no problem, tells us there will be some traffic but we’ll be there shortly. Uh, yeah. Let me tell you the map we used to make the decision about taking the cab was NOT to scale! Our taxi ride ended up being quite long, and pricey! Oops, it didn’t help that traffic was totally chaotic in Paris. At least our taxi driver drove aggressively, not like our previous two taxi rides, and that at least made us feel like he understood our pain. He spoke enough English to get by, and kept saying sorry about traffic. There were for sure some crazy moves he pulled, cutting people off, driving 100 in the middle of Paris in the BUS lane and being one of the triple left turners, just adding to the insanity of Paris.
After we got to the station, gave him his tip he gave us ours, hehe he told us to have a safe journey, a happy marriage and basically to get on with having kids cause they are the best things in the world. He went on (off the clock of course) to tell us he had four and that at the end of the day when he finished work and went home to them and saw them they made all his troubles disappear, is it wrong for me to think in the complete opposite perspective that thinking of feeding them, and educating them and caring for them is also likely a big concern of his and so really an addition to his worries? I’m sure the parents that are reading this can debate with me on it, and I don’t doubt that parent hood is great, but I guess I don’t need my taxi driver to tell me to join the ranks of being a parent :p
Wow that got deep for a bit.
Moving along to the train station. We went in followed the signs down to where the trains were to leave from, only to find out that really we were already on the right floor. Hungry, a lil cranky, and obviously tired and annoyed to be back in Paris we spent about 15 minutes just wandering around looking actively for SOMEONE who could help. Being Paris, that was not long enough to seek out someone. We kind of just figured we had to be in the right place, found a place to sit and I guarded the baggage as Aaron got us lunch. After we had eaten we got some of our “fight” back in us, and we discovered which gate we were to leave from. So we proceeded to get on the train. Find our seats, in second class, and squish together (Poor Aaron and his lack of leg room). I fell asleep; Aaron took pics and just tried to entertain himself in general.
Now we’re on the last leg of our journey to Frankfurt. And I haven’t been online sine Thursday the 19th. Hopefully everyone understands the lack of internet in the middle of the French country side and no one is worried since we haven’t been in touch, via e-mail or blog.
There ARE plugs in second class on the train.
After about a 2.5 hour train ride from France to Saarbrucken (eventually on the way to Frankfurt this just happened to be a stop along the way) without any computer (I had wanted to catch up the blog (just typing it) not getting it posted, while things were still fresh in my mind, we had a guy get on and sit in a seat near us and plug in under the seat!!! I watched amazed, I had just assumed that since we were in second class we didn’t get the same luxury of a plug (or an evil French woman trying to play footsies with me) and had just tried to veg/sleep for the duration of the train ride. For the most part live and learn has been a theme for our trip and it seems to continue to be prove it self.
This morning we woke up about 6:00, and Steve took us and the Canadian couple back to Paris in the rental van. He was flying out from Charles De Galle and said he would get us that far and from there we could figure out how to get to the train station we needed to be at to catch our train to Frankfurt. We happily took the ride instead of the train again from St. Amand.
We had done our research with the Paris info we have to establish there was a direct route of some public transport that took us from the airport to Gare de Est (the east train station). Unfortunately when we arrive at the airport and get to the area the public transport leaves, and I wait in line to ask the info desk where to catch, the person in front on me asks their question, gets their answer and moves along. As it’s my turn the help window closes, uh… ok. It was a shift change for the help desk worker. I smile and wait patiently as the lady who replaces the guy who seemed pretty nice makes a big to do about getting settled and comfortable before she reopens the help window. And when she does she doesn’t really answer my question but gives me a vague non committal answer and dismisses me to get to the next person. Right, very helpful. Not! So we weigh our options and decide for a taxi. For the first time there is no line to wait in to catch one! Something going our way perhaps? Perhaps.
We get into a C Class Mercedes cab, and tell the driver where we’re headed, he says no problem, tells us there will be some traffic but we’ll be there shortly. Uh, yeah. Let me tell you the map we used to make the decision about taking the cab was NOT to scale! Our taxi ride ended up being quite long, and pricey! Oops, it didn’t help that traffic was totally chaotic in Paris. At least our taxi driver drove aggressively, not like our previous two taxi rides, and that at least made us feel like he understood our pain. He spoke enough English to get by, and kept saying sorry about traffic. There were for sure some crazy moves he pulled, cutting people off, driving 100 in the middle of Paris in the BUS lane and being one of the triple left turners, just adding to the insanity of Paris.
After we got to the station, gave him his tip he gave us ours, hehe he told us to have a safe journey, a happy marriage and basically to get on with having kids cause they are the best things in the world. He went on (off the clock of course) to tell us he had four and that at the end of the day when he finished work and went home to them and saw them they made all his troubles disappear, is it wrong for me to think in the complete opposite perspective that thinking of feeding them, and educating them and caring for them is also likely a big concern of his and so really an addition to his worries? I’m sure the parents that are reading this can debate with me on it, and I don’t doubt that parent hood is great, but I guess I don’t need my taxi driver to tell me to join the ranks of being a parent :p
Wow that got deep for a bit.
Moving along to the train station. We went in followed the signs down to where the trains were to leave from, only to find out that really we were already on the right floor. Hungry, a lil cranky, and obviously tired and annoyed to be back in Paris we spent about 15 minutes just wandering around looking actively for SOMEONE who could help. Being Paris, that was not long enough to seek out someone. We kind of just figured we had to be in the right place, found a place to sit and I guarded the baggage as Aaron got us lunch. After we had eaten we got some of our “fight” back in us, and we discovered which gate we were to leave from. So we proceeded to get on the train. Find our seats, in second class, and squish together (Poor Aaron and his lack of leg room). I fell asleep; Aaron took pics and just tried to entertain himself in general.
Now we’re on the last leg of our journey to Frankfurt. And I haven’t been online sine Thursday the 19th. Hopefully everyone understands the lack of internet in the middle of the French country side and no one is worried since we haven’t been in touch, via e-mail or blog.
June 22nd Dinner _ PLACE HOLDER_
I didn't get a chance to type up our wonderful dinner recap from Sunday night after the race, keeping this post as a place holder, come back and check it Later!
Sunday June 22 The French Grand Prix
We had a very busy day on Sunday. I’m going back through my memories and recapping. We woke up early in order to beat traffic into the track even though there wasn’t a whole lot going on at the track early. It made sense, thee just wasn’t great desire to wake up early!
It was raining pretty hard when we awoke, with the knowledge that that could make for interesting race conditions we went ahead had another great breakfast and headed to the track. By the time we got to the track with our rain gear and eager race day energy the rain had stopped but thankfully the day was overcast and there was not much sun to deal with.
We enjoyed the GP2 race, and a Porsche Super cup race before the pre race activities for the F1 race occurred. The Drivers parade was really cool, they had each of the teams with the drivers in the same car, and the cars were old models of the make of the car they drive. The cars were mostly from the 1920’s or so, there was a super old school Honda for Button and Barichello, and etc etc. They all were drove around the track and cheered and they waved to the crowds. Some cool things from the drivers’ parade:
The race corner workers ran out to meet the drivers, some shook hands with them as the cars went around their corners, others gave them their hats and the drivers signed them for the workers, it was a very nice moment to see the drivers and the workers interact. Something you don’t usually get to see.
Another cool thing was the car that Lewis and Heikki got to drive, it was a two seat and so they couldn’t have a driver so Heikki drove it, it had a HUGE steering wheel and just looked hilarious driving around the track in this car!
Race day is always more “real” then pre race days. When I’m sitting in the bleachers watching a qualifying or practice sure it’s exciting, but the feeling of the actual real race day just is electrifying. Can’t explain how or why, just the cars seem louder and crazier!
Magny Cours was very much like Mid Ohio, in the middle of no where or in this case the Middle of France, instead of the Middle of Ohio. And surrounded by countryside. It was a great track, and we had awesome seats. There was no moments of the race other then the start that we couldn’t with our own eyes see a car on the track, and many times the end of the pack would be going by, as the lead cars would be coming back around. Made for great viewing enjoyment.
We had a pair of binoculars with us that we used to view things, like detail on the tv that was in front of us, and in the row ahead of us in the bleachers there was a 4 or 5 year old kid who was watching the race with his dad. He was entertained for the first 20 minutes or so of the race, but after that he started to get bored. After we had used the binoculars to our amusement I decided he would also probably enjoy using them. And likely his dad would be glad for his kid to have a distraction so he could enjoy the race. So we gave the binoculars to the kid and he and his dad were immensely grateful. They kept the kid entertained for quite some time, and made the race more enjoyable for the dad. Really it’s the little things, and it was nice to make the experience enjoyable for two other people just by sharing a set of binoculars we got for free from Autoweek!
My few comments about the race; it was nice to see Lewis Hamilton trying too hard and it NOT working. Yes, as you all likely already know I’m not a Lewis fan. Oh well. Ferrari started out on pole and pretty dominated form there for the whole race, since there was no safety car periods, there was no way for the rest of the cars to catch up. Kimi had some car troubles, we didn’t know exactly what but caught something about the exhaust or the manifold, it wasn’t debilitating enough to cause him to leave the race, but enough for him to loose the lead to Massa and have Massa on pole (though I’m not a Ferrari fan I do like Massa for his demeanor and how he is always trying to be a nice happy guy). Otherwise sucked for Alonso that he was driving a little too hard and had to give up a position to Piquet, but at least it was for the same team. Finally Piquet gets a point! Sad times to see Force India still just at the back of the pack, but I guess budget wise I can say Honda is more pathetic to be at the back of the pack with Force India, who only has a fraction of the budget as Honda.
After the race we all gathered at the van to head back to the Chateau, many of the roads were blocked off to make traffic flow easier while leaving the track, somehow we got mixed up/lost leaving the track, and since there were barricades up and no way to turn around we ended up taking a VERY long route back. The time I would have liked to use for a nap and relaxing we were in the got to see a lot of the French countryside, very lush and big rolling hills; got to look at the bright side of the situation as opposed to thinking we were cooped up in the van for probably 2 hours longer then we needed to be!
It was raining pretty hard when we awoke, with the knowledge that that could make for interesting race conditions we went ahead had another great breakfast and headed to the track. By the time we got to the track with our rain gear and eager race day energy the rain had stopped but thankfully the day was overcast and there was not much sun to deal with.
We enjoyed the GP2 race, and a Porsche Super cup race before the pre race activities for the F1 race occurred. The Drivers parade was really cool, they had each of the teams with the drivers in the same car, and the cars were old models of the make of the car they drive. The cars were mostly from the 1920’s or so, there was a super old school Honda for Button and Barichello, and etc etc. They all were drove around the track and cheered and they waved to the crowds. Some cool things from the drivers’ parade:
The race corner workers ran out to meet the drivers, some shook hands with them as the cars went around their corners, others gave them their hats and the drivers signed them for the workers, it was a very nice moment to see the drivers and the workers interact. Something you don’t usually get to see.
Another cool thing was the car that Lewis and Heikki got to drive, it was a two seat and so they couldn’t have a driver so Heikki drove it, it had a HUGE steering wheel and just looked hilarious driving around the track in this car!
Race day is always more “real” then pre race days. When I’m sitting in the bleachers watching a qualifying or practice sure it’s exciting, but the feeling of the actual real race day just is electrifying. Can’t explain how or why, just the cars seem louder and crazier!
Magny Cours was very much like Mid Ohio, in the middle of no where or in this case the Middle of France, instead of the Middle of Ohio. And surrounded by countryside. It was a great track, and we had awesome seats. There was no moments of the race other then the start that we couldn’t with our own eyes see a car on the track, and many times the end of the pack would be going by, as the lead cars would be coming back around. Made for great viewing enjoyment.
We had a pair of binoculars with us that we used to view things, like detail on the tv that was in front of us, and in the row ahead of us in the bleachers there was a 4 or 5 year old kid who was watching the race with his dad. He was entertained for the first 20 minutes or so of the race, but after that he started to get bored. After we had used the binoculars to our amusement I decided he would also probably enjoy using them. And likely his dad would be glad for his kid to have a distraction so he could enjoy the race. So we gave the binoculars to the kid and he and his dad were immensely grateful. They kept the kid entertained for quite some time, and made the race more enjoyable for the dad. Really it’s the little things, and it was nice to make the experience enjoyable for two other people just by sharing a set of binoculars we got for free from Autoweek!
My few comments about the race; it was nice to see Lewis Hamilton trying too hard and it NOT working. Yes, as you all likely already know I’m not a Lewis fan. Oh well. Ferrari started out on pole and pretty dominated form there for the whole race, since there was no safety car periods, there was no way for the rest of the cars to catch up. Kimi had some car troubles, we didn’t know exactly what but caught something about the exhaust or the manifold, it wasn’t debilitating enough to cause him to leave the race, but enough for him to loose the lead to Massa and have Massa on pole (though I’m not a Ferrari fan I do like Massa for his demeanor and how he is always trying to be a nice happy guy). Otherwise sucked for Alonso that he was driving a little too hard and had to give up a position to Piquet, but at least it was for the same team. Finally Piquet gets a point! Sad times to see Force India still just at the back of the pack, but I guess budget wise I can say Honda is more pathetic to be at the back of the pack with Force India, who only has a fraction of the budget as Honda.
After the race we all gathered at the van to head back to the Chateau, many of the roads were blocked off to make traffic flow easier while leaving the track, somehow we got mixed up/lost leaving the track, and since there were barricades up and no way to turn around we ended up taking a VERY long route back. The time I would have liked to use for a nap and relaxing we were in the got to see a lot of the French countryside, very lush and big rolling hills; got to look at the bright side of the situation as opposed to thinking we were cooped up in the van for probably 2 hours longer then we needed to be!
June 21
June 21
Saturday ended up being pretty nuts, and VERY long.
Woke up about 6:30 am. At 7:30 we enjoyed a huge breakfast, croissants, coffee, fresh squeezed orange juice, pastries, sunny side up egg, and got on the road about 8:30. We got to track, and it was hot and sunny, at least 80 degrees, if not maybe even a few more. Our parking lot worked out to be directly behind our bleachers (awesome!). We enjoyed the third and final F1 practice session. Then Aaron and I explored the area around the track, did some “shopping” I got some sweet Renault stuff, including a messenger bag, and a Renault F1 sweater, but it’s not obnoxious or anything, so when it’s cool enough for it I can likely wear it to work, and no one will even know (except me of course!). Aaron got a few t shirts, mainly because they were cheap, and white (his t shirts that were packed were darker colors and with the heat it just wasn’t working). Happy with our purchases we headed back to the bleachers, watched qualifying (Ferrari pole, blah, but at least Alonso will start third!!!). After qualifying we walked into the F1 Village area, checked out the team displays and realized we were way hungrier then we thought we were. We got a “Sandwich American” which was grilled steak pieces on a really chewy baguette. It had decent flavor, wasn’t ham, and worked well enough to feed us. Feeling better we caught some more racing, including a GP2 race.
Surprisingly the atmosphere at the track wasn’t a big party; it wasn’t madness like it had been in Canada or Le Mans. This may have to do with the track location, being so far from a big city, but it was calmer and more laid back. Good for us since we were able to soak it all in without madness.
After the GP2 race we headed back to the van to meet the group. The lady who was from ING in our group was able to go into the Renault pits with her husband to smooze with the team, and play the hospitality part, which was the reason she had come in the first place. It was funny in the car driving back to hear them speak in total amazement at all the stuff that as a fan of the sport is pretty common place knowledge. Things like that the cars have tire warmers, and that each drivers car is set up differently, and other “common” things. It was odd to think that someone who didn’t have this basic understanding of the sport would travel half way across the world to some random little town in France to watch it. I guess when it’s not coming out of your own pocket entirely it’s easier to do it. Not sure I would travel to Spain or Germany for a “football” game, even if it was the world cup, I just don’t have the interest. Anyway they shared their amazement at things that the rest of us were already well aware of, and proceeded to call Alonso Alofonso and mispronounce Renault; much to our annoyance.
They got gear signed by Piquet, but apparently Alonso wouldn’t sign anything, and they thought that was pretty poop of him. Thinking about it I honestly wound’s sign stuff for people either unless I knew they were true fans, and not just people who were going to get my signature and sell the stuff on Ebay for profit. Maybe I say that just because I like Alonso, and can defend him J
We left the track about 5:30, got to the chateau, had some down time, and then went to dinner at about 8 (too late for me, but when with the group you just gotta go with the flow). Dinner in France is a big to do, and a LONG one. We went to a restaurant that we heard had good food, and were hopeful. We found out our party had been seated out side when we got there. The table was under a huge weepy tree, that had little particles falling off it every so often, and after we sat down we also found there were lil ants all over the place, on the table and such. Rather UN appetizing, but apparently not a problem unless you’re a snooty American. After making the best of situation, we proceeded to swat at the ants, and smash then when we could.
The menus arrived and again we got a play by play, nothing really appealed to me, and the prices were HIGH, so I decided for a salad, as a safe and hopefully economical solution to dinner. Aaron saw beef on the menu and went for that; the beef was served with “chips de pommes de terre” which I wasn’t sure what it was, I know pommes are apples, and I know chips. We got our meals and wow they were nothing like what I would have expected. The beef was basically uncooked bacon-esque beef and potato chips (apparently potatoes are “apples of the earth” in French” and mine had some decent lettuce with a really oddly cooked tomatoes, and some other weird vegetables which I couldn’t recognize, so of course didn’t eat.
We didn’t order desert because when we translated individual words they didn’t sound appetizing. One of the others in our group ordered a desert that consisted of legumes, uh beans for desert? When he got it it came out on a floor tile, literally, and he simply described it as “weird.” To say the least. His stomach or pallet must have been more adaptive then ours though because did clean his plate. Where as our food was left basically untouched. The restaurant didn’t seem to see any problem with this and offered no alternative or apology for crappy food. We paid the exorbant bill, went home and had peanut butter and bread. Not only was it a late night, but one with really crappy food. We would have been more ahead of the game if we had stayed home, save money and energy by having peanut butter and bread, and gone to bed at a decent time. Not sure why people rave about French cuisine. In my book they seem to try too hard to make things seem better then they are, they don’t cook their meat enough, and like to eat lots of duck, cheese, seafood, fish, rabbit, and other things I won’t touch with a 9 foot pole; or maybe it’s just all the wine they drink that makes up for the lack of goodness of the food!
Anyway, that sums up Saturday. :D
Saturday ended up being pretty nuts, and VERY long.
Woke up about 6:30 am. At 7:30 we enjoyed a huge breakfast, croissants, coffee, fresh squeezed orange juice, pastries, sunny side up egg, and got on the road about 8:30. We got to track, and it was hot and sunny, at least 80 degrees, if not maybe even a few more. Our parking lot worked out to be directly behind our bleachers (awesome!). We enjoyed the third and final F1 practice session. Then Aaron and I explored the area around the track, did some “shopping” I got some sweet Renault stuff, including a messenger bag, and a Renault F1 sweater, but it’s not obnoxious or anything, so when it’s cool enough for it I can likely wear it to work, and no one will even know (except me of course!). Aaron got a few t shirts, mainly because they were cheap, and white (his t shirts that were packed were darker colors and with the heat it just wasn’t working). Happy with our purchases we headed back to the bleachers, watched qualifying (Ferrari pole, blah, but at least Alonso will start third!!!). After qualifying we walked into the F1 Village area, checked out the team displays and realized we were way hungrier then we thought we were. We got a “Sandwich American” which was grilled steak pieces on a really chewy baguette. It had decent flavor, wasn’t ham, and worked well enough to feed us. Feeling better we caught some more racing, including a GP2 race.
Surprisingly the atmosphere at the track wasn’t a big party; it wasn’t madness like it had been in Canada or Le Mans. This may have to do with the track location, being so far from a big city, but it was calmer and more laid back. Good for us since we were able to soak it all in without madness.
After the GP2 race we headed back to the van to meet the group. The lady who was from ING in our group was able to go into the Renault pits with her husband to smooze with the team, and play the hospitality part, which was the reason she had come in the first place. It was funny in the car driving back to hear them speak in total amazement at all the stuff that as a fan of the sport is pretty common place knowledge. Things like that the cars have tire warmers, and that each drivers car is set up differently, and other “common” things. It was odd to think that someone who didn’t have this basic understanding of the sport would travel half way across the world to some random little town in France to watch it. I guess when it’s not coming out of your own pocket entirely it’s easier to do it. Not sure I would travel to Spain or Germany for a “football” game, even if it was the world cup, I just don’t have the interest. Anyway they shared their amazement at things that the rest of us were already well aware of, and proceeded to call Alonso Alofonso and mispronounce Renault; much to our annoyance.
They got gear signed by Piquet, but apparently Alonso wouldn’t sign anything, and they thought that was pretty poop of him. Thinking about it I honestly wound’s sign stuff for people either unless I knew they were true fans, and not just people who were going to get my signature and sell the stuff on Ebay for profit. Maybe I say that just because I like Alonso, and can defend him J
We left the track about 5:30, got to the chateau, had some down time, and then went to dinner at about 8 (too late for me, but when with the group you just gotta go with the flow). Dinner in France is a big to do, and a LONG one. We went to a restaurant that we heard had good food, and were hopeful. We found out our party had been seated out side when we got there. The table was under a huge weepy tree, that had little particles falling off it every so often, and after we sat down we also found there were lil ants all over the place, on the table and such. Rather UN appetizing, but apparently not a problem unless you’re a snooty American. After making the best of situation, we proceeded to swat at the ants, and smash then when we could.
The menus arrived and again we got a play by play, nothing really appealed to me, and the prices were HIGH, so I decided for a salad, as a safe and hopefully economical solution to dinner. Aaron saw beef on the menu and went for that; the beef was served with “chips de pommes de terre” which I wasn’t sure what it was, I know pommes are apples, and I know chips. We got our meals and wow they were nothing like what I would have expected. The beef was basically uncooked bacon-esque beef and potato chips (apparently potatoes are “apples of the earth” in French” and mine had some decent lettuce with a really oddly cooked tomatoes, and some other weird vegetables which I couldn’t recognize, so of course didn’t eat.
We didn’t order desert because when we translated individual words they didn’t sound appetizing. One of the others in our group ordered a desert that consisted of legumes, uh beans for desert? When he got it it came out on a floor tile, literally, and he simply described it as “weird.” To say the least. His stomach or pallet must have been more adaptive then ours though because did clean his plate. Where as our food was left basically untouched. The restaurant didn’t seem to see any problem with this and offered no alternative or apology for crappy food. We paid the exorbant bill, went home and had peanut butter and bread. Not only was it a late night, but one with really crappy food. We would have been more ahead of the game if we had stayed home, save money and energy by having peanut butter and bread, and gone to bed at a decent time. Not sure why people rave about French cuisine. In my book they seem to try too hard to make things seem better then they are, they don’t cook their meat enough, and like to eat lots of duck, cheese, seafood, fish, rabbit, and other things I won’t touch with a 9 foot pole; or maybe it’s just all the wine they drink that makes up for the lack of goodness of the food!
Anyway, that sums up Saturday. :D
June 20th, evening.
June 20th, evening.
So it’s the end of June 20th now… we arrived in St. Amand train station and thought we’d have a cab waiting for us, no such luck, there was one cab there and it was waiting on someone else… so we put together some random French words and got the train station ticket guy to order us a cab. Ten minutes later we get a cab coming up to us, and lo and behold it’s the same cab from 20 minutes ago, she’d gone and done her last run and came back for us (yes I know we weren’t going to take women cabbies but we did what we had to do). After about a 20 minute cab drive we arrived at a very gothic chateau (of course after the lady took one wrong detour or two). It’s very cool, very old, well decorated, and just very old school feeling. I feel like I’m in a castle. The architecture style reminds Aaron much of the style that they are currently designing for the high end homes in Columbus, too bad we can’t write this off as a business trip!
So we got here and our “tour group” was out watching Friday practice, so we without really having had breakfast, or lunch because we were literally in the middle of no where in France (think Mid Ohio for those of you who have been, minus the race track and concessions, yeah nothing there)!. So I do they only thing I could do which was attempt sleep, lucky for me it worked, Aaron fell asleep for about 45 minutes as well, until this fly comes into our room and you would have thought it had a microphone attached to it cuz it was SO loud (I can only assume it was so loud because everything else was so quiet), anyway that woke Aaron up, he went on a mission to kill it; once he nabbed it he was too awake to go back to sleep, he made some bread and peanut butter lunch for us (yeah for grabbing bread at the quickie mart in Paris). I ate a piece and happily went back to sleep. Aaron explored the grounds of our chateau, he walked through the garden and explored the house it self. I say house loosely, mansion is more like it, and castle might even be the proper term! This place is HUGE! He found the library, and bunch of formal dining rooms, a terrace, a gazebo and tons of other very neat rooms with collections of stuff like cars, and “fabrage” eggs and the like. Just amazing. He also took some pictures and we’ll be sure to take some more. In the hall to our room the rafters are about 5.5 feet from the floor and Aaron has to duck to get through, but the ceilings them selves are very high. Very very neat!
Anyway back on the story, so about 3 hours after getting here I decide to wake up since I just couldn’t sleep anymore and Aaron told me about the grandeur of the place and how there are signs about getting “dressed” for dinner, and how a jacket and tie are compulsory for dinner…. I was freaked! We are back packing through Europe, be it not as basic as it sounds we certainly don’t have formal wear with us. I was having second thoughts about what kind of tour I had gotten our selves into and if we were going to blow all our money just to “keep up with the Jones’s” while eating dinner and such.
Thankfully when Steve our tour guide with F1tours.com arrived from practice he was able to clue us in that everything was going to be low key, true “Race fan style” phew! We met the other 6 people in our group, a family of four from Mississippi and a couple from Canada. The Canadian couple hit F1 in Indy every year it was an option as well as the Montreal grand prix, they also had been at Le Mans the week before, they had there with a tour as well. It was fun to share the experience we had versus theirs. The family from Mississippi was two college age sons and a husband and wife, the wife works for ING and had been asked to attend the GP from a hospitality perspective so they “made a trip of it/”
After enjoy juice and appetizers we all exchanged basics about the status of practice and such that we missed that day and then went to dinner. The place was a nice little restaurant in the middle of I don’t really know, being on the tour makes it so we don’t have to pay attention to what’s going on, and where we’re going, freedom in some sense but also a little disengaging at the same time.
We all couldn't read the menu, Steve spoke enough French to translate things, and we (Aaron and I were so thankful to not the be only “picky ones”) picked our meals. Aaron got a rumsteak, and I got turkey (or so I was told), though I think it was chicken and man was it good!
We had a good meal, enjoyed good company, and looked forward to enjoying practice and qualifying the next day.
So it’s the end of June 20th now… we arrived in St. Amand train station and thought we’d have a cab waiting for us, no such luck, there was one cab there and it was waiting on someone else… so we put together some random French words and got the train station ticket guy to order us a cab. Ten minutes later we get a cab coming up to us, and lo and behold it’s the same cab from 20 minutes ago, she’d gone and done her last run and came back for us (yes I know we weren’t going to take women cabbies but we did what we had to do). After about a 20 minute cab drive we arrived at a very gothic chateau (of course after the lady took one wrong detour or two). It’s very cool, very old, well decorated, and just very old school feeling. I feel like I’m in a castle. The architecture style reminds Aaron much of the style that they are currently designing for the high end homes in Columbus, too bad we can’t write this off as a business trip!
So we got here and our “tour group” was out watching Friday practice, so we without really having had breakfast, or lunch because we were literally in the middle of no where in France (think Mid Ohio for those of you who have been, minus the race track and concessions, yeah nothing there)!. So I do they only thing I could do which was attempt sleep, lucky for me it worked, Aaron fell asleep for about 45 minutes as well, until this fly comes into our room and you would have thought it had a microphone attached to it cuz it was SO loud (I can only assume it was so loud because everything else was so quiet), anyway that woke Aaron up, he went on a mission to kill it; once he nabbed it he was too awake to go back to sleep, he made some bread and peanut butter lunch for us (yeah for grabbing bread at the quickie mart in Paris). I ate a piece and happily went back to sleep. Aaron explored the grounds of our chateau, he walked through the garden and explored the house it self. I say house loosely, mansion is more like it, and castle might even be the proper term! This place is HUGE! He found the library, and bunch of formal dining rooms, a terrace, a gazebo and tons of other very neat rooms with collections of stuff like cars, and “fabrage” eggs and the like. Just amazing. He also took some pictures and we’ll be sure to take some more. In the hall to our room the rafters are about 5.5 feet from the floor and Aaron has to duck to get through, but the ceilings them selves are very high. Very very neat!
Anyway back on the story, so about 3 hours after getting here I decide to wake up since I just couldn’t sleep anymore and Aaron told me about the grandeur of the place and how there are signs about getting “dressed” for dinner, and how a jacket and tie are compulsory for dinner…. I was freaked! We are back packing through Europe, be it not as basic as it sounds we certainly don’t have formal wear with us. I was having second thoughts about what kind of tour I had gotten our selves into and if we were going to blow all our money just to “keep up with the Jones’s” while eating dinner and such.
Thankfully when Steve our tour guide with F1tours.com arrived from practice he was able to clue us in that everything was going to be low key, true “Race fan style” phew! We met the other 6 people in our group, a family of four from Mississippi and a couple from Canada. The Canadian couple hit F1 in Indy every year it was an option as well as the Montreal grand prix, they also had been at Le Mans the week before, they had there with a tour as well. It was fun to share the experience we had versus theirs. The family from Mississippi was two college age sons and a husband and wife, the wife works for ING and had been asked to attend the GP from a hospitality perspective so they “made a trip of it/”
After enjoy juice and appetizers we all exchanged basics about the status of practice and such that we missed that day and then went to dinner. The place was a nice little restaurant in the middle of I don’t really know, being on the tour makes it so we don’t have to pay attention to what’s going on, and where we’re going, freedom in some sense but also a little disengaging at the same time.
We all couldn't read the menu, Steve spoke enough French to translate things, and we (Aaron and I were so thankful to not the be only “picky ones”) picked our meals. Aaron got a rumsteak, and I got turkey (or so I was told), though I think it was chicken and man was it good!
We had a good meal, enjoyed good company, and looked forward to enjoying practice and qualifying the next day.
June 20th morning.
June 20th morning.
Now it’s June 20th, the good nights sleep didn’t happen because all night we kept thinking oh no we over slept and missed out train. We’re now on the train to Magny Cours and I’m being played footsies by an annoying French Lady who is sitting across from me. I think in general I’m really annoyed by France right now, or at least French people. They really seem to suck. Lol. Yeah I realize it’s a bit harsh to say that but you haven’t had the morning I’ve had, and it’s only 9:27am. Still a long day ahead of us, but thankfully after the race this weekend (which shouldn’t require too much interaction with the French since our tour guide is an American man from Florida) we are DONE with France for the most part other then coming back through to catch our train to London.
So far this morning I have had to deal with really apathetic train company workers who realize you don’t speak French and immediately write you off as unworthy of their time, even if you are nice to them and smile and attempt to understand what they are saying! We made it through that situation, validated our tickets for today, and then I got in another line to try and sort out our ticket situation while in Germany and from the way back from Germany (so I could book our ticket to London since time wise everything “builds” on each other); the person behind the counter there didn’t even know that Frankfurt was in Germany…. So... yeah you can imagine that that did not work. I’ll just have to resolve it at another point.
Otherwise, now we’re on the train, and the lady sitting across from me also must be having a bad day because she didn’t get on the train till about a minute before it left, Aaron and I got on about half an hour before it left; so of course there was no room for her luggage, and she had to squeeze past the aisle seat for the window seat and so after banging around luggage and such she’s finally stopped moving and trying to invade my leg space. Also the person across from us has their ipod going louder then I would listen to music alone in my car so the whole train seems to be able to hear her music, and it’s really not that good that I would want to hear it.
Did I mention I am so glad we’re almost done with the French part of our trip?
Really looking forward to the grand prix this weekend, interacting with some American people, even though most of the time I don’t think they are any better then the French people here who seem to be lazy and rude and just plain unhelpful, I assume the people on our tour will be nice, fun, share a common interest and above all else speak English!!!
Now it’s June 20th, the good nights sleep didn’t happen because all night we kept thinking oh no we over slept and missed out train. We’re now on the train to Magny Cours and I’m being played footsies by an annoying French Lady who is sitting across from me. I think in general I’m really annoyed by France right now, or at least French people. They really seem to suck. Lol. Yeah I realize it’s a bit harsh to say that but you haven’t had the morning I’ve had, and it’s only 9:27am. Still a long day ahead of us, but thankfully after the race this weekend (which shouldn’t require too much interaction with the French since our tour guide is an American man from Florida) we are DONE with France for the most part other then coming back through to catch our train to London.
So far this morning I have had to deal with really apathetic train company workers who realize you don’t speak French and immediately write you off as unworthy of their time, even if you are nice to them and smile and attempt to understand what they are saying! We made it through that situation, validated our tickets for today, and then I got in another line to try and sort out our ticket situation while in Germany and from the way back from Germany (so I could book our ticket to London since time wise everything “builds” on each other); the person behind the counter there didn’t even know that Frankfurt was in Germany…. So... yeah you can imagine that that did not work. I’ll just have to resolve it at another point.
Otherwise, now we’re on the train, and the lady sitting across from me also must be having a bad day because she didn’t get on the train till about a minute before it left, Aaron and I got on about half an hour before it left; so of course there was no room for her luggage, and she had to squeeze past the aisle seat for the window seat and so after banging around luggage and such she’s finally stopped moving and trying to invade my leg space. Also the person across from us has their ipod going louder then I would listen to music alone in my car so the whole train seems to be able to hear her music, and it’s really not that good that I would want to hear it.
Did I mention I am so glad we’re almost done with the French part of our trip?
Really looking forward to the grand prix this weekend, interacting with some American people, even though most of the time I don’t think they are any better then the French people here who seem to be lazy and rude and just plain unhelpful, I assume the people on our tour will be nice, fun, share a common interest and above all else speak English!!!
June 19th, Day 3 in Paris
June 19th, Day 3 in Paris, we started out slow and did some laundry. For breakfast we hit up a local bakery which was probably the first time we had any kind of authentic “French pastry” they weren’t labeled but what we ended up with was a croissant bread twisted together with chocolate chips and some sort of filling, it was amazing!!! Very much worth “trying something new” After laundry we repacked our stuff and then decided to go to the L’Defense area, from the brochures it was supposed to be the ultimate shopping and eating facilities, also the Grand Arche which is a more modern arch that looks down to the Arch d’ Triumphe. The architecture was definitely worth it, the shopping and food not so much, maybe because in Columbus we really do have quite a bit of shopping, and restaurants for that matter, but I wasn’t impressed or even taken in by the area from the goods it offered.
The grand Arch was pretty cool it was a very contemporary building surrounded by other very neat looking buildings. Somewhat worth the trip over. We made the mistake (being weary as we were from all the touristy stuff) of taking a taxi from the hotel to the La Defense area and we got probably the world’s worst cab driver. She was a 50ish woman who barely seemed to enjoy driving let along driving a cab :p She was slow and very timid in her driving style, I really don’t think her feet reached the accelerator or she just didn’t know what it did; because she didn’t use it half as much as we thought she should have.
The coolest part of the whole trip was likely the Royal Bank of Scotland tent with a Williams Toyota display. They had a mock F1 car with a game simulator in it. Very cool again to see companies spending more money to make their sponsorships be known and supporting them.
Anyway after making it to the area, taking pix, trying to eat lunch but that failing miserable since the Ching N’ Ling noodle/pad Thai place we went to seemed to be out of anything with chicken in it and I wasn’t really a fan of the beef (or should we say beoff). We did some more walking around, and decided to brave the metro back to the hotel. For whatever reason we hadn’t yet taken the metro yet in Paris.
It was a little confusing just trying to figure out where to get the tickets to get on the train, but once that was resolved the trip was pretty painless. And for a fraction of the cost of taxi ride. Win Win!
Once we got back to the hotel we figured to have an early dinner and get to bed early since we had a 9am train to catch to get our selves to the tour group for the French Grand Prix.
We walked around the hotel neighborhood, trying not to repeat a meal at the same restaurant we had the killer lasagna, but after a walk around a few blocks, and getting sprinkled with some rain we decided to go with what was tried and true as opposed to another sucky meal. This time I had spaghetti and Aaron had a steak pizza. Instead of getting a pizza with lil chinks of steak he got a pizza with a huge slab of steak in the middle (10oz or so); so essentially getting two meals in one.
So good meal, good service and headed back to the hotel. With attempts to get a good nights sleep.
The grand Arch was pretty cool it was a very contemporary building surrounded by other very neat looking buildings. Somewhat worth the trip over. We made the mistake (being weary as we were from all the touristy stuff) of taking a taxi from the hotel to the La Defense area and we got probably the world’s worst cab driver. She was a 50ish woman who barely seemed to enjoy driving let along driving a cab :p She was slow and very timid in her driving style, I really don’t think her feet reached the accelerator or she just didn’t know what it did; because she didn’t use it half as much as we thought she should have.
The coolest part of the whole trip was likely the Royal Bank of Scotland tent with a Williams Toyota display. They had a mock F1 car with a game simulator in it. Very cool again to see companies spending more money to make their sponsorships be known and supporting them.
Anyway after making it to the area, taking pix, trying to eat lunch but that failing miserable since the Ching N’ Ling noodle/pad Thai place we went to seemed to be out of anything with chicken in it and I wasn’t really a fan of the beef (or should we say beoff). We did some more walking around, and decided to brave the metro back to the hotel. For whatever reason we hadn’t yet taken the metro yet in Paris.
It was a little confusing just trying to figure out where to get the tickets to get on the train, but once that was resolved the trip was pretty painless. And for a fraction of the cost of taxi ride. Win Win!
Once we got back to the hotel we figured to have an early dinner and get to bed early since we had a 9am train to catch to get our selves to the tour group for the French Grand Prix.
We walked around the hotel neighborhood, trying not to repeat a meal at the same restaurant we had the killer lasagna, but after a walk around a few blocks, and getting sprinkled with some rain we decided to go with what was tried and true as opposed to another sucky meal. This time I had spaghetti and Aaron had a steak pizza. Instead of getting a pizza with lil chinks of steak he got a pizza with a huge slab of steak in the middle (10oz or so); so essentially getting two meals in one.
So good meal, good service and headed back to the hotel. With attempts to get a good nights sleep.
Thursday, June 19, 2008
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Paris... the city.
June 17, Tuesday.
Took our time waking up, fully in vacation mode, don’t usually go to bed till midnight or so, waking up about 10am or so… super lazy!
Went towards the Eiffel tower, walked from hotel. About 2 miles. Got there about 1 realized line was really long and decided against heading up to its observatory right then.
Instead we boarded an double decker open bus tour which allowed us to get on and off and different locations through out the city, like we did in London, true tourist style.
After leaving the Eiffel tower the tour bus took through the city. We were able to see Cathedral of Notre Dame, the Louvre, Arc d’ Triomphe, the Musee d’Orsay, the National Opera, the Galeries Lfayette, Champs Elysees, Grand Palais, Trocadero and many other places along the way.
Traffic in Paris is 100% crazy, people make their own lanes, do whatever they want, and as long as they don’t wreck it’s all good. We have some pictures of “intersections” :p
We got off at Champs Elysees which is a huge shopping area and where the Arch is. We walked through the stores that interested us, Adidas, Nike, and similar stores, just to see what the goods were like in relation to what they would be at similar locations in the states, like the Magnificent Mile in Chicago. All the sports stores were super Football (aka Soccer) oriented, had some neat stuff, but were well out of the range we were willing to pay for for things that weren’t necessary.
More cool then the shopping was all the car dealerships that were dispersed among the clothes stores (what were you expecting me to say ;) ? ) . . . from the bus I had season 2 dealerships that peaked my interest, one was the Peugeot store/display and the Renault store (which had the F1 car in the window!!!!!!!!!!!). So first we hit the Peugeot store, it was a tribute to the Le Mans race which Peugeot had wanted to win (by beating Audi), and they even went as far as saying that in the displays within the store. They had a model of the Le Mans car among other models, and then they had a bunch of shirts and other memorabilia for sale, it was so freaking cool to see their location in such a busy part of the city where everyone could appreciate it. We figure that there actually is quite a bit of enthusiasm for the racing here compared to in the states, and it was cool to see if being appreciated by companies. Rent can’t be cheap in that location yet they still made it possible for fans to be appreciated. After the Peugeot store (where we bought a few things) we had our Peugeot shopping bag, my Scion backpack, and Aaron had on an Audi Shirt… lol love cars much?
We had lunch at a local fast food joint called Quick, where they had Fred and Omar burgers and Chicken dippers. Aaron got an Omar Burger and I had chicken dippers to store up energy for heading to the Renault store!!!
At the Renault store I got to check out (as close as I’ve even been) a Renault F1 car, as most of you that care know I rather like the Renault team, or at least Fernando Alonso, who drivers for their team (other then when he was ill fatedly a teammate of Lewis Hamilton at Vodophone). I was in Renault racing heaven in the display store, they even had a spot in the back where you could stick your head in a cut out between Alonso and Piquet, and take your picture, OF COURSE I did this! I almost caved and bought a Renault F1 shirt, but now I have my aim on a Renault Bag since I carry a bag almost every day (and my current daily bag will need replaced after this trip) but I don’t wear the same shirt every day :p
After leaving Renault Heaven we kind of wound up our trip, got back on the bus towards the Eiffel tower. This time we got inline, and went up the tower. The view from the first stop was probably better then when you went all the way to the top level of the tower only because things were still recognizable in the city and such, and there were less people (or more place for more people) on the middle level where as on the top level it was so crowded and you were fighting for spots, it just made it annoying.
It took us more time to get up and down the tower then we actually spent in/on it, but now we can say we’ve seen it and mark it off the proverbial list of things to see in life.
During the day we probably heard 40 different languages spoken, and I’m amazed at how diverse the city is. I can see how locals are weary/annoyed by tourists. :p
We headed back to the hotel and ended up taking some wrong routes making the trip seem double the time then it should have been, by the time we made it back we were grumpy and tired and super hungry. We’d walked about 20,000 steps.
Lucky for us there was an Italian Eatery right next to our hotel which we had passed in the previous day that looked great, we ended up going there after unloading our bags. Their special for the evening was home made lasagna, we enjoyed salad, and some of the best lasagna we had had in quite a long time, and shared dessert which was chocolate cake! Yum! We might just end up back there again during our stay; the service was also great, just very friendly, and speedy.
After the great meal we basically came home and passed out: p I had started to type this entry on June 17th but now it’s June 18th and I have just finished it after our second day of touring Paris.
Today (June 18th) we got back on the bus (it was a two day pass), the walk to the Eiffel Tower (which was where the bus tour started) wasn’t as long as it had been the night before because we realized where we veered off the path. We were still more then happy to get to the bus and sit! We took the bus to the Louvre, got off, checked out the outside area of the Louvre, the glass “pyramids” etc. We headed into the museum to find it was amazingly crowded and would not have been an enjoyable visit just for the sake of seeing the Mona Lisa for 30 seconds. We also were feeling drained from the day before. So instead of exploring the museum we cut across the Seine to the Orsay. Which is also a museum of art, and which was less touristy then the Louvre, we got our passes and amazingly enough if you are between 18-30 years of age you get a discounted admission, SWEET! So we paid our 11 Euros total (just to get into the Louvre was 9 a piece) and went on our way. We saw quite a bit of cool stuff, mainly the Monet pieces were the most notable of the artists we saw. After spending a few hours in the museum we got back on the bus, headed back to the Hotel area for lunch/dinner. We stopped at a pizza place for the meal. Got some pretty decent pizza, though the service left much to be desired. After happily being fed we were able to tackle the last two miles of our journey to the hotel without any problem. On the way back we got some iced tea, and laundry detergent, oh yes, glamorous laundry day in Paris is scheduled for tomorrow! We think we can swing it to do laundry tomorrow and then be good till we get back to London on June 29thish. Thank god, since I dislike doing laundry at home, let alone in Europe 5000 miles or so from home.
Now it’s about 8pm, Aaron has awoke from his nap (I’ve worn him out with all this touristy business) and I think we’re going to hit the hotel pool and relax tonight.
Took our time waking up, fully in vacation mode, don’t usually go to bed till midnight or so, waking up about 10am or so… super lazy!
Went towards the Eiffel tower, walked from hotel. About 2 miles. Got there about 1 realized line was really long and decided against heading up to its observatory right then.
Instead we boarded an double decker open bus tour which allowed us to get on and off and different locations through out the city, like we did in London, true tourist style.
After leaving the Eiffel tower the tour bus took through the city. We were able to see Cathedral of Notre Dame, the Louvre, Arc d’ Triomphe, the Musee d’Orsay, the National Opera, the Galeries Lfayette, Champs Elysees, Grand Palais, Trocadero and many other places along the way.
Traffic in Paris is 100% crazy, people make their own lanes, do whatever they want, and as long as they don’t wreck it’s all good. We have some pictures of “intersections” :p
We got off at Champs Elysees which is a huge shopping area and where the Arch is. We walked through the stores that interested us, Adidas, Nike, and similar stores, just to see what the goods were like in relation to what they would be at similar locations in the states, like the Magnificent Mile in Chicago. All the sports stores were super Football (aka Soccer) oriented, had some neat stuff, but were well out of the range we were willing to pay for for things that weren’t necessary.
More cool then the shopping was all the car dealerships that were dispersed among the clothes stores (what were you expecting me to say ;) ? ) . . . from the bus I had season 2 dealerships that peaked my interest, one was the Peugeot store/display and the Renault store (which had the F1 car in the window!!!!!!!!!!!). So first we hit the Peugeot store, it was a tribute to the Le Mans race which Peugeot had wanted to win (by beating Audi), and they even went as far as saying that in the displays within the store. They had a model of the Le Mans car among other models, and then they had a bunch of shirts and other memorabilia for sale, it was so freaking cool to see their location in such a busy part of the city where everyone could appreciate it. We figure that there actually is quite a bit of enthusiasm for the racing here compared to in the states, and it was cool to see if being appreciated by companies. Rent can’t be cheap in that location yet they still made it possible for fans to be appreciated. After the Peugeot store (where we bought a few things) we had our Peugeot shopping bag, my Scion backpack, and Aaron had on an Audi Shirt… lol love cars much?
We had lunch at a local fast food joint called Quick, where they had Fred and Omar burgers and Chicken dippers. Aaron got an Omar Burger and I had chicken dippers to store up energy for heading to the Renault store!!!
At the Renault store I got to check out (as close as I’ve even been) a Renault F1 car, as most of you that care know I rather like the Renault team, or at least Fernando Alonso, who drivers for their team (other then when he was ill fatedly a teammate of Lewis Hamilton at Vodophone). I was in Renault racing heaven in the display store, they even had a spot in the back where you could stick your head in a cut out between Alonso and Piquet, and take your picture, OF COURSE I did this! I almost caved and bought a Renault F1 shirt, but now I have my aim on a Renault Bag since I carry a bag almost every day (and my current daily bag will need replaced after this trip) but I don’t wear the same shirt every day :p
After leaving Renault Heaven we kind of wound up our trip, got back on the bus towards the Eiffel tower. This time we got inline, and went up the tower. The view from the first stop was probably better then when you went all the way to the top level of the tower only because things were still recognizable in the city and such, and there were less people (or more place for more people) on the middle level where as on the top level it was so crowded and you were fighting for spots, it just made it annoying.
It took us more time to get up and down the tower then we actually spent in/on it, but now we can say we’ve seen it and mark it off the proverbial list of things to see in life.
During the day we probably heard 40 different languages spoken, and I’m amazed at how diverse the city is. I can see how locals are weary/annoyed by tourists. :p
We headed back to the hotel and ended up taking some wrong routes making the trip seem double the time then it should have been, by the time we made it back we were grumpy and tired and super hungry. We’d walked about 20,000 steps.
Lucky for us there was an Italian Eatery right next to our hotel which we had passed in the previous day that looked great, we ended up going there after unloading our bags. Their special for the evening was home made lasagna, we enjoyed salad, and some of the best lasagna we had had in quite a long time, and shared dessert which was chocolate cake! Yum! We might just end up back there again during our stay; the service was also great, just very friendly, and speedy.
After the great meal we basically came home and passed out: p I had started to type this entry on June 17th but now it’s June 18th and I have just finished it after our second day of touring Paris.
Today (June 18th) we got back on the bus (it was a two day pass), the walk to the Eiffel Tower (which was where the bus tour started) wasn’t as long as it had been the night before because we realized where we veered off the path. We were still more then happy to get to the bus and sit! We took the bus to the Louvre, got off, checked out the outside area of the Louvre, the glass “pyramids” etc. We headed into the museum to find it was amazingly crowded and would not have been an enjoyable visit just for the sake of seeing the Mona Lisa for 30 seconds. We also were feeling drained from the day before. So instead of exploring the museum we cut across the Seine to the Orsay. Which is also a museum of art, and which was less touristy then the Louvre, we got our passes and amazingly enough if you are between 18-30 years of age you get a discounted admission, SWEET! So we paid our 11 Euros total (just to get into the Louvre was 9 a piece) and went on our way. We saw quite a bit of cool stuff, mainly the Monet pieces were the most notable of the artists we saw. After spending a few hours in the museum we got back on the bus, headed back to the Hotel area for lunch/dinner. We stopped at a pizza place for the meal. Got some pretty decent pizza, though the service left much to be desired. After happily being fed we were able to tackle the last two miles of our journey to the hotel without any problem. On the way back we got some iced tea, and laundry detergent, oh yes, glamorous laundry day in Paris is scheduled for tomorrow! We think we can swing it to do laundry tomorrow and then be good till we get back to London on June 29thish. Thank god, since I dislike doing laundry at home, let alone in Europe 5000 miles or so from home.
Now it’s about 8pm, Aaron has awoke from his nap (I’ve worn him out with all this touristy business) and I think we’re going to hit the hotel pool and relax tonight.
Monday, June 16, 2008
Made it to Paris....
Monday June 16th (in case you didn't know the day/date, we've kind of lost track!) and we're in Paris; which means we survived our week/weekend in the "French Countryside" and Le Mans and didn’t get superbly lost on the way back to Paris! Watching the 24 was quite thrilling, we got back to the track on Sunday and it was kind of a disaster, all the campers had pretty much wreaked havoc on the place, trash and debris everywhere.. Just messy. I guess you can’t expect a lot more from a quarter of a million people chugging down beer as quickly as the lines will allow them to.
We got to watch the finish of the race, which ended quite closely if you figure the difference between 1st and second places in many of the classes was only 4 minutes (four minutes out of 24 hours really isn’t bad)! Audi won LMP1 (who-hooo!), Aston Martin won GT1 (not Corvette, even though this was the race they had been running the entire ALMS season for : sucky for them), I didn’t have a favorite for LMP2, but YAY!!! GT2 was won by Risi Compitizione Ferrari (I’ve seen these guys run at Mid Ohio and always been a fan!!!).
After the race as soon as the last car was around the track they opened a few of the gates to track, and madness occurred, I felt like I was doing the running of the bulls to get to the Podium to watch the trophy presentations. We got pretty close and it was thrilling to watch all the drivers/teams who had driven for 24 hours straight celebrate their victory, and you could just see their exhaustion but total excitement. When they played the American anthem Aaron and I were pretty hyped, as well as many other folks, so maybe more Americans around then we realized. Even after driving that long the drivers still had spirit and were crowd pleasers. Ron Fellows came out to the podium carrying HIS camera, taking pictures of the crowd taking pictures of him… it was quite amusing, and then he proceeded to just rile up the crowd who loved every second of it!
After the race we did some “shopping” and scored some cool apparel and souvenirs!
Then we headed back to the bed and breakfast in hopes of catching an early meal and returning at a decent time before our journey back to Paris… well that didn’t happen. EVERY restaurant was closed (assuming cuz it was Sunday), and so we thought about just going back to the hotel and eating our peanut butter and bread staples we had bought at the Super U (grocery). We got back, packed, and kind of vegged, we figured at that point to go down and check with our host to see if they could order us a pizza, we should have known better since they sell dinner (upon reservation, which we hadn’t made) and were told, “too late.” Even though we had seen the lil pizza deliver guys whizzing around on scooters in the area, we just didn’t know where they whizzed from!
So in hopes of randomly getting lucky and finding something we headed back into the main town, this time the same places that had been closed and miraculously open. Looking at the hours it seemed that opened later on Sunday (which confused the crap out of us, but we were super happy anyway). We got pizzas, mine plain cheese, and Aaron with ham (they REALLY love their ham in this area of France, not sure if that is how it is everywhere). No luck on translating pepperoni. We happily enjoyed our meals and headed back to the bed and breakfast. Charged up cameras, tried to find a wireless signal (no luck), and called it a night.
Today we navigated our way back to Paris, the road signs were great, really easy to understand, and just everything well marked, what could have been a nightmare of a drive was actually a super easy one! Thankfully. I guess when you’re charging 18.5 Euros toll on about 150Km’s you can afford to make everything great and nice!
We returned our rental car and spent about 45 minutes in line at the train counter to get our selves figured out for the next part of our trip. Our train reservations for the French Grand Prix to the Nevers, France (google it) area have been made as well as our train from there back to Paris, to Nurenburg, uh.. yeah not where we want to go! Oops, so we’re going to have to sort that part out later. The lady at the station was great, super helpful and explained everything, in English! She even worked 10 minutes past her shift to help us out. But feeling accomplished we took a cab (yeah, lugging our stuff on the metro just didn’t seem like a “fun” idea. We got to the taxi stand only to find the line was about ½ and hour on that, but we had committed to it at that point and just waited it out. We got to ride in a “Picasso” Van and had a really crazy taxi ride to our hotel (I think all taxis are insane, not matter what country you’re in!). Lucky for us the hotel we pricelined was as pimptastic as I had expected, just getting into the lobby I was like YAY! Really nice lobby, and landscaping, it’s in the business district of Paris, maybe 10 blocks or so to the Eiffel Tower. We check in, get our room key, ride the elevator a little longer then we needed to because forgot to scan our card in the elevator to let it know we wanted the 5th floor. Once we got to our room it was great to put down the bags and just sit! The room is really cool, and sleek. So sleek, that we didn’t know how to turn on any of the lights!
I located a house keeper who showed me that there is a slot when you walk in the door where you insert your room card and it is how the lights and such are activated in the room… wow. High tech! We went from the likes of Canfield, or East Sparta in Ohio straight to New York City or Chicago in terms of the differences in our bed and breakfast in Le Mans to the hotel in Paris! You can see the tip of the Eiffel tower from the hotel, and if you got up to the pool level you can see the whole thing!
Since today was a travel day we haven’t done too much, needed time to unwind. We ate lunch at Mc Donald’s about 2:30 cuz we were dying of hunger and it was the only thing we could see from our hotel that was close. Yes, it’s lame, but god it is nice to know what you’re ordering and what it will taste like!
After “lunch” we took a nap in the middle of the afternoon. Woke up refreshed and ready to explore. We walked a few blocks, found some local restaurants, and settled for a place that served pasta! We decided to carbo load for energy and had spaghetti. Quite enjoyable. We went to a BP quickie mart to get some beverages, Powerade & Orange Juice for the hotel, and now we’re just relaxing and unwinding.
Tomorrow will be a touring day and we’ll surly take lots of pix.
Speaking of pix, seems like we won’t be sharing them as soon as we thought due to lack of free internet (right now I’m typing this is Word and will copy paste to the blog). We bought a few hours of internet access at the hotel and are trying to use it sparingly.
I still haven’t caught the blog up on the few days in Le Mans but overall, I think the pictures will speak for themselves when we are able to share them, and this is already really long, so I don’t want to bore everyone to death!
We got to watch the finish of the race, which ended quite closely if you figure the difference between 1st and second places in many of the classes was only 4 minutes (four minutes out of 24 hours really isn’t bad)! Audi won LMP1 (who-hooo!), Aston Martin won GT1 (not Corvette, even though this was the race they had been running the entire ALMS season for : sucky for them), I didn’t have a favorite for LMP2, but YAY!!! GT2 was won by Risi Compitizione Ferrari (I’ve seen these guys run at Mid Ohio and always been a fan!!!).
After the race as soon as the last car was around the track they opened a few of the gates to track, and madness occurred, I felt like I was doing the running of the bulls to get to the Podium to watch the trophy presentations. We got pretty close and it was thrilling to watch all the drivers/teams who had driven for 24 hours straight celebrate their victory, and you could just see their exhaustion but total excitement. When they played the American anthem Aaron and I were pretty hyped, as well as many other folks, so maybe more Americans around then we realized. Even after driving that long the drivers still had spirit and were crowd pleasers. Ron Fellows came out to the podium carrying HIS camera, taking pictures of the crowd taking pictures of him… it was quite amusing, and then he proceeded to just rile up the crowd who loved every second of it!
After the race we did some “shopping” and scored some cool apparel and souvenirs!
Then we headed back to the bed and breakfast in hopes of catching an early meal and returning at a decent time before our journey back to Paris… well that didn’t happen. EVERY restaurant was closed (assuming cuz it was Sunday), and so we thought about just going back to the hotel and eating our peanut butter and bread staples we had bought at the Super U (grocery). We got back, packed, and kind of vegged, we figured at that point to go down and check with our host to see if they could order us a pizza, we should have known better since they sell dinner (upon reservation, which we hadn’t made) and were told, “too late.” Even though we had seen the lil pizza deliver guys whizzing around on scooters in the area, we just didn’t know where they whizzed from!
So in hopes of randomly getting lucky and finding something we headed back into the main town, this time the same places that had been closed and miraculously open. Looking at the hours it seemed that opened later on Sunday (which confused the crap out of us, but we were super happy anyway). We got pizzas, mine plain cheese, and Aaron with ham (they REALLY love their ham in this area of France, not sure if that is how it is everywhere). No luck on translating pepperoni. We happily enjoyed our meals and headed back to the bed and breakfast. Charged up cameras, tried to find a wireless signal (no luck), and called it a night.
Today we navigated our way back to Paris, the road signs were great, really easy to understand, and just everything well marked, what could have been a nightmare of a drive was actually a super easy one! Thankfully. I guess when you’re charging 18.5 Euros toll on about 150Km’s you can afford to make everything great and nice!
We returned our rental car and spent about 45 minutes in line at the train counter to get our selves figured out for the next part of our trip. Our train reservations for the French Grand Prix to the Nevers, France (google it) area have been made as well as our train from there back to Paris, to Nurenburg, uh.. yeah not where we want to go! Oops, so we’re going to have to sort that part out later. The lady at the station was great, super helpful and explained everything, in English! She even worked 10 minutes past her shift to help us out. But feeling accomplished we took a cab (yeah, lugging our stuff on the metro just didn’t seem like a “fun” idea. We got to the taxi stand only to find the line was about ½ and hour on that, but we had committed to it at that point and just waited it out. We got to ride in a “Picasso” Van and had a really crazy taxi ride to our hotel (I think all taxis are insane, not matter what country you’re in!). Lucky for us the hotel we pricelined was as pimptastic as I had expected, just getting into the lobby I was like YAY! Really nice lobby, and landscaping, it’s in the business district of Paris, maybe 10 blocks or so to the Eiffel Tower. We check in, get our room key, ride the elevator a little longer then we needed to because forgot to scan our card in the elevator to let it know we wanted the 5th floor. Once we got to our room it was great to put down the bags and just sit! The room is really cool, and sleek. So sleek, that we didn’t know how to turn on any of the lights!
I located a house keeper who showed me that there is a slot when you walk in the door where you insert your room card and it is how the lights and such are activated in the room… wow. High tech! We went from the likes of Canfield, or East Sparta in Ohio straight to New York City or Chicago in terms of the differences in our bed and breakfast in Le Mans to the hotel in Paris! You can see the tip of the Eiffel tower from the hotel, and if you got up to the pool level you can see the whole thing!
Since today was a travel day we haven’t done too much, needed time to unwind. We ate lunch at Mc Donald’s about 2:30 cuz we were dying of hunger and it was the only thing we could see from our hotel that was close. Yes, it’s lame, but god it is nice to know what you’re ordering and what it will taste like!
After “lunch” we took a nap in the middle of the afternoon. Woke up refreshed and ready to explore. We walked a few blocks, found some local restaurants, and settled for a place that served pasta! We decided to carbo load for energy and had spaghetti. Quite enjoyable. We went to a BP quickie mart to get some beverages, Powerade & Orange Juice for the hotel, and now we’re just relaxing and unwinding.
Tomorrow will be a touring day and we’ll surly take lots of pix.
Speaking of pix, seems like we won’t be sharing them as soon as we thought due to lack of free internet (right now I’m typing this is Word and will copy paste to the blog). We bought a few hours of internet access at the hotel and are trying to use it sparingly.
I still haven’t caught the blog up on the few days in Le Mans but overall, I think the pictures will speak for themselves when we are able to share them, and this is already really long, so I don’t want to bore everyone to death!
Saturday, June 14, 2008
par les vous english - cuz I do and I wish everyone did!
So 7 hours of the 24 hours of the Le Mans race have passed by, we got to watch the start and probably the first 1.5 hour, then we listened to much of the race while driving around trying to find some lunch. Radio Le Mans is great! We were pretty much detoured out of any of the areas we would have liked to go though so instead we went back to downtown Lemans (the city, not the area of the race track) and found our selves in the same area we had been yesterday (where the drivers parade took place). It wasn't half as crazy as it had been the day before (more on that later). We had Mc Donalds (for the surety and comfort of knowing what we were ordering, and got salads instead of fries (people in France really seem to like fries, we got fries with our Omelets this morning with breakfast, we on the other hand had had enough of the fries).
Anyway... so we had lunch/dinner at Mc Donalds, which they are much cooler and hipper then our Mc Donalds, and then went back towards the track. We ended up by the Mulsanne straight. Parked on the side of the road, got out to attempt to watch from that area, lots and lots of cops were blocking the area by the track so we managed to stumble our way through convo with them to find out the details about where we could watch from....
after walking around a bunch of office/industrial type buildings we randomly come up on a HUGE campsite with probably 1000 people all lined up along fences and hillsides watching.... ahh the joy of stumbling upon JUST what one is looking for is so great.
We watched for about another hour, Aaron took some more great pics (will try to upload some in Paris, the internet here is really poop, comes and goes and is just not worth trying).
We then headed back home, happily fed, and sun burnt!
I have mixed feelings about the area, you factor in French Country side, where everything is very rural and people don't speak English so you feel stupid, but the area is beautiful and picturesque... and things like trying to find a pop machine or a store that is open past 5pm, but then you recall that for 76 years there has been this GREAT race that has been run here, and they really do a great job to "please the crowds" and appeal to the race fans... you see what I mean about being torn?
Today when the race started and I was on a hill side watching I was awe stuck to be sitting in France watching, it didn't feel like France then, it felt normal, with a billion (275 thousand they said on the radio) fans all in it for the same joy. I was really glad we made the trek then! Later in the day when I wanted a can of coke because I was hot and sweaty and everything was shut down, I wasn't quite as enchanted.
Anyway.... I haven't posted since London so this could become quite long but I would like to touch on the wonders of my view of the journey thus far.
We (an excited Simi, and a VERY sleep deprived grumpy Aaron) left London on Wednesday June 11th BRIGHT (yes at 4:45am in the morning it was bright, really weird, but nice) and early... we took the underground train from the 'burbs to downtown, where we hopped through French border patrol, and changed to Euro Star station the station St. Pancras is one of the nicest transport stations of ANY type I have seen, VERY state of the art, clean and just super nice... so trendy that when going to the bathroom I didn't realize where the stalls were due to the design of them ;).
Anyway hopped on the Euro Star, rode for about 2.5 hours seeing all kinds of country side... and got into Paris where we arrived at Paris Nord, a train station much more like what you would expect it to be, after stumbling around we located where our rental car was to be picked up from (you can read Aaron’s rendition of the picking up of the rental below). After an hour and a half, we had a map and an idea of where we were and where we wanted to be... and so we were off.
It was enjoyable to navigate via a map, though GPS would have been GREAT it wasn't offered with our car so we did what we could, we didn't get lost too much, but we still have to get back so we'll see how it all goes!
We arrived at our bed and breakfast after not much getting lost, realized that the hosts didn't speak as much English as we thought they did from our email exchanges with them... luckily we were able to make enough sense of each other to get by. We went in search of a meal for dinner, arrived at a cafe and the only thing on the menu that made sense was "Ham & Cheese Sandwiches” so we got those, chowed down and went back to the hotel. We found some English speaking blokes (Aaron has caught me saying things more “proper” trying to be British and made fun of me!) who were also going to the races, we chatted with them, got some inside info and that kind of thing. Called it a night kind of early cuz we knew we had a bunch of fun ahead of us.
So that was the end of Wednesday…. I still have Thursday, Friday & Saturday to get through but I don’t think that will happen tonight as it’s already 11pm and we MUST get to the track early tomorrow to secure good viewing locations for watching the end of the race (it will wrap up at 3pm but I think if we don’t have our seats by 11am or so we won’t be getting any). Next time we come, if we do I will for sure have to just give in and get grand stand seats so we aren’t fighting with other people for that extra inch of viewing space :D
More review of the French country side to come later… gotta turn off the laptop for now so we can use the single adapter plug we have to charge camera batteries.
Anyway... so we had lunch/dinner at Mc Donalds, which they are much cooler and hipper then our Mc Donalds, and then went back towards the track. We ended up by the Mulsanne straight. Parked on the side of the road, got out to attempt to watch from that area, lots and lots of cops were blocking the area by the track so we managed to stumble our way through convo with them to find out the details about where we could watch from....
after walking around a bunch of office/industrial type buildings we randomly come up on a HUGE campsite with probably 1000 people all lined up along fences and hillsides watching.... ahh the joy of stumbling upon JUST what one is looking for is so great.
We watched for about another hour, Aaron took some more great pics (will try to upload some in Paris, the internet here is really poop, comes and goes and is just not worth trying).
We then headed back home, happily fed, and sun burnt!
I have mixed feelings about the area, you factor in French Country side, where everything is very rural and people don't speak English so you feel stupid, but the area is beautiful and picturesque... and things like trying to find a pop machine or a store that is open past 5pm, but then you recall that for 76 years there has been this GREAT race that has been run here, and they really do a great job to "please the crowds" and appeal to the race fans... you see what I mean about being torn?
Today when the race started and I was on a hill side watching I was awe stuck to be sitting in France watching, it didn't feel like France then, it felt normal, with a billion (275 thousand they said on the radio) fans all in it for the same joy. I was really glad we made the trek then! Later in the day when I wanted a can of coke because I was hot and sweaty and everything was shut down, I wasn't quite as enchanted.
Anyway.... I haven't posted since London so this could become quite long but I would like to touch on the wonders of my view of the journey thus far.
We (an excited Simi, and a VERY sleep deprived grumpy Aaron) left London on Wednesday June 11th BRIGHT (yes at 4:45am in the morning it was bright, really weird, but nice) and early... we took the underground train from the 'burbs to downtown, where we hopped through French border patrol, and changed to Euro Star station the station St. Pancras is one of the nicest transport stations of ANY type I have seen, VERY state of the art, clean and just super nice... so trendy that when going to the bathroom I didn't realize where the stalls were due to the design of them ;).
Anyway hopped on the Euro Star, rode for about 2.5 hours seeing all kinds of country side... and got into Paris where we arrived at Paris Nord, a train station much more like what you would expect it to be, after stumbling around we located where our rental car was to be picked up from (you can read Aaron’s rendition of the picking up of the rental below). After an hour and a half, we had a map and an idea of where we were and where we wanted to be... and so we were off.
It was enjoyable to navigate via a map, though GPS would have been GREAT it wasn't offered with our car so we did what we could, we didn't get lost too much, but we still have to get back so we'll see how it all goes!
We arrived at our bed and breakfast after not much getting lost, realized that the hosts didn't speak as much English as we thought they did from our email exchanges with them... luckily we were able to make enough sense of each other to get by. We went in search of a meal for dinner, arrived at a cafe and the only thing on the menu that made sense was "Ham & Cheese Sandwiches” so we got those, chowed down and went back to the hotel. We found some English speaking blokes (Aaron has caught me saying things more “proper” trying to be British and made fun of me!) who were also going to the races, we chatted with them, got some inside info and that kind of thing. Called it a night kind of early cuz we knew we had a bunch of fun ahead of us.
So that was the end of Wednesday…. I still have Thursday, Friday & Saturday to get through but I don’t think that will happen tonight as it’s already 11pm and we MUST get to the track early tomorrow to secure good viewing locations for watching the end of the race (it will wrap up at 3pm but I think if we don’t have our seats by 11am or so we won’t be getting any). Next time we come, if we do I will for sure have to just give in and get grand stand seats so we aren’t fighting with other people for that extra inch of viewing space :D
More review of the French country side to come later… gotta turn off the laptop for now so we can use the single adapter plug we have to charge camera batteries.
Thursday, June 12, 2008
...and we're back.
Today is Thursday. Honestly, I had to take a minute to think about that.
So, Tuesday, we boarded "The Underground" aka "The Tube" aka the London Subway system. It's really underground, nor in a tube at least when we boarded. Our tour guides aka London cousins(in-law) were laughing at this oversight of which they've taken for granted for a dozen years. We made a 45 minute subway ride and ended up at Pickadilly Circus. Right in the heart of London and almost like Times Square. Giant TVs and shopping in every direction. Starbucks for the wife, and punched tickets for a double deck bus tour around the city. Typical tourists.
Around Trafalgar Square, the London Eye, Tower Bridge, and all the other wonderful attractions. It was quite nice. Jumped off the bus and walked the Princess Diana memorial walk to Buckingham Palace and took some pictures of the motionless guards on duty. Back on the bus and looped around to fight some traffic and back to Pickadilly for the subway ride back home.
We went to dinner at a nice resturant that night, and talked about our day, and how differences are across the pond. It was a wonderful dinner, and had a great time. Home around 11pm, and in bed around midnight, with the new found knowledge that the alarm would go off at 3:45am so we could get up in time to make the trek on the "The Tube" again to King's Cross where our train departed in it's high speed voyage to London.
Up, and exhaust, we made it to the depot with time to spare, a very nice place if I must say so. On the buttery smooth train, likely travling at 150mph, but with only rolling hills of French country side you really didn't know it. It was a nice trip. We arrived, and followed the signs to the rental car park.
A Fiat Punto was reserved, and parked in spot 7066. We signed off and made our way to that spot. There was an Alfa there, and a nice one at that. No Fiat. Returned to the ticket counter with arms raised in the universal signal for "WTF?" The guy may have chuckled to his coworkers about the silly American, but as we ventured back down to have him show me where the car was, the "WTF?" signal was on his playing feild this time. Back up again, and resigned and handed the keys to a Hyundai. Lame.
Upon arrival of the Hyundai, something of a mini-transit van, beat to a pulp, and horrid looking, we spotted the Fiat tucked in a corner, resting quietly. I insisted that we get the car we were supposed to, and it was again a trip back to the clerk's desk for more autographs. Luckily they were now carrying around our heavy bags for us. Heh... We scored the fresh, 5100 km original Fiat, and headed out. A minor 90 minute delay.
The Fiat is a turbo diesel that has a sweet spot in the rev range at 3100 rpm. Too low, and it bogs, too high, and it wheezes. The shifter is snickity and quite nice. It understeers pretty bad in round-abouts, especially in the rain. A pretty good looking car though.
Filled up the car with Shell diesel then make the gauntlet of the Paris streets to get onto the A roads and off to Lemans. Not that bad driving via a map, and my co-driver shouting directions. A real Europe rally. On the A10 and bound for Lemans, stopped for a pit stop, and scored Pringles, Nutella, Bread and Powerade. Nothing says healthy lunch like chocolate bread, salty chips, downed by energy drink.
Some chaps from Oxford were at the stop and we talked to them. They were Lemans bound and were the first people to speak English since the announcer at the train station back in London. Refreshing. Speaking of refreshing, a caravan from Germany also stopped, but they found the pine tree next to their parked cars a more suitable place to relieve themselves, then crack open the trunk to spot 1,000 cans of beer, and a sleeping bag. Yep, Lemans bound.
Arrived in Lemans, after dumping 20 Euros on toll roads to take some b-rounds, and then slowly figure out way to our bed and breakfast. The roads were quite fun, and almost right out of Gran Turismo 4, with the narrow passages in the small little towns. Quite nice. Found our hotel, and unloaded bags. We have the Rose Room as all the walls and doors are painted pepto-pink. Brilliant.
We, quite exhausted passed out and a knock at the door. Our host asked us to move our car as we had parked it in the spot of a Ferrari "reservation". Um, OK. Moved the Fiat, and went back to sleep. Later that night, starving, we made our way to the small village square and after walking the corners of the square we settled for 3 euro ham sandwiches and drinks from a little cafe diner place. It'll do.
The next day, we awoke at 10, then 11, then noon, when hunger hit. Unfortunetly we didn't know it was noon, but our host still had the bed and breakfast food for us set out. Too kind. We spotted the Ferrari, a wonderful red 355 from GB, along with a rare (and seemingly always wrenched on) Marcos Mantis. Nice.
We spoke to the owners of the cars, again a refreshing bit that we could understand them, and they told us all about Lemans. 26th year attending, and great every time. They sold us their unused parking pass, which was for a rental car they were planning on reserving, but couldn't. Likely for the reliability of the Marcos.
Drove to Lemans around 2, with a stop at Super U, perhaps like Walmart, but with a Cosworth, GT3, M3, NSX, and E55 AMG in the parking lot. Stocked up on stuff on what we knew was edible, and took a trip to the track. Following "Rouge" parking signs we parked, unloaded and soaked in the granduer that was Lemans. I felt like I couldn't stop smiling.
Wandering around the circuit, and down into the paddock. First attempts at pit access were foiled, but a venture to the other end of pit access was a French man who didn't care, and we strolled right in. Score! All the cars up close, and making pre-7pm qualifying adjustments. It was quite nice. Leaving we stopped at the Group C paddock, and drooled at the support race which was none other than that of the 1988-1993 GTP Lemans cars. A series called Group C.
Silk-Cut Jags, RE390 Nissans, all with 250+ Mulsanne speeds 20 years earlier. All on display, all ready to tackle the track again. Fantastic! We strolled to grand stand seats near the Dunlop Bridge with another ham sandwich, better than the previous, and hunkered down in our rain jackets as the skies opened up. We enjoyed another familar voice of the Radio Lemans broadcast, and watched the Group C cars struggle with light switch boost maps and slipper conditions. They weren't afraid to drive them either. Outstanding.
7pm rolls and the Lemans cars all come to life on a dry, partly sunny race circuit. The diesel cars eriely silent, while the Corvette cars rumbled the pavement their 7 liters crossed over upon. Some spins, some good passing, and all the cars insanely fast. After a heavy impact, the session was red flagged, and we found the Fiat, and headed back for dinner.
We stopped at a resturant that had $300K in cars parked out front, and blazing "OPEN" signs as well as other reassurance of their bi-lingual capabilites. Upon arrival their wait staff was not as English speaking as their signs published. We were lucky in that a French couple was sitting across saw us struggling and offered her services as a translator. She explained the menu, and luckily because the "meat stuffed intestines" were not a good choice.
We ate our salads and a couple guys with race team shirts sat at a table behind us. We overheard them speaking in English, and as the night went one began to spill into each others conversations. Soon, us, the French couple, and the race guys were all sharing in conversation. The French couple left, and the race guys were almost dry heaving at the attempts of the "meat stuffed intestines" were swallowed. They certainly made a failed choice at ordering a good meal, much to a good laugh.
More conversation revealed that the guy next to me was actually the CEO - organizer - head man in charge of the whole Group C racing program. A world traveler, well spoken with tons of stories to tell, and ...
ending this early do to a crappy (i'd put in other words here but i'll be nice) internet connection and exhaustion....
Today is Thursday. Honestly, I had to take a minute to think about that.
So, Tuesday, we boarded "The Underground" aka "The Tube" aka the London Subway system. It's really underground, nor in a tube at least when we boarded. Our tour guides aka London cousins(in-law) were laughing at this oversight of which they've taken for granted for a dozen years. We made a 45 minute subway ride and ended up at Pickadilly Circus. Right in the heart of London and almost like Times Square. Giant TVs and shopping in every direction. Starbucks for the wife, and punched tickets for a double deck bus tour around the city. Typical tourists.
Around Trafalgar Square, the London Eye, Tower Bridge, and all the other wonderful attractions. It was quite nice. Jumped off the bus and walked the Princess Diana memorial walk to Buckingham Palace and took some pictures of the motionless guards on duty. Back on the bus and looped around to fight some traffic and back to Pickadilly for the subway ride back home.
We went to dinner at a nice resturant that night, and talked about our day, and how differences are across the pond. It was a wonderful dinner, and had a great time. Home around 11pm, and in bed around midnight, with the new found knowledge that the alarm would go off at 3:45am so we could get up in time to make the trek on the "The Tube" again to King's Cross where our train departed in it's high speed voyage to London.
Up, and exhaust, we made it to the depot with time to spare, a very nice place if I must say so. On the buttery smooth train, likely travling at 150mph, but with only rolling hills of French country side you really didn't know it. It was a nice trip. We arrived, and followed the signs to the rental car park.
A Fiat Punto was reserved, and parked in spot 7066. We signed off and made our way to that spot. There was an Alfa there, and a nice one at that. No Fiat. Returned to the ticket counter with arms raised in the universal signal for "WTF?" The guy may have chuckled to his coworkers about the silly American, but as we ventured back down to have him show me where the car was, the "WTF?" signal was on his playing feild this time. Back up again, and resigned and handed the keys to a Hyundai. Lame.
Upon arrival of the Hyundai, something of a mini-transit van, beat to a pulp, and horrid looking, we spotted the Fiat tucked in a corner, resting quietly. I insisted that we get the car we were supposed to, and it was again a trip back to the clerk's desk for more autographs. Luckily they were now carrying around our heavy bags for us. Heh... We scored the fresh, 5100 km original Fiat, and headed out. A minor 90 minute delay.
The Fiat is a turbo diesel that has a sweet spot in the rev range at 3100 rpm. Too low, and it bogs, too high, and it wheezes. The shifter is snickity and quite nice. It understeers pretty bad in round-abouts, especially in the rain. A pretty good looking car though.
Filled up the car with Shell diesel then make the gauntlet of the Paris streets to get onto the A roads and off to Lemans. Not that bad driving via a map, and my co-driver shouting directions. A real Europe rally. On the A10 and bound for Lemans, stopped for a pit stop, and scored Pringles, Nutella, Bread and Powerade. Nothing says healthy lunch like chocolate bread, salty chips, downed by energy drink.
Some chaps from Oxford were at the stop and we talked to them. They were Lemans bound and were the first people to speak English since the announcer at the train station back in London. Refreshing. Speaking of refreshing, a caravan from Germany also stopped, but they found the pine tree next to their parked cars a more suitable place to relieve themselves, then crack open the trunk to spot 1,000 cans of beer, and a sleeping bag. Yep, Lemans bound.
Arrived in Lemans, after dumping 20 Euros on toll roads to take some b-rounds, and then slowly figure out way to our bed and breakfast. The roads were quite fun, and almost right out of Gran Turismo 4, with the narrow passages in the small little towns. Quite nice. Found our hotel, and unloaded bags. We have the Rose Room as all the walls and doors are painted pepto-pink. Brilliant.
We, quite exhausted passed out and a knock at the door. Our host asked us to move our car as we had parked it in the spot of a Ferrari "reservation". Um, OK. Moved the Fiat, and went back to sleep. Later that night, starving, we made our way to the small village square and after walking the corners of the square we settled for 3 euro ham sandwiches and drinks from a little cafe diner place. It'll do.
The next day, we awoke at 10, then 11, then noon, when hunger hit. Unfortunetly we didn't know it was noon, but our host still had the bed and breakfast food for us set out. Too kind. We spotted the Ferrari, a wonderful red 355 from GB, along with a rare (and seemingly always wrenched on) Marcos Mantis. Nice.
We spoke to the owners of the cars, again a refreshing bit that we could understand them, and they told us all about Lemans. 26th year attending, and great every time. They sold us their unused parking pass, which was for a rental car they were planning on reserving, but couldn't. Likely for the reliability of the Marcos.
Drove to Lemans around 2, with a stop at Super U, perhaps like Walmart, but with a Cosworth, GT3, M3, NSX, and E55 AMG in the parking lot. Stocked up on stuff on what we knew was edible, and took a trip to the track. Following "Rouge" parking signs we parked, unloaded and soaked in the granduer that was Lemans. I felt like I couldn't stop smiling.
Wandering around the circuit, and down into the paddock. First attempts at pit access were foiled, but a venture to the other end of pit access was a French man who didn't care, and we strolled right in. Score! All the cars up close, and making pre-7pm qualifying adjustments. It was quite nice. Leaving we stopped at the Group C paddock, and drooled at the support race which was none other than that of the 1988-1993 GTP Lemans cars. A series called Group C.
Silk-Cut Jags, RE390 Nissans, all with 250+ Mulsanne speeds 20 years earlier. All on display, all ready to tackle the track again. Fantastic! We strolled to grand stand seats near the Dunlop Bridge with another ham sandwich, better than the previous, and hunkered down in our rain jackets as the skies opened up. We enjoyed another familar voice of the Radio Lemans broadcast, and watched the Group C cars struggle with light switch boost maps and slipper conditions. They weren't afraid to drive them either. Outstanding.
7pm rolls and the Lemans cars all come to life on a dry, partly sunny race circuit. The diesel cars eriely silent, while the Corvette cars rumbled the pavement their 7 liters crossed over upon. Some spins, some good passing, and all the cars insanely fast. After a heavy impact, the session was red flagged, and we found the Fiat, and headed back for dinner.
We stopped at a resturant that had $300K in cars parked out front, and blazing "OPEN" signs as well as other reassurance of their bi-lingual capabilites. Upon arrival their wait staff was not as English speaking as their signs published. We were lucky in that a French couple was sitting across saw us struggling and offered her services as a translator. She explained the menu, and luckily because the "meat stuffed intestines" were not a good choice.
We ate our salads and a couple guys with race team shirts sat at a table behind us. We overheard them speaking in English, and as the night went one began to spill into each others conversations. Soon, us, the French couple, and the race guys were all sharing in conversation. The French couple left, and the race guys were almost dry heaving at the attempts of the "meat stuffed intestines" were swallowed. They certainly made a failed choice at ordering a good meal, much to a good laugh.
More conversation revealed that the guy next to me was actually the CEO - organizer - head man in charge of the whole Group C racing program. A world traveler, well spoken with tons of stories to tell, and ...
ending this early do to a crappy (i'd put in other words here but i'll be nice) internet connection and exhaustion....
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