Hahaha... I could tell you stories :P

 

You think THAT'S something, go down the Reeperbahn in Hamburg.... They don't call it the sündige meile (sinful mile) for nothing.

 

 

Oh and... Prague.

 

 

 

Dear lord, Prague.

 

 

 

The THINGS.... You see/do in Prague.

Edited August 22, 201214 yr by 7shades

RE: Amsterdam....before anyone asks, yes, yes I did. ALL OF THE THINGS!!! :wink:

 

Moving along, those who said a car in Amsterdam would be useless were 100% correct. Would've been the biggest waste of time from what I witnessed. Rented a bike & after a few close calls getting used to the chaos (but it works, would fail miserably in Australia) managed to do a full circuit of the main city area & at least get a photo of places where the lines were about an hour long. Did manage to go through the Heineken Brewery tour though, preferred to see a little of a lot of places rather than a lot of one.

 

Prague is sadly off my agenda due to getting the F1 ticket, but Hamburg is now ON the list. Might have to swap some stories when I get back. :)

 

Using wifi on my phone so no pics yet, heading to Frankfurt tomorrow morning (currently 8pm here). Now if you'll excuse me, I'm catching up with a group of Canadians for a Red Light Crawl.

What do you get when you combine 4 Canadians, 2 Scotsmen & an Aussie in Amsterdam?

 

One hell of a night that will never be forgotten, sweet FA sleep & a pounding head. As much as I feared that I'd never leave this place, am about to jump on a train to Frankfurt. Actually, after last night, I'm quite content with leaving alive. :)

Edited August 23, 201214 yr by carbonboy

'atta boy :P

Frankfurt equals dump, but good gateway to Heidelberg. Dachau is an eye opener if you have time.

 

Please tell me you are cycling up all those passes!

Update!

 

Frankfurt is the pickup/dropoff point for the hire car as I fly out from here. Pretty much the only reason I went to Frankfurt. Got off the train, beat some beggars off (took me 3 Euro to work out they work in groups) & made my way to the hotel. Was still messed up from Amsterdam so just wanted sleep.

 

Next morning, I picked up the hire car...turns out they haven't had BMW's there for over a year. :( But happy enough with the 'equivalent', not saying what it is yet as it will be part 2 of 'name that instrument cluster'. That & no computer access yet, just tapping into peoples wifi using my phone. :wink:

 

Spent the first hour or so just trying to get my head around being on the other side of the car/road, I still have bruised knuckles on my left hand due to smacking the door everytime a gear change was needed. :lol: Due to time, had to make a call between the Porsche Museum & the Mercedes Benz Museum in Stuttgart. Ol' Ferdinand won, but only just. Wandered around the whole place trying to find my all time favourite, the 959 Dakar Rally car only to find it was in the workshop, doh! As nice as Porsches are, I'll stay a Toyota fan, much less pretentious bull$h1t. Don't think they liked me much after I asked where the Le Mans cars from the last few years were...

 

Headed back north-ish (GPS is my best friend at the moment, would be screwed without it) to the Hockenheim Race Circuit. My favourite circuit, even after they changed the layout, was kinda surreal to actually be sitting there. There was a trackday on as an added bonus, the older Mercedes Benz SL500's are freaking LOUD!

 

Dachau is on my agenda, especially since I didn't make it into the Ann Frank House. I think for me to be able to fully comprehend the horrors of the War, I need to actually see it. Reading books/watching documentaries just doesn't quite get it across.

 

Cycling...umm, nope. Flogging rental car, yep! :D

 

Off to Cologne tomorrow, TTE headquarters or bust!

P.S - Another reason to love Europe, beer is cheaper here than plain bottled water is in Australia, go figure.

Edited August 24, 201214 yr by carbonboy

Wait till you see the ovens. I think I realised after about 20 minutes that I had been just standing there and staring

PHOTOS!!!!! :D

 

Round 1 of 'Name that instrument cluster.

 

 

The White Stag Inn in Burley, UK where the wedding reception was meant to be. Instead we just had a beer here.

 

 

A couple from the National Motor Museum in Beaulieu, UK.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next stop, party central.

 

 

The rental.

 

 

Silly self-photo.

 

 

The Maritime Museum etc.

 

 

Mmm, coffee.....

 

Frankfurt, Round 2 of 'Name that instrument cluster'.

 

 

Porsche Museum in Stuttgart.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I nearly walked out disappointed, until I found the workshop downstairs...

 

Edited August 25, 201214 yr by carbonboy

From Stuttgart, continued onwards as I needed some time to meditate.

 

 

 

 

I don't grow up, I just get older.

 

 

Made it to my hotel somewhere on the side of the autobahn & crashed out. This morning (loving German breakfasts by the way) I headed north to TTE Headquarters in Cologne & although I wasn't allowed inside, the security guard was nice enough to take a photo for me.

 

 

Still in Cologne, went to the best go-kart centre ever, a 600m indoor track & a 710m outdoor track. Got one shot at the outdoor before it was booked out, best lap of 55.28 seconds. Glad I went karting today, am very sore & have several bruises from tagging the wall at the end of the back straight (you can take it flat, but takes a few laps). Never thought I'd want a seatbelt in a go-kart until today. Hey coln72, you don't happen to recall your laptime do you? You probably went faster than me, just curious. ;)

 

 

 

 

Cologne Cathedral, I see why this took so long to build. The amount of hand-carved detail is mind boggling.

 

 

This brings us up to date photo-wise, heading south to Nurburg tomorrow. Oh, I had my first butt-puckering moment on the autobahn today! I was in the left lane doing about 190km/h (160 is a actually a really nice cruising speed) when a Seat Leon pulled out in front of me going much, much slower. On the picks HARD, slight tyre screeching then the ABS kicked in & did it's thing, followed by a torrent of abuse from me towards the Seat. Made a mental note to never be that person.

wow mate..!

amazing

Did you take the time to walk to the top of the cathedral? The views are amazing and the number of stairs sorta removed the guilt from the lemon gelato/vodka dessert that night. Like eating a Lemon Ruski :)

 

Will have to look up the times we did the the kart track, although we only got to play on the indoor track. But, I wasnt complaining when it was free. Will see if I can dig up a couple of pics of what you missed inside TTE. Have a few until we were told to get rid of the camera ;)

Edited August 25, 201214 yr by coln72

Peugeot 208

 

Second one has me stumped for the moment... Looks a bit Audi, possibly Skoda.