Pilgrimage

Well, if you need to kill some time, this post should provide ample fodder in that pursuit.

Basically, I waited until too late last night to start uploading pictures, videos, & junk, and once they finished I felt I was no longer capable of assembling a sufficiently coherent post, ergo tonight's may prove a bit lengthy.  That said, probably no need for coffee, as I'm certainly not short on content.

Wednesday

After sleeping in a bit in Stuttgart to avoid the 8am-9am rush-hour, I continued my sojourn northward out of the industrial area around the city and into the Eifel mountains. 

Unlike the precipitous Alps to the south, the Eifel range significantly resembles the more gentle Smokies.  I haven't seen a peak here that crests above the treeline, and even the trademark foggy haze persists for much of the early and later hours of the day.  In one particular Eifel valley lies the small town of Adenau, and on the hill next to it, the even smaller town of Nürburg.  I'm straying in the former and primarily interested in the latter.

Adenau is a nice place to visit.  Full stop.  Nevermind the motivation for the visit for a moment.  It's a quaint-ish town in a scenic valley of a rural mountainous area.  It's like Dollywood....only without the "ham and pomp", and people actually live here.

As with most rural areas I've seen in Germany, hiking paths abound and so do the interesting vistas.  At left is a corner of Adenau seen from a path above town.

Ok, I know some of you are probably getting fidgety by this point, so I'll quit hemming and hawing about pretty hills and small towns and whatnot.  I'll be completely honest in that I didn't even make it to the hotel before I had to pull over for a second....not for that.  I'm only 30, my prostate is fine dangit.  No, I stopped so I could walk up a path and take this through a slot in the fence:

 It was test day on the Nordschleife, so I got to walk around and make use of vacated photography ports while various manufacturers thrashed current or up-coming offerings around the track.  Check out some of the camouflaged cars in the gallery  at right.  This entertained me for a solid hour or two before I decided I probably ought to check into the hotel and find food.  I just wish you could hear the sound of an (different) Aston Martin thundering down the hill there......

o, wait:

That distraction dealt with, I made my way to the Hotel an der Nordschleife and checked into an extremely nice "apartment", took another walk alongside a different part of the track, looped back through town.  The hotel also includes a restaurant, which I can now recommend.  After dinner, I traded stories with a couple of "blokes" from the UK who'd gone in halves on an older V8 Jag and driven down.  They planned to run the 'ring with it and then sell it when they got back to the islands. 

The remainder of Wednesday involved afore-mentioned upload procrastination and talking with folks on the interwebs.



Thursday

Having spoken a bit about Adenau, I feel I must give at least equal time to Nürburg the town before getting too lost in it's "ring" of much fame.  It's small.  It consists of a smattering of "normal" residents, a bunch of garages owned by basically any manufacturer with a sort-of sporty model in the range these days, and a castle.  The German word "Burg" actually means "Castle".  Significantly, it implies an actual functional fortification as opposed to a palace ("Schloss" auf Deutsch).  I decided to pay the Burg-proper a visit this morning and I did not regret the decision.  

Situated on the second highest peak in the  Eifel range (@~2300ft), the castle was built sometime around 1166 and...not that you care, but it just sounds cool...it was originally constructed from volcanic basalt.  Unlike the fantasy castle of Neuschwanstein, Nürburg has been through at least half a dozen seiges and/or military usages and has been partially destroyed and partially rebuilt a few times.  If you looked closely you could see where the materials and mortar changed a bit part way up the tower and certain walls.  Also unlike the guided tours we'd done before, I was more-or-less free to traipse around the ruins on my own.  For those video game nerds, it's pretty much like Elder Scrolls, only without a minotaur trying to gore you in the face.

Oh, and the view from the top is impressive.  It's easy to see why whoever built it here did so.

Pro-Tip

Allow me a brief intermission in which to side-step anything related to cars or castles for a moment to bring you another German travel pro-tip: 

Bring a loofah 

(or equivalent reusable bathing implement)

Ze Germans, for whatever reason, seem to eschew bar soap and shampoo in hotels in favor of multi-purpose "Duschgel" (ha ha, giggle giggle, I know....).  For those of you who have ever had to take a shampoo-shower, or used hand soap to bathe in a pinch....that's basically what we have here.  Now, the shampoo/liquid-hand-soap-shower isn't an untenable scenario with the benefit of a washcloth, but they don't do the washcloth in Germany.  It's probably much more sanitary and cuts way down on hotel laundry....but it means that actually getting yourself properly clean can be problematic, and the gel alway seems to leave a residue...that or "moisturizes" too well.

Russell seems to have acclimated more readily to liquid-only bathing.  That said, I haven't been around him in a day or two, so I can't attest to whether or not he smells any worse than usual.  I finally broke down and procured some bar-soap today.  I started out in search of a loofah or sponge, however the local Rewe store shelved those items in what was clearly a "ladies'" section.  Man-code therefore prevented that course of purchase, and bar-soap became the order of the day.


.....and now back to your regularly scheduled program.

 

Yeah, that's a TVR.  The first modern TVR I've actually seen in-person.  I still want one, in that color.  Some of you may recall that my International Business thesis focused on the company that produced the Tuscan Speed-Six model pictured above.  These things always looked good in pictures and I'm happy to report they look even better in person.  The owner had driven his from the UK, and stopped at a garage because of what's probably an ignition problem (it's British after all).  I just happened to stumble across this scene en route back to the hotel from the castle.  Lucky me.

So, full day right?

Nope.

See what I meant about killing time?  Yeah, that's happening.

I got back to the hotel from the castle around 1pm or so, ventured to the local supermarket (aforementioned "Rewe") to procure some needful items, and then went for a run.  3 miles, the first half basically entirely up-hill, the second half back down.  I got back and stretched down while watching today's test session drivers go across Adenauer Brucke.  At this point I got a reminder as to why the Nürburgring is so trecherous.  I felt a rain-drop or two and saw all of the locals scatter.  Figuring they knew something, I moved, on the trott, to some cover just in time to avoid being hailed-on.....yeah, 75 degrees and sunny, to hail and rain going sideways in about 2 minutes.  This lasted for about 10 minutes, and then went as quickly as it came. 

While it dried off, I set the next round of pictures uploading, watched some type of Handball championship match on TV, and decided to head up to the touristenfahrt staging area around opening time to see how things actually worked in preparation for Friday.

Parking across the street, I walked over and quickly took stock of the contents of the "on-deck" parking lot.  One couldn't swing the proverbial dead cat without hitting a 911 GT3 of some specification, or an Elise, or ///M car.  Interspersed with the hotness were all manner of tarted up VWs, and what not else.

The lot filled to capacity just before the scheduled open time of 5:30pm, and there was an initial rush.  After that, in thinned out with folks in rotation (bearing in mind that a lap takes at least 8 minutes even if you're in something really  pretty fast).  So, all of the fast cars already halfway around, good weather for the moment, and a car I don't car about.....geeee, what do you think happened next.

Just one lap, and I promise I took it easy.  Not that I could have taken it any other way with only 75hp on tap (although that was apparently too much for an Opel Astra and a Ford wagon of some type).  I figured it'd be good to take a light tour of the track before driving a "real" car around it tomorrow.  I also figured that it might get busier tomorrow, there could be weather, someone could wreck and close the track for the session, etc.

None the less, I can now wear my Nürburgring t-shirts without having to worry about someone asking the inevitable question. 

I'm also now the proud owner of a 'ring-shaped cookie-cutter.....what? it was like $3.00, did you think I wasn't going to buy that?!?!?

Now, bring on the race tires and appreciable horsepower.  Can't wait until tomorrow evening.  I'll have some type of track review/summary after I've driven it semi-seriously.