Europe 2019: Nurburgring

Europe 2019

Nurburgring

Nurburg, Germany

This one was a bucket list item for me. I like cars, and I like racing. The Nurburgring is one of the most iconic tracks on the planet, and they let you drive on it from time to time in whatever you want to lap it in. I didn't know a whole lot about how it worked, but here's what we did:

If you check the website, they have a schedule of how the track is being used. Occasionally they open it up for what they call "Tourist Laps", which just means public driving. I noticed that it was open from 5:30pm to 7:30pm on a Thursday when we were going to be in the area so I made sure we'd be there. You buy a ticket for a certain number of laps or a whole session and then just head to one of the places you can get on and wait.

The main Nurburgring area was much bigger than I expected. They have all sorts of things to see and do there...none of which was open when we showed up. It seemed like a really fun place to hang out but we just had some ice cream and waited until about 5:00 to head to the gate where you enter the track.

When we got to the staging area it started to get a little intimidating if I'm being honest. What we saw were a bunch of people who clearly do this all the time and know what they're doing with a bunch of cars that were clearly made for this. It was basically a bunch of weekend racers hanging around their Porsches, Lambos, and hot hatches checking tire pressures and setting up their GoPros while putting their helmets on. 

Not us! This is what we brought to the party - a rented Volkswagen Touran 1.6-liter loaded up with four people (one in a booster seat) and three weeks worth of luggage driven by a guy who doesn't know the track.

The part of the track we would be driving is called the Nordschleife (North Loop) and is about 21 kilometers long and eerily know as "The Green Hell" because of how wooded it is and how dangerous it can be. This is the track that nearly killed Nikki Lauda and has claimed over 200 lives. Our goal was to not make it 204 and to avoid joining the Bongard Club - named after the company that operates the flatbeds that have to come get you if you crash.

Below you will find links to two YouTube videos from our lap. It's two because our GoPro decided to split the video in half for some reason and we really don't know how to use it. 

I feel the need to preface the videos with a few comments. For what it's worth, I've done this stuff before...lot's of times and all over the world. I've done track events in and rented Lamborghini's, Ferrari's, Porsche's, Audi's, etc. I love driving fast and racing. We own some very fast cars now. That said, this was terrifying! Our Touran was easily the slowest car on the track. It was grossly underpowered for this, didn't have a clutch that could handle the hills or pace, lacked any real braking ability, and the tires were as tiny as they could put on it. It was a car built for economy and we weighed it down and tried to go fast. The results were comical as we hugged the right side (per the rules) and got our doors blown off by just about everyone. I wish you could hear our daughter a little better because her childlike honesty was hilarious.  

While we were waiting for 5:30 my wife kept asking me if I wanted to rent a car and guide for my lap or laps. There are companies there that will rent you everything from a Ford Fiesta ST to a Porsche 911 GT3. I thought about it hard, but I decided to go with our VW because I didn't want Branelle, Samantha, and Nana to miss out on the fun and have to just wait around on me. I'm guessing they wished I had gone with the 911 about mid lap. 


Anyway, for your amusement:

Nurburgring Lap Part 1

Nurburgring Lap Part 2

There is a lot more elevation change than it seems when watching the vids and we are going a lot faster than it looks. We got about as much out of our Touran as we could considering we had to drive through our rear view mirrors and stay out of everyone's way. If I ever go back, I'm renting something for sure!

Europe 2019: Burg Eltz

Europe 2019

Burg Eltz

Burg Eltz was one of the real pleasant surprises from our trip. It was picturesque and idyllic, isolated and not particularly crowded, and just an enjoyable place to visit start to finish. I promised Samantha castles on this trip and Burg Eltz helped me deliver.

It's not the easiest place to find - you really have to trust your navigation system. The drive there is really fun however. There are some one lane country roads with great visibility that you can just fly down if you so choose.

One of the few signs you'll see. They certainly aren't located every place you need to turn.

When you get to the castle, you don't actually see it, but you'll find a simple little parking lot. After you park you'll have a choice: You can take a shuttle bus to the actual castle or you can walk. We decided to hump it in and then ride out. 

The walk was less than a mile and it was really pretty. You're basically walking through the woods and eventually the trees open up and you see Burg Eltz rising over the valley.

They have a tour in English which we took, but no pictures are allowed inside the castle (I think it's a German rule that covers all museums). The inside of the castle is interesting, but not spectacular. Our tour guide was pretty much the same. He was fine and he gave us lots of information, but let's just say he wasn't a showman. The area where you wait for your tour guide is an interior courtyard and kind of cool. 

We gave Sammy the camera for a bit.

The have a beautiful cafe overlooking the valley where we had lunch. The food was so-so, and ordering had a sort of Seinfeld "Soup Nazi" vibe to it, but what a fantastic spot to eat!

There were these little birds that would eat out of your hand flying around.

Burg Eltz was a great place to visit and I highly recommend finding it if you're in the area. It was just pleasant! Not too touristy but still tourist friendly. They have a little gift shop and places to eat and restrooms and everything you need. We took the shuttle back to the parking lot and headed on our way.

Europe 2019: Gondwana Das Praehistorium

Europe 2019

Gondwana Das Praehistorium

Schiffweiler, Germany

I hate this place! It, and the people that work here, are on my list (that's the "Sheldon Cooper Top 50 Enemies" list). Whenever we go on a rather ambitious trip like this, I always tell everyone that "something isn't going to go as planned - just roll with it". This place was what "didn't go as planned" on this trip.

To explain, for a couple months leading up to the trip I kept telling Samantha about what we were going to do to get her excited. The thing she seemed to be most excited about was "the dinosaur place". It was just meant to be a fun stop on our way from Stuttgart to Luxembourg, but Sammy was really looking forward to it. 

We left Stuttgart on schedule, but German roadworks really killed our time. When they work on a motorway, which seems to be always, they divert everyone to the other side - contraflow. It's idiotic! You'd think the country that invented the car would be better than that.

When we could make progress, we flew! We made it to Gondwana at 5:00. The website said they closed at 6:30, so not great but still, we made it! We walked in and the girls at the counter said "We're closed". I told them the website said they were open until 6:30 and they said you can't go in after 4:30 because you wouldn't have time to see everything. 

Samantha started to cry. Not like a fit, but real tears of sadness. I picked her up and we walked outside as the girls at the counter said nothing. I felt like Clark Griswold going through all that to get to WallyWorld only to find it closed.

  

I was incredibly proud of my little girl. I think she sensed that I was very upset. I'm very easy going. I don't get upset often, but when I do it's dangerous. I'm not one of those people that gets mad and impotently complains - I start plotting. Samantha said "It's OK daddy and got down and started playing in this gravel area they had outside. 

We hung out there and let her play for about 30 minutes. At one point an ice cream van came through the parking lot and we all ran up and got ice cream from a very friendly Italian man.

Sam plays as I plot the demise of Gondwana Das Praehistorium.

Anyway, they're on my list and if I ever get the chance I will destroy this place.

Since I don't have a lot of pictures, or any for that matter, from the inside, I'll say a few things about our hotel in Luxembourg.

We decided to stay at Domaine La Foret in the town of Remich. The hotel only has 12 rooms. It was really interesting and we enjoyed ourselves.

Waiting on me to check in. More on our little gem of a rental car later.

We decided to have dinner at the hotel. It was probably a mistake. For one thing, fancy food is wasted on me really (and Samantha). I'm no foodie, and in my experience the fancier the restaurant, the worse it is...for me. For another thing, I didn't want to spend three hours eating dinner. That said, the hotel only had like 3 employees, and they asked me if we wanted to eat there so I didn't want to be rude.

Fortunately, Nana was kind enough to take Samantha to bed when she hit the wall and Nel and I stayed for another hour or so.

The place has a really nice spa, and Nel and Sam took advantage of the pool in the morning.

Branelle doing something on our balcony (probably Candy Crush).

The hotel was actually very nice and the few employees that we saw were fantastic. Luxembourg was surprisingly pretty as well.

Europe 2019: Mercedes Museum

Europe 2019

Mercedes Benz Museum

Stuttgart, Germany

We're doing the 'Gullwing' thing.

After spending the morning at the Porsche Museum, we headed over to the Mercedes Museum - it's only about 15 minutes away. I'm not going to spend quite as much time on this one as I did on the Porsche Museum, but I want to make a few comments.

• The Mercedes Museum is considered to be the greatest car museum on the planet, and I get it. It's spectacular!
• The building itself is flat out amazing! You go up about 10 stories and then work your way down looking at exhibits the entire way. It's sort of a history of not just the automobile, but society as well.
• I love Mercedes Benz vehicles! If you made me choose just one make for my entire family to drive, it would be Mercedes.
• That said, the museum wasn't as enjoyable as the Porsche Museum. As impressive as it was, it wasn't fun.
• At Porsche, they had young people in golf shirts that would say things like "Hey, you wanna play with the wind tunnel? Come check this out!" At Mercedes, it was old people in blazers telling you what you couldn't do and making sure you didn't touch anything. 
• Porsche gave my daughter a headset to listen to info on the exhibits. Mercedes wouldn't give her one so we gave her one of ours and when we got to the first exhibit a lady came over and asked how old she was and told us we had to take it away from her.

It's definitely a can't miss, but it could be even better if they would just lighten up a bit.

The first car....EVER.

You sort of walk down a circular path but there are different halls you can check out on every floor. Confusing, but it works.

We told Sam this was Wonder Woman's Invisible Jet.

I'd like to think she's saying "I love you Daddy" in this picture, but it was probably something like "Can we go now?"

The only thing in the entire place that hinted at "fun" was this giant Foosball table...which seemed oddly out of place.

Europe 2019: Porsche Museum

Europe 2019

Porsche Museum

Stuttgart, Germany

We got up in the morning and headed just down the street from our hotel to the Porsche Museum in Stuttgart. The Porsche Museum was fantastic! The building and layout was cool, the parking was easy and free, the displays were amazing, and most importantly, they were really nice and easy going about everything.

Now, I have to confess that we are Porsche owners. My first car was a Porsche. Nana used to have a Porsche. We might be a little biased. That said, I promise I would tell you if the place was lame. It's not. It was just the right size and had enough interactive things to keep you interested, a great gift shop, and a great place to eat. 

This is Porsche #1 - the first real Porsche created by Ferry Porsche in 1948!

Samantha's favorite car was The Pink Pig. This was a 1971 917 set up for Le Mans with a widened body. When it showed up in France people said it looked like a pig. German's don't often show a sense of humor, but when they do it just makes it that much funnier. The team racing the car painted it pink and put all of the butchers cut lines on it. It was the fastest car in practice but didn't finish the race. 

Speaking of Sammy Cat, they have a Sally Carrera car from the movie "Cars". We were like "Samantha, look, it's Sally Carrera!! Get in there for a picture!" She smiled and did what we asked, and then we realized...she's never seen "Cars" and had no idea what we were on about. Oh well, I appreciate her feigned enthusiasm.

Here are a few more pics from a very cool place.

The most recent Porsche to win at Le Mans.

The 917 is the greatest racing car ever in my opinion.

I'm so proud!

It occurred to me that I can buy Samantha any car I want (when it's time)...as long as it's pink. That opens up some interesting options for daddy.

If you are interested in cars at all, even a little bit, don't miss this place if you're in Stuttgart. It's very well done and relaxing and won't disappoint. 

This picture will be greeting you if you stay in the guest room of FOB Albatross in the future.