Monday, August 07, 2006

Germany Trip

So, here's a not-so-quick rundown on my trip to Germany last week.

I left on Sunday afternoon almost immediately after the bike race. I flew Business Class, so I got to stretch out a little bit on the place. Still, my hips and knees got a little sore while I was trying to sleep on the plane. Everything felt OK once I got up and moving on Monday though.

So, I arrived in Frankfurt on Monday morning, and picked up my rental car. It was an Opel Vectra station wagon. It turned out to be a decent car. It was a little big for my taste, but it handled well and the diesel engine provided good torque. The woman at the rental car desk was surprised that an American knew how to drive a manual transmission.


I got my first taste of Autobahn driving on Monday. I kept my top speed between about 75 and 85mph on the unrestricted sections. It was a bit of an adjustment to get used to closing on slower traffic so quickly, but by the time my 3 hour drive was over, I was pretty much used to it. I did manage to aggravate one German driver. I pulled out to pass a slower vehicle and didn't accelerate very hard in the left lane. He closed on me pretty quickly and wasn't happy that I was going so slow. It was definitely my fault. I didn't make the same mistake again.


I arrived at the company I was visiting in the Thuringer area that afternoon. We worked for a couple hours, and then we went to a different village for some barbeque. I had some good bratwurst and beer, and got a chance to see a village in some detail. Pretty neat.


The hotel I stayed at was typically German (at least, based on my limited experience in German hotels).


I had a nice view out the window of the valley and the new stretch of Autobahn they're building.


Tuesday we worked all day and went out for dinner at an old castle. Most of the dinner conversation was in German though, so it was a bit of a slow evening for me. I'm picking up a little German here and there though.


Wednesday we also worked all day and finished up a little late, so I didn't leave the company until about 7pm. From there it was a 3 hour drive back to Frankfurt. On the way back I was following one of my German colleagues, and so I drove a little faster, between 90 and 100mph in the unrestricted parts. I did much better on the drive back and didn't aggravate anyone (that I'm aware of). We stopped for dinner at a rest stop, where I had to pay 0.50 euro to use the bathroom. (Looking at it more closely now, I see that I could have had 0.50 euro taken off my restaraunt bill with this, so it's not a total scam.)


We took off again, and were almost to Frankfurt when traffic came to a stop. The tunnel we had come up to was completely closed. We sat, parked, on the Autobahn for about an hour and a half. Once they opened the road up, it was pretty clear that there had been a big accident in the tunnel. Anyway, I ended up arriving at the hotel at about 1am.


I got up the next day, drove to the airport and flew home. It was pretty uneventful. I watched "Walk the Line" on the plane; I thoroughly enjoyed it.


There's some possibility that I'll be heading back to Germany at the end of the month. We'll see how that plays out.

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