I stayed up most of last night stopped in a Parkplatz in Austria typing out updates from the last few days. I had no Internet access in Austria since apparently, when roaming, Vodafone requires that you pay for an extra 24 hours at 14.95 EUR just to get online.. no thanks. Here’s the first update:

Tuesday morning I left the hostel in Kassel and made my way toward Nürburg.

On my way out of Kassel..

I got a late start out of town and got a bit lost while looking for a couple places my friend in Darmstadt had suggested. After driving through Fritzler, which I’m sure had some nice sights had I had time to stop, I ended up in Gudensburg. It doesn’t seem well publicized, but somewhere in town is a hill with an old castle site at the top. I found a place to park near the hill and found the path around the hill that eventually leads you to the top. The path led me to some super skinny side streets with some great views as well.

I believe someone is buried here?

The castle appears to have had its outer walls rebuilt so you can see where it was, but it is still amazing to stand where people stood inside a castle in the 1100s, overlooking the town below.

first view as I climbed up..

top of the hill, inside the walls

views from the top

I had tried to take shots for a panorama, but they didn’t work out like I’d hoped.

looking toward the entrance

castle’s timeline

a 190e Evolution at the bottom of the hill

I spent a couple hours walking up, taking in the view, and then hiking back down. I then made my way toward Edertal, where I was told there was an old hydroelectric dam (circa early 1900s). I couldn’t find it.. I drove down the wrong roads several times and eventually found one of the lakes from the dam, along with some Burg at the top of the hill nearby so I took a few photos and headed back toward the Autobahn.

on the way..

This was some town southwest of the Edertal area, where I had taken the wrong road. The buildings were cool enough I took a shot before I turned around.

near the dam, I think

saw this guy doing 20kph up a hill…

Afterward I kind of rushed my way toward Nürburg. The ring had a tourist session from 1730 – 2000 (if I remember correctly) and I wanted to make it in time to check into my hotel, shower, and then watch the cars. I got lost a few times along the way, but at least the country side is nice.

Heading toward Adenau

I arrived late (about 1830) and ended up catching just the last hour or so of the session that night. I simply stood by the entrance to the track and watched the cars roll by, enviously. The sounds echoing through the hills from the cars as they started (the course is so huge the exhaust notes quickly dissipate) made beautiful music.

Before doing anything I immediately stopped by RSR Nurburg, which has their garage just a few hundred meters up the hill from the track entrance. I had tried to email them a few times over the last couple of months with no reply, sadly. When I showed up I found out they essentially had all of their ring tools (cars prepped and ready for the ring) rented out for the Wednesday session. They did have one car (a Renault Clio 197 Sport) available for the afternoon session (“half day” rental. I had been hoping for a full day.), provided the morning driver didn’t wreck the car. So we decided that I should show up at noon on Wednesday to verify the car had made it safely through the morning and to show them that I was definitely interested in driving the car.

Afterward I checked into my hotel quickly before going to watch the cars. I was staying at Burgstube for two nights… the next day was scheduled for a full day tourist driving session. The hotel has about 10 rooms and is about the size of a large house, sitting at the top of the hill in Nürburg, overlooking the valley down toward the entrance to the course, and overlooking the newer part of Nürburg where the BMW test center is, and where the Grand Prix course, Ring Werk, and the “Nürburgring 2009″ construction is (they’re building a rollercoaster and other silly tourist attractions, but they also have a new building with several racing organizations and manufacturers showing off their cars, and selling souvenirs (there’s a Ferrari Store, for example)). The hotel room was small.. just enough room for a bed, a chair, and end table, and floor space to walk around. A nice bathroom was attached. To get to the room I had to walk up a steep set of metal stairs, but that’s about the only negative. Paying 90 Euros for two nights (including breakfast), was a steal, in my opinion. It’s a relatively short walk, or drive, down the hill either to the GP area or the tourist session entrance.

the tourist entrance at the ring

the diner… supposed to be like an American diner I think

the toll area to get onto the track.. You use a sort of debit card with an RFID chip they call the ‘ring card’

there are two parking lots on the property near the entrance, along with a much larger grass & gravel area across the street

After taking a few photos on Tuesday night and watching in awe as the number of Porsche 911 GT3’s I saw, let alone GT3 RS’s easily surpassed 20. I went looking for dinner. At the suggestion of the guy running the hotel (Martin) I walked down the hill and to Pistonklaus Ristorante, which is owned by Sabine Schmitz’ parents. They also own a hotel, among other things, which is attached to the restaurant. The streets surrounding the hotel and restaurant were filled cars I almost never see otherwise, including a GT-R, a couple GT3 RS’s, other GT3’s, a GT2, a few 911 Turbo’s, an Audi R8 V10, a Z4 M Coupe, a few M3’s (all generations being present), and an F430. Up the hill at another restaurant and hotel was the main part of the “Ring Runners of Sweden” group, which was mostly made up of 911’s, but also had a Lamborghini, Ferrari F430, some fast Mini’s, 135i, and so on. I’ll come back to this group later.

I walked into the Pistonklaus, which happened to be very loud, having no real idea what sort of food they sold. My goal in being there was mostly to hang out with other people who were driving the ring, and to soak up the environment. I ended up being seated at the back of the restaurant, which has large windows facing the back street where most of the cars were parked. Every time a car drove by everyone turned to see what it was. After waiting a bit (they were quite busy, as you can imagine) another guy was seated at the table next to mine. As I went to order my food in English he asked me if I was from the UK. I told him I was American and the conversation started. He was from England and had just driven over in his Z4 M Coupe. He’d driven one lap that night… his first time on the track. We ended up talking all evening. Surprisingly enough the guy who was later seated on the other side of Brit’s table was an Aussie who was living in the UK and had also just driven over (or ridden, on his bike) and was hoping to spend some time on the GP course on Wednesday. So all three of us talked until about 11:30 that night. I then walked back up the hill to my hotel and crashed.

I’m parked in a Parkplatz back in Germany now while traffic moves slowly on the A8 behind me. I’m on my way toward Wolfsburg tonight, where I’ll post another update.. the big one from Nürburg.. if I have time.

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