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By joel, September 6, 2009 11:09 am

I got my rental car today. For some reason they did not have a diesel car available (I figured it would have been easy to hire a diesel car. I guess not), so I ended up with a 1.4L TSI mk6 golf, 6spd. The quick trip back home on mostly city streets got me about 8L/100km on average (my wagon tdi would be probably get similar), so hopefully it will get better mileage on the highways.

I drove the car around quite a bit later today with two other people in the car. It sounded like it was working quite hard at 130+ kph, and the fuel consumption suffered, but I still averaged about 6.5l/100km with mostly highway driving… not too bad. It’s about the same as my wagon at home in these conditions. I had just hoped for a diesel car here so my consumption would be even lower on my long drives I have planned. Diesel is about EUR 1.09/L here, and gas is about EUR 1.30/L or so. It’s a big enough difference that driving a gas car will cost me more than I would have liked.

I really wish I could have my car here. It would be so much more fun to drive, get similar mileage, and still be cheaper to fill up. That said, this one isn’t bad. I have already forgotten several times that I’m driving a mk6 though because it looks and feels, inside, just like a mk5. It’s definitely a mk5.5 to me.

I love seeing all the European cars. Seeing Mercedes and Audi’s pass me on the Autobahn in the unrestricted areas is a truly religious experience… wow.

We went to ‘Worms’ today… south/southwest of Frankfurt am Main. It has a huge cathedral that was built in the 1200s (I believe), on top of where an older church used to be. It’s so old that it has been upgraded/rebuilt in different architectural periods. It’s quite amazing to see a building so old that it has never really been “done” being built or worked on. I took several photos of this church in & out, so I’ll post those later. We walked around the town center a bit, had some ice cream, which was interesting. It was more like gourmet ice cream compared to what we usually have in the US.

We then wandered east and north a bit through the countryside.. meandering through some small towns into the hills. I was extremely beautiful and the roads were awesome (though not very wide, and without lane markings, so it’s impossible to really “enjoy” them).

I have quickly realized that due to the construction and ’stau’ areas the speed limit changes quite a bit on the autobahn. It’s almost impossible to keep a consistent speed. You can go from unrestricted to 100, to 80, and then to 60 kph all in about 300 meters, and then 500 meters later you go straight back to unrestricted.

Today is Sunday. Almost all stores are closed. So to buy a coke I had to go to on of the rest stops on the autobahn. The cost of the .5L bottles were about 1.80 EUR.. a liter was nearly 3 EUR. That’s insane. After seeing this I will definitely need to go to a supermarket and pick up a pack of .5L or so bottles and stay away from the filling stations.

As a lot of people know, the Fanta drinks here are not the same as “Fanta” in the US. It tastes better here for sure. They also have “Mezzo Mix”, which is cola mixed with fanta orange. It’s quite good and I wish they sold it in the US. I also am really enjoying having fresh non-HFCS Coke. We can get this in the form of “Mexican Coke” in the US, but it’s usually a little older since it has taken time to arrive from Mexico.

It’s now about 8pm here and I’m trying to decide whether I want to stay another night with the friend in Darmstadt and then head out in the morning (I’ll have about 1.5 days to get to Nürburg), or whether I should head out tonight so I can have a little more time to drive and see things. I think I just decide as I’m typing this though. Staying here tonight saves me some money, and I definitely need to save money where I can on my daily costs (food, overnight, and fuel). So I suppose I’ll start out early tomorrow morning and drive northeast of Frankfurt before looping back west toward Köln and then back down along the Rhein before getting to Nürburg Tuesday evening.

Comments (1)

By joel, September 5, 2009 1:52 pm

waiting at the airport in Seattle, with my newly exchanged euros

The Lufthansa plane on the tarmac where we disembarked. We rode a shuttle to the terminal. I had never gotten off a plane like this before.

in the friend’s apartment in Griesheim

umts usb stick for my mobile internet..

bought some chocolate at the Penny Market.. bought the cheapest bar I could find (.35 EUR), Milka, and the larger “fine” box of different chocolates..

The cars are freakin’ awesome here. The first K on the autobahn had a mercedes and ferrari speed by at 100+. I saw an R36 wagon today… several modified vw’s, tons of mk2’s, etc. It’s crazy how almost everything seems to be diesel here.. all taxi’s are Mercedes.. and it’s kind of fun seeing Fiat, Alfa, Renault, Citroen, Pugeot, etc.

I was shuttled around by my friend today in his Smart Car.. all around the Darmstadt area. We also met up with a guy we know from Sweden.

I didn’t take these..
(ugh)

We climbed the top of this tower in the middle of town. The stairs inside were like a nightmare.. constantly turning & climbing with no change.. 150+ steps.

tomorrow I get my rental car (hopefully it can be a golf and not an A class or new beetle… which are the other cars in the ‘class’. After that I’m not yet sure what I’ll do. I just know I need to be in the Eifel region by Tuesday evening.

Comments (2)

By joel, September 4, 2009 10:21 am

Yes, I’m counting down the hours.

I had a crazy work night tonight, so I’m hoping this will push me over the edge toward being able to sleep easily on the plane. I arrive in the morning on Saturday and have the full day ahead of me.

I can’t wait to land and start taking photos of every thing that normally amazes tourists like me. Hopefully I’ll get over the small things quickly enough so I can enjoy the larger picture, and take lots of awesome photos!

I’ll catch you all on the other side.

Comments (3)

By joel, September 3, 2009 7:13 pm

It only took 6 hours, but I’m finally packed and basically ready to go. I’m leaving for work in about 4 hours, and then I’ll drive straight to Tacoma where I’ll store my car while I’m gone. My mom is driving me to the airport (thanks!) and I fly out at 2:45pm. Hopefully I can sleep on the plane! I’ll be arriving Saturday morning in Frankfurt and will have a full day ahead of me after that.