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By joel, April 9, 2010 9:32 pm

I lost my job of 2 years last month, forcing me to hold off on any trips for the time being. My new job started this last week, so hopefully I’ll be back up and running by May. The weather has also sucked since the middle of February, so that also puts a bit of a damper on things. As the weather gets better and as summer gets closer I will definitely be driving more again! I can’t wait.

I have owned my wagon since December (28th, I believe) of 2008. Since that time I have driven over 40,000 miles, mostly within Washington state (or just into Oregon or BC). About half of that has been commuting to work. Thankfully the new job is a bit closer, and I will likely be riding the bus and/or working from home more often, so the car won’t be seeing as much wear and tear as time goes on. My manufacturer warranty expired when the car passed 36,000 miles (that happened about 13 months after buying the car). I’m now on an extended warranty which appears to be very good, but I hope I never have to use it.

Anyway, I do have a few things planned for this summer, including a drive to the Spokane area for a big car cruise in the first part of May, and a group drive to Las Vegas in June for a car show there.

In the mean time, here’s one photo I took in February while driving around the Snohomish River Valley:

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By joel, February 27, 2010 5:13 am

After work (in Tukwila) this morning I have plans to help a friend with her computer this morning. Before I do that I am planning on driving back to Bothell to pick up my netbook and camera. That’s about a 30 mile drive right there. Normally, driving from Tacoma is around 50 miles and is about an hour driving time. However, I get a little bored driving up & down I-5 every weekend, so every now and then I decide to take some back roads.

This is what I think I will do this morning (click for google map):

It is essentially double the normal trip, with about 2 hours of driving, and over 80 miles. The scenery is awesome out there, and the roads aren’t bad either. Less traffic is also a nice plus.

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By joel, December 26, 2009 1:46 pm

I decided the morning of last Saturday to drive to Portland for a Christmas party. The party was at 7pm that night, so I could have gone home for some rest before making the ~3 hour drive down from Bothell.

However, I wasn’t in the mood to take the boring route via I-5, so I began looking for a “detour”. I came up with this:

Google Maps estimates seven hours for the drive. It ended up taking me about 6.5 hours with a few quick stops. The route took me from I-90 & Snoqualmie Pass, to Canyon Rd. west of I-82/US-97 near Yakima, and then south on US-97 to Goldendale where I got off the highway and headed west, and then south on SR-142. Instead of crossing into Oregon from there I stayed in Washington and cruised along the Columbia using SR-14… I find it’s best to stay out of Oregon for as long as possible.

I had swapped the 18″ wheels out for the factory 16″ rims earlier that day… and then mounted the new Michelin Pilot Sport A/S Plus tires. They’re a high performance all-season tire that I’ll use through the winter months and likely for a few lapping sessions and autocrosses later in the year. This drive was a good excuse to ‘test’ the tires a little while enjoying the roads and avoiding large amounts of other cars.

Canyon Rd. near Yakima was awesome, and beautiful. That said, you apparently need to watch for cops as much as possible. I did pass a couple unmarked units toward the south end of the road before getting back on the main highway. The road is designated as SR-821 and it follows the Yakima River from I-90 to the southern part of Yakima.

from wikipedia:

US-97 is actually a rather nice stretch of road from Yakima to the Columbia Gorge, and without too much traffic (at least during this time of year). A little south of Toppenish I lost my Verizon data signal and lost my AT&T signal all together. It wasn’t until Goldendale that I got the AT&T signal back, maintaining full Edge service the whole way to the Gorge while my Verizon phone continued with a signal, but no data coverage. I’m still amazed at how well AT&T’s Edge covers random places in eastern WA.

Goldendale is mostly known for its observatory, as far as I’m concerned. The observatory is why I first passed through Goldendale (high school field trip). Now I mostly view it as a confluence of roads leading to cool and interesting places.

Some of my favorite roads at the moment are north of the Columbia Gorge, in between Goldendale and Trout Lake. There just a couple state highways and a few local roads connecting the communities in this region, all of which are worth driving. It can be a beautiful area; a sort of grassy plateau with amazing views of Mt. Hood, Mt. Adams, Mt. St. Helens, and sometimes Mt. Rainier.

I first ended up on the “Glenwood-Goldendale Rd” back in 2003 when my brother and I drove around eastern Washington in his ‘84 GTI. I was using my first digital camera back then and didn’t really know what I was doing, but I did capture this shot of Mt. Adams with a barn in the foreground (which I believe no longer exists).

The Glenwood Hwy is a very long road taking you from Goldendale to Glenwood and then to Trout Lake. You end up following the Klickitat River along an awesome canyon full of twisty turns and amazing views, before driving on some incredibly boring straight sections of road toward the end.

a shot of Mt. Adams near Glenwood from a drive I did in May..

This time I turned south fairly quickly after Goldendale onto SR-142. This road is, for the moment, my new favorite driving road. It’s a state highway which, for a few miles, narrows to about 1.5 lanes wide with no center line, a reduced amount of signs, and no real barrier to keep you from driving off the edge into the deep Klickitat River valley below. This tight canyon-following twisty road is awesome fun with almost no traffic (though from my experience you are nearly guaranteed to run across a deputy sheriff since there aren’t many roads in the area).

Once you get further down hill (heading south, toward the Columbia Gorge) you a dropped onto a more normal state highway with regular markings and barriers. The road eventually takes you more level with the river as the canyon widens out, passing you through a couple of towns along the way. The area is apparently known for its fishing, so the road can be a little more full of the tourist types in the warmer months.

The highway is a roughly 13 miles long, so it’s not quite as long as I’d like (this is where SR-112 comes in, along the Strait of Juan de Fuca), but I believe it’s still a really special section of road.

You eventually reach the Columbia Gorge at the town of Lyle, where I turned west toward Vancouver and Portland. I much prefer taking SR-14 rather than I-84 on the Oregon side (even though this choice can add an extra 20 – 40 minutes to the trip). However, the last couple of times I’ve traveled this highway I have taken a few quick detours back up into the hills above the gorge. This time I only took the “Lyle White Salmon Rd”, which is designated as an “old hwy” on a few signs. It’s an immediate turn-off once you cross the Klickitat River from Lyle, and it takes you back up into the hills a bit so you can see Mt. Hood across the river on a clear day. The sun was just setting for me on this drive, so I stopped over “Rowland Lake” (just a section of the river cut off by SR-14) and took this pano:

There are a few more fun (and relatively curvy) side roads like this farther west as you drive closer to Vancouver, but it was getting dark quickly so I ended up staying on the main highway for the rest of the trip. SR-14 is a beautiful piece of road in every way, but it’s mostly just two lanes with few passing areas and way too many cars. The drive gets a bit boring, so I just used this part to relax after the fun trip down.

Nearly seven hours, 400 miles, and 34mpg after I started I arrived in Portland, having thoroughly tested and broken in my tires (and boosted my adrenaline level a little). If it hasn’t been made clear already those tires are awesome in the wet, and I have since confirmed that they’re pretty freakin’ good in the dry as well. They cost me a lot of money but were well worth the purchase for the versatility and longevity (compared to other similar options).

And the roads weren’t too bad either…

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By joel, November 16, 2009 2:49 am

(photos used in this entry are from my previous trips to these locations)

It was a very long day. I had already seen everything on my trip at least once, and I had been to some areas three times. But the point of the day was to get out, enjoy some awesome roads, and to spend some time with my brother, showing him part of the state he hadn’t ever seen.

We left the Seattle area by around 9am on Saturday and headed south toward Olympia and hwy 101. We were both anxious to get off of I-5 and away from the mass of Saturday morning traffic. We both enjoy driving and find it quite relaxing as long as there isn’t much traffic around. Large amounts of traffic, however, make me a little stressed. Once on 101 things calmed down and we started to enjoy the trip, feeling like we were getting somewhere.

Instead of making the boring and slow trip into Aberdeen on SR-12, we left the highway at Montesano, dropped south on 107, and then got off on Blue Slough Rd before joining back up with 101 and making the slow trek through Aberdeen and Hoquiam. My brother had never been north of Grays Harbor, so once we left Hoquiam is was all new. We left behind what most people would call ‘civilization’ at that point and made our way toward Lake Quinalt. The weather was mostly dry, but clouded over.

We stopped quickly to take in the view from the side of the lake before driving a little deeper into the hills to check out a sweet waterfall where I’ve taken some of my more popular photos.

I shouldn’t forget to mention that along the way is the world’s largest Spruce tree. It’s an ancient Sitka Spruce sitting on the side of Lake Quinalt. Even when seeing it in person it’s difficult to grasp the immensity of this beast until you see a person standing at its feet. The other photos I show below illustrate what the surrounding area is like, as we were rather deep into the Olympic Mountain foothills. It’s a beautiful area. Access to the Quinalt Rain Forest can also be had from this part of the lake.

We quickly turned around back toward 101 after the waterfall and continued north toward the Pacific coastal section of Olympic National Park. Hwy 101 follows the coast only for about 10 miles in the park before turning back inland. There are a few beach access areas along the way, with the most popular one being Ruby Beach. This is where Washington’s sea stacks start to appear, so it’s definitely an amazing place to see.

We were only a couple of hours away from sunset at this time, and we still wanted to spend some time make it to the Hall of Mosses at the Hoh Rain Forest, so after spending a few minutes taking in the sound and feeling of the ocean’s waves coming in around us, we drove further north and back toward the main part of Olympic National Park. We made a very quick stop at the “big cedar”. This is far from being the “largest” of anything around, but the Pacific Northwest does house the largest red cedars in the world, so this tree is still simply huge. The “big cedar” in this case is actually an ancient nurse stump which is now supporting at least eight other trees. This is another situation where you need to be standing right under the tree to understand the true size of this thing.

You first cross the Hoh River before turning off onto the Upper Hoh Road toward the rain forest. It’s an awesome road that follows the river through what is mostly state forest land. Large patches of the road have been completely rebuilt after storms from a couple of years ago, and the ranger we met at the visitor’s center reminded us that the road may not be there after this next week due to large incoming storms. The wind and rain that hits our coast is a major hazard. On Saturday, however, the weather was cold, but dry. We crossed into the national park, paid our fee, and headed toward the Hall of Mosses. There is a lot of explore at the Hoh Rain Forest, with several extensive trails making there way through the hills, but if you just want a quick glimpse of this amazing area then the Hall of Mosses is for you. It’s a roughly .75 mile trail across a stream from the visitor’s center parking lot, with occasional interpretive signs along the way. You cross this stream, where spawning salmon supposedly exist (never saw any) and then make a short hike up the hill to a much older portion of the forest. The age of this area is immediately apparent, with downed trees everywhere and moss hanging far down off of the tree limbs. Everywhere you go nurse logs harbor trees that are themselves hundreds of years old. This is a truly amazing area that I fear can only be properly understood when seen in person. That said, I did take several photos the last time I was there which I hope convey some of what I saw.

By the time we headed back toward 101 the sun was setting. It was dark when we rolled into Forks looking for some food. The town was once a sleepy logging town, known for its wet climate and its nearby state corrections center. Now it seems that the entire town exists to support Twilight movie fans. There are tourist stores that sell only Twilight movie items, and the restaurant we ate at (Pacific Pizza) had a special “Twilight Menu”. You have to be kidding me…

After topping off my wagon with diesel we escaped the town with our lives, keeping our eyes out for the SR-113 sign. If it hadn’t already been dark, I would have happily made the 30 minute detour toward Neah Bay simply so I could enjoy the best road I’ve ever driven in the northwest. Sadly we were running out of time, forcing me to drive only the first half of SR-112 along the coast of the Strait of Juan de Fuca.

It was raining most of the eastward trip back home. Add the pitch black darkness to that equation and the ultra-twisty roads weren’t very enjoyable at the end of our trip. I managed to enjoy what I could, but I will definitely need to make my back to this road later this year, before the snow arrives.

We made it to Port Angeles in good time and then continued along a very boring part of 101 before making the 9:20pm Edmonds-Kingston ferry just in time. The night was cold and breezy, but we still managed to check out the top deck on both the front and back of the boat before docking at the other side in Edmonds. One last stop beckoned however. We drove a little north to Henry’s Donuts in Mukilteo. One good snack later and I was dropping my brother off at his place in Lynnwood before making my way back home in Bothell.

All told, the car drove for over 12 hours and almost 500 miles. We averaged about 34mpg, including all of the fuel wasting twisty roads. I have nearly 29000 miles on that car and I’ve loved every minute of it. It’s proven to be the most versatile car I’ve ever owned, checking all of the boxes along the way (spacious, handles, fun, quick, practical, safe, fuel efficient, good looking, etc.).

And, uh.. I’ll get the rest of the Germany trip reports up sooner or later

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By joel, November 14, 2009 6:01 am

As mentioned earlier, I’m driving around the Olympic mountains with my brother today.

We’ll make a few quick side trips on the way before stopping near Lake Quinalt to check out a waterfall. There are a couple of big trees to see along the way before making it out to Olympic National Park on the coast. We will probably stop at Ruby Beach to take a look at the sea stacks before heading back inland and driving to the Hoh Rain Forest visitor center. I’ll try to stop and talk to the German family that runs the cafe just outside the national park before turning north and driving back along the Strait of Juan de Fuca along some of the best roads in the world before taking a ferry back toward Seattle.

This trip is about a few things: the amazing roads, the amazing scenery, taking a few photos, and enjoying some time with my brother.

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By joel, September 13, 2009 9:38 am

Please note: there are two new posts below this one, with tons of photos

the day after the ring:

I got to bed late Wednesday night (about 2am) after offloading the days photos and working out my route for the rest of my trip in Germany. I woke up as late as possible the next morning. I checked out of the hotel just in time and then sat in my car figuring out where I was going to drive that day, and figuring out where the Ring Werk was so I could pick up a couple souvenirs. Sadly a thick fog had rolled in late Wednesday night and had settled quite heavily by Thursday morning. I gave up on taking photos of the various test centers around the ring (Nissan, GM, and BMW all have large test centers) and drove straight into town to pick up some goodies.

The Ring Werk area. This is all new construction as part of the “Nürburgring 2009″ project, near the Grand Prix circuit.

a large recreation/model of the Nürburgring in the Nissan area

an RS4

no idea what this is..

Aston Martin store

huge video screen inside the building

This place oozes BMW..

inside the souvenir shop

After taking photos of all the cool things along the way, I picked up a Nürburgring shirt and a few ring stickers for my cars at a home. It was so foggy I actually used my rental’s rear fog light, and had a hard time seeing the buildings when looking for a place to park.

I got out of town really quite late, after noon, and started on my way toward Stuttgart. I was hoping to make it to Stuttgart in time to stop at the Porsche Museum before driving on toward the Austrian border further south. However my body had different plans for me as I ended up feeling very tired while driving on the Autobahn. I ended up having to pull off into a Parkplatz and catch some rest in my car. I slept a couple hours and missed the closing time of the Porsche Museum.

in between Nürburg and Stuttgart.. everything is old here, including the mountains

I ended up staying in another hostel on Thursday night, having driven only a couple hundred kilometers that day. It felt like a complete waste. I checked into my room (single room this time) and immediately settled down to work on my photos from the previous day. This took me about four hours to complete. I got my photos online and went to bed.

the first Z1 I’ve ever seen..

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By joel, September 13, 2009 9:31 am

I woke up at about 7:30 Wednesday morning for some breakfast. I crammed in a quick video of someone else driving the ring before starting my day. The tourist session started at 8am, and I was meeting some people from Finalgear’s IRC channel at about 9am. I drove back into Adenau for some gas.

The three guys I’d known from Finalgear showed up during the 9 o’clock hour: one from The Netherlands and two from Germany. All had driven the ring at least once before, and had been in Nürburg multiple times. We all watched the cars enter and exit the course for a while, catching a glimpse of a Gumpert Apollo… the actual car to have broken the ring lap record for a street car, and the Top Gear track record as well. You quickly grow numb to the huge number of 911’s around you. The parking lot is simply full of them. You start to pay more attention to the more rare cars around.. such as right-hand drive Integra Type-R’s, 190E 2.5l 16v Evolution’s, and Ferrari’s. There were a few very nice examples of older VW’s as well, including a couple mk2 Scirocco’s and mk2 GTI’s. Of course there were a couple mk5 GTI’s, but I don’t remember seeing any mk4’s at all. There was also a new Scirocco or two, along with the rented ring tools that included new GTI’s and Scirocco’s.

I believe this is the first RS4 Avant I’ve seen

I’m told the Polize like to show up and check whether modifications on cars are legal or not

the Gumpert Apollo.. there was a red one as well, but I failed to get any photos of it

quite a few of these were around that day

very clean looking gti

I’ve no idea why this French car was pulled off to the side of the course..

the r8 v10

We all drove to one of the turns on the track that’s easily accessible to watch the cars drive by, nearly crash, and take photos. Remember, this course is about 21km in length and takes around 8 – 11 minutes for most cars to finish one lap. That’s part of what makes it so special, and a mecca for car & motorsports enthusiasts around the world. The ring has a few towns inside, and you drive across a couple bridges that cross normal country roads. You are literally racing through the country side, on what is a restricted access, one way, toll road, with no speed limit. You still must have a completley road legal car, technically you can’t follow to close, and you’re supposed to pass on the left (most people do). There are actually speed limits imposed in two places as well. One is at the Adenau bridge where a second track entrance is. This is mostly used for annual ring pass holders and for emergency vehicles. The other speed limit is at the end of the course, on the famously super long straight, where you have to eventually slow down to 50kph so you can safely re-enter the toll area.

I’m not going to post all of the photos I have online from the track, so check out the link here: http://www.fakelag.net/users/v…/ring/

Here’s a few of the more interesting photos from the first corner we visited:

this thing sounded like a Honda :sly:

the v10 r8

I thought these Opel’s were quite good looking

there were two of these Seat’s on course Wednesday

this was trailered in, towed by a diesel mk4 wagon

one of a few GT-R’s there

just a scirocco in the parking lot

I was told these were some sort of military police

After quickly making a run back into Nürburg to verify with RSR that I would have my car for the afternoon, we all drove out to the Adenau bridge area to watch the cars go through one of the slowest corners before speeding down across the bridge (lowest spot on the track) and climbing back uphill on the other side. We had an awesome sweeping view of the countryside, and of this part of the track.

the bridge is to the right, and Adenau is the town you can see in the photo

this is the track’s second entrance, used mostly by emergency vehicles and annual ticket holders. Note the “///” sign (“unrestricted”).

Here’s the 50kph sign before the entrance.. most people don’t really follow it, though this is a relatively slow portion of the track.

“one way”

this was near the entrance.. no idea what it’s supposed to be

graffiti under the Adenau Bridge

heading back up the hill from the bridge

down the hill toward the bridge

popular viewpoint

the three guys from finalgear

an ADAC emergency helicopter.. we did see a rider arrive who had wrecked earlier, so this may have been for him

A little later we all had to return to Nürburg once again so I could pick up my ring tool rental. I was given a quick briefing on the car and the track. I was basically told to keep the traction control on, try to stay out of 2nd gear once you get going (the car has some quite a bit of lift-off oversteer), and to watch out for the Adenau Forest turns (everyone warns you about this). The car, I was told by several people, is a great car for first-timers. It’s a small front wheel drive hatchback, with an NA 4-cylinder making 200hp and revving past 7k RPM’s. It actually oversteers slightly, when pushed through the corners, before the tracktion control kicks in and brakes one of the wheels to straighten the car out. The car is pretty odd inside, with switches and knobs in places you wouldn’t expect. The turn signal stock is a small lever rather than the traditional longer stalk.

I quickly got used to it though, noticed the heavy clutch, and drove off toward the entrance (heart beating quickly, of course).

As you pass the toll booth, where you swipe your proximity debit card (“ring card”) to get through, you follow some cones for the first few hundred meters before being guided through a sharp chicane and then being set free. I slowly navigated through the first corners, mostly sticking to the far right so everyone else could pass. One piece of advice I kept in mind the entire day was “the limit is not your skill or your car, but your knowledge of the track”. I reminded myself of this as much as possible throughout the afternoon, keeping myself from gaining too much confidence. This is not a track you want to feel confident on until you have 25+ laps driven, and probably closer to 100 laps completed. I went through the corners at a modest pace, but quickly relaized how fast the car really was. I was told by one of the guys at RSR that it can do 8.5 minutes around the ring. I was probably going to be lucky to get under 11 minutes.

I quickly returned for my second lap, with the tires (P-Zero Nero’s) and brakes starting to warm up nicely. The car really accelerates nicely after about 4k, and easily keeps up with most of the cars on the ring. I’ll say right now that I walked away at the end of the day very impressed with the car. I would have to seriously consider it if I lived in Europe. I took some corners on the second lap way too quickly and made use of the traction control and ABS quite a bit. The third lap I settled down quite a bit and started to recognize a couple corners… and started to have more fun.

I returned to RSR to check in with them, look over the car a bit, and to let the engine cool down. Ten minutes later I was headed back to the ring for my fourth lap, which was awesome. I fell in behind an older 911 and in front of an E30 for most of the lap. They were about as quick as I was, but seemed to know the lines a little better. I was able to follow and keep up nicely, and this very quickly schooled me on running the course better.

The fourth and fifth laps were done in succession. I again took a couple corners too quickly in the fourth lap, making heavy use of the TC and very nicely saved me from hitting anything. The fifth lap had me pass my first yellow flag and accident. I passed by another RSR owned Clio Sport first, which was sitting on the side of the track. It turns out they had hit the barrier and damaged the car enough to cost them a significant amount of money. After passing the downed Clio I passed by a GT3 RS, driven by someone from the Ring Runners of Sweden group, with both the front and the rear quite damaged and the car turned around on the side of the track. This group, made up mostly of 911’s, had been travelling around the ring in groups all day, causing others to have to slow down quite a bit in order to let 5+ cars pass at the same time. I can’t exactly say that they were driving very safely at times either. The track was closed due to this accident (gravel and car parts everywhere), so I drove back to RSR, disappointed that I had had a great lap and was just starting to get heat back into the tires.

some photos from around RSR

the other Clio that was damaged

this Frenchman had his Porsche damaged on the course. RSR helped pull the body work out enough so he could at least get the car home

While back at RSR I started talking with another guy who was renting one of their unlimited kilometer Alfa 75’s for the day. It turns out he lives in Portland and was in Europe for a couple weeks like me. We talked for a bit about the Northwest and about our experience on the ring so far. He ended up doing 16 laps that day (the normal recommendation is for newbs to stop by about their tenth lap, as they’re usually starting to lose their concentration), and he didn’t have the luxuries of ABS or TC like I did in my car.

The track opened about 45 minutes later and I made my way out for the sixth lap. Surprise! It closed again right as I was finishing the lap. My package included six laps total, but I added one more on because I just wasn’t ready to be done yet. It wasn’t my best lap, but I was really starting to recognize the corners where I knew I could go fast and the corners where I had to brake more. I had my line down pretty well through the Adenau Forest as well.

After this closure passed I went out for my seventh, and final, lap. It turns out the track was closed again shortly after I started my lap, so I was able to keep it quite clean since few cars were behind me. This was my best lap by far. I can’t easily describe the feeling, or how well I did either, since I had no camera or way to time the lap. But I passed a few cars, didn’t have to use TC at all, used ABS only a couple times, and ended up with a fairly good line for most of the course. It was an awesome way to end the day, so I thought.

the track is often closed to bikes when there is any fluid on the track

the area of the course in between where cars exit and enter is closed during tourist sessions, so these guys were using the closed part of the pavement to film an R8 driving in a straight line, for some reason

I pulled back into RSR and worked on breathing normally and calming down from my amazing day. I drove back to the track entrance to meet back up with the guys from Finalgear. I arrived to find out that if I hurried I may have a chance to ride with race driver Tim Schrick in a Renault Migane R26R (fast car.. twitchy… weird looking, etc.). They were giving free rides around the ring for those in the know (this wasn’t widely publicized). Also there was Jörge van Ommen, a former DTM driver, driving a standard 911 (996) Carrera. I ended up getting my ride around the track with him. I had never ridden in a 911 before, let alone around a road course driven by a professional race driver.

Jörge, standing behind the 911 I rode in

Tim Schrick, about to scare a German kid who wanted a ride in the Migane

Simply put, I was amazed by the 911. The engine is a little underpowered compared with the faster cars on the track (we were passed by one car.. a new M3), but the car is perfectly sorted, on stock tires and suspension. He was able to take corners and hop over the curbs without unsettling the car one bit. The car had worn brakes and tires, if that matters. I was impressed none-the-less, and it was a perfect way to end the day!

The four of us hung out at the diner near the entrance for a while before parting ways, well after dark.

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By joel, September 12, 2009 6:19 am

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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By joel, September 8, 2009 4:11 pm

Day number 4. Tonight and tomorrow are going to run together for me, as I have made it to the Nuerburgring. I won’t want to leave.

Tonight I ate at the Pistenklaus Restaurante, owned by Sabine Schmitz’ parents. It’s not bad, and was full of ringers after their track time tonight.. and talking about tomorrow. I ended up sitting right next to a guy from the UK, and another guy who is an Aussie living in the UK, so we ended up talking for quite a while. Both had sort of decided to drive over from the UK at the last minute today. I so wish I could live in Europe, just for this

The town is packed full of Porsches. I’ve seen only a couple 911’s in Germany until today; now I’ve seen about 40, most of which are either GT2’s or GT3’s (many are RS’s as well). There are a ton of other very expensive cars here as well (surprise!). If it wasn’t so late I’d be down the hill taking night shots of GT3 RS’s on the side of the road, and of the parking lots full of 911’s, Lambo’s, and Ferrari’s.

I’m staying at Bergstube Hotel tonight. It’s just down the hill from the Nuerburg castle and overlooks the Eifel hills around the ring. I can’t see the ring from Nuerburg, but you sure can hear the cars on the first part of the track. It’s amazing. It’s a nice little hotel by the way. It’s run by a bunch of bike geeks who ride on the track whenever possible.

Tomorrow morning I’m meeting up with a few people from the finalgear.com forums & irc channel.. a sort of mini-ring meet. I’ll probably sneak a couple slow laps in the rental before heading back to rsr nurburg to pick up the Clio for the rest of the day. I get about 130km for the price, and I might squeeze in one or two extra laps if the traffic isn’t too heavy.

We’ll see though. I’m told that Thursday is some exotic car instruction day, where a bunch of rich idiots have flown their cars in from all over the world to have private instruction. So, because Wednesday is a full open day they’ll all be out driving like newbs in their expensive cars. The locals are expecting a couple crashes from that group, at the least. This means the course will be shut down a couple times.

Oh, the drive in to Nuerburg from the Autobahn is simply amazing. The only ‘negative’ is that the roads are just like every other B road in Germany: lots of speed changes, some small towns, and no where to pull off and take photos. The scenery is awesome though, and the roads are great. It’s a beautiful area; I could live here easily as long as I could get to work without too much hassle..

I did do other things today. I spent most of the day driving on back roads from Kassel to the Edertal area, bouncing from village to village while checking out the scenery. It was a fun drive, but it took way too long and used too much fuel. The car gets better mileage at 150kph cruising than it does at 50 – 100kph on the back roads. It’s a decent car for the Autobahn I suppose, but definitely not a good twisty road car. As with most newer Golfs & Jettas, this one needs better suspension. By the way, after seeing several mk6’s on the road now, I think only the GTI has any real improvement or significant change in the looks department. The biggest difference with the Golf is the headlights and taillights, and if you don’t catch those you think it’s a mk5. The biggest practical difference inside is the doorcard design, so that the power window switches are higher up (which I kind of like).

I stopped in Gudensburg earlier in the morning as well and spent quite a while there, climbing the hill in town to the site of a castle from around 1100 (if I remember correctly). The view was awesome, so I took a few shots I hope stitch into a panorama nicely.

One last note: only in Nuerburg would you have the waitress stop at your table to correct you on the names of corners on the nearby road course

I’ll post up photos tomorrow night or Wednesday morning. I won’t be in any hurry to leave this town.

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By joel, September 7, 2009 2:26 pm

Monday…

Today I left at about 9am and drove north toward Frankfurt before heading east toward Wüzburg then north toward Erfurt and then Leipzig. I then cut back in the direction of Frankfurt, on the north side, and have stopped in Kassel for the night.

Google Maps tells me it’s a 700km drive.. and nearly 7 hours. I paid $88 to fill the ~14 gallon tank today. I really need to drive slower. Those unresticted zones on the Autobahn are amazing though!

I drove from ‘A’ to ‘B’ today:

found this in the neighborhood where I’ve stayed the last two nights

my first venture out on my own on the Autobahn.. construction zone (the yellow marks are temporary and supersede any white marks. The lanes can get very narrow.

I love european wagons… and I love these cars

just about the cheapest fuel costs I’ve seen so far.. this was at an Autohöfe (basically a truck stop) just off the Autobahn.

part of the Autohof

looking toward the truck area… solar panels aren’t extremely common here, but they’re still much more common than what I’ve seen in the US

I don’t think I’d ever buy one, but I do love seeing Alfa’s

is this an S3? had a different bumper, headlights, and a midhatch spoiler. I didn’t look inside. It’s a little more difficult to know what model cars are here since rear badging is often optional at dealership. The lady driving this car was going pretty slowly on the Autobahn..

This is what I saw parked next to me when I came back out of the Autohof where I had my dinner (mmm.. Brätwurst mit Brochen (oh, btw, currywurst is awesome)). There are so many wagons here, and I love it.

wind power also seems to be quite common

some view from a side road I took while looking for a place to stop and look at a map. There are almost no shoulders are places to pull over on roads here, and it’s illegal to stop on the Autobahn (thankfully there are plenty of rest stops and Parkplatz’s). This makes it almost impossible to take photos of the country side that I’m seeing

the side road… with curbs, so I have no idea how they expect a car to pass another. Most skinny roads have soft shoulders so you can at least pull off if you need to.

another view as the sun is setting, from a Parkplatz

the Parkplatz (basically, they’re like the rest stops we have on most of our interstates)

Today was awesome. That said, I won’t be able to drive quite as freely as I had hoped since this 1.4 engine just isn’t getting the mileage I had planned for when I was expecting to have a diesel instead. I ended up averaging about 7.5l/100km today, which is pretty good, but I know my 2L tdi would have done better. It doesn’t help when I’m passed by several 2.0 tdi cars today

Tonight I’m staying in a hostel in Kassel. It cost me about 30 EUR total and it’s a rather nice place. There are (so far) two other people in the room with me, one of which just happens to be from Olympia and arrived in Germany today. He’s starting his Masters program in Kassel after just graduating from Evergreen.

Tomorrow I make my way to the Nüburgring. I can’t describe how excited I am about this. There’s a short Touristenfahrten tomorrow night, and then one all day on Wednesday. I believe I’m meeting three people from finalgear.com on Wednesday. I also just found that out that Tim Schrick (look him up) will be at the ring on Wednesday, and apparently he’s giving free taxi rides!? What timing!

Before the ring I plan on looking around Kassel a bit, which is supposed to have some cool old stuff. Afterward I’ll probably follow the Rhein a bit (basically following the map above) before heading thorugh the hills toward Nürburg and checking into my hotel in town (also excited about this)

Please see my thread on the vwvortex forum for my photos from yesterday. I didn’t feel like posting here last night.