Albert Pernia's First Trip to Europe: June 14th to July 4th 2007
Countries Visited:
England |
France |
Belgium |
The Netherlands |
Germany
In Germany, I was moving around alot. I stayed at 3 different hotels and went through 6 different cities. The Kalenborn Hotel here near the Nurburgring was quite nice. Family owned for 5 generations, it was ~20 minutes away from the track. The reason I'm unhappy at the Marriott in Stuttgart is because I just lost my wallet earlier. Not cool. Lastly, the Sheraton was in Munich.
No, these ain't my Porsches. The white GT3 is the new car my friend picked up, while the blue one belongs to his friend. I can't afford a Porsche myself = (. I may own a BMW, but I'm no fool. The P-Car is the Ultimate Driving Machine in my opinion.
For racers like my friend Jim and I, this is THE track, our mecca. The longest and best race track in the world did not disappoint. No track I've driven here compares, and going through it on the Playstation will never compare to actually being there. The scenery was beautiful, and its a nice little town that the course goes around. We got to drive at a private track day held by Manthey Racing and were able to enjoy it with minimal cars on the track at the same time. If you're into racing or driving, you MUST drive here one day.
Just some pics I took while walking around a quiet Sunday morning in Stuttgart. Man, its *really* quiet. Almost nobody on the streets, and just about every shop was closed. It doesn't show in the pics, but Stuttgart and the surrounding areas are very nice.
It was raining in Munich...ALOT. So I chose to stay indoors - at the BMW Factory, the Museum, the Olympic center, and the Munich Sea Life aquarium. Only a handful of pics here.
This was the first thing I had planned on my trip (after my flight ticket of course). I love my BMW, so I had to visit the factory. Its not a very long tour at around 90 minutes or so, but I thought it was really cool to see the manufacturing technology, especially the robots working efficiently and precisely. I know that beyond the manufacturing, there's alot of effort in planning and designing the Ultimate Driving Machine and it almost makes the $40K+ for a bimmer seem like a bargain.
The rain pretty much forced me indoors. This aquarium is very close to the BMW Museum. I thought I'd drop in and check it out. It kept me busy and the sea life here is what you'd find in the Atlantic and Meditteranean of course.
I LOVED this place. It was just very unfortunate that despite my rental car, I had to take the train and just my luck, there was a strike by railworkers that day. I got to the castle much later than I had planned, ~3:30pm. I couldn't even get in till 4:45pm and although the day started out beautifully, a storm had rolled in and it was misty and rainy. Still, I managed to get through it really quick cause I had to catch the train to Munich that night. The castle, the location, the nearby village - amazing. Highly recommended.
Just a few more pics. I wasn't take as many pics anymore, because of the rain, the driving I was doing, losing my wallet in Frankfurt, and just taking too many pics. I was saving it for Neuschwanstein, but was limited there as well.
Countries Visited:
England |
Germany |
Belgium |
The Netherlands |
Germany