The Land of Many Porsches

Stuttgart Germany

Day 23: April 16th, 2014

Today was the day of cars. This was the day we finally got to go to the Porsche Museum. It was fantastic! (from Jeff's point of view) Amber enjoyed  it too. There were so many pretty examples of Porsche's through the years, and the audio tour was pretty informative about how it all began and has progressed. Now all they needed to do was to allow us to drive them and Jeff's life would be complete. Alas, that is not possible. It was still tons of fun to see . While Amber was taking a break from the engaging exhibits, one of the workers came up to her and asked her if she needed anything. She said that she was here with her husband and just wanted to sit down. The worker replied, "This is a husband kind of museum." That pretty much sums it up.

 The first Porsche! It was an electric car with 4 horsepower! It was the predecessor, in a round about way to the Hippie Van, because Ferdinand Porsche designed the VW Beetle which spawned the entire VW company!

Jeff with a real, working Sally Carrera! It is a highly modified 911.

 "Watch out! That is my man!"-Amber

They were "sound showers" that gave you surround sound of many different engines from across the years. 

Carrera GT

 Light as a feather! 

It was a display to show that at speed, this car produces enough downforce through aerodynamic design to drive on the ceiling!

 The perfect philosophy for life!

The genesis of Amber's love affair with VW

The first fire engine was a Porsche, or at least designed by Ferdinand Porsche himself!

 911 Targa

Carrera GT in the wild. :)

After that we drove back, it took forever because traffic was insane. We then got some dinner and cooked it at our place and then watched " French Kiss". It should be obvious who was in control of the movie selection.

Pictures of our "lovely and interesting" accommodations:

Day 24: April 17th, 2014

Today we headed off to Frankfurt to end our long road trip, 2300km in all. We were headed to the hostel owned by the LDS church that is next to the Frankfurt temple. We are meeting Allie there tomorrow to do a session and then we are heading out to her place in the middle of nowhere Germany!

On the way to Frankfurt we decided to try and find the roots of the Shirts, originally Schertz, family in Germany. Robert, Jeff's dad said that they were from the Darmstadt area. We also went to trusty Google and googled it. We put it into Google Maps and we found a Schertz that was kind of on the way to Darmstadt so we added it to the itinerary and headed off. The GPS was unfailing, if not annoying, and found the address very quickly in the little town of Lieman, Germany. The only problem was that it was a house, with a family with the last name of Schertz living in it. Strange how you can Google Schertz, Germany and find a person's residence. If that only worked everywhere. I wonder if the people know this? We didn't get to talk to them so we will never know. It doesn't work for Shirts, Idaho, or Shirts, USA. It just starts listing off places to buy shirts, and hopefully not people. . .

What is most likely a 2015 Audi A7 with very little disguising. We saw it driving from Stuttgart to Frankfurt in a massive traffic jam.

We also stopped by Darmstadt, but just kept on driving because it is just a large suburb of Frankfurt and there wasn't much historical stuff available,  but we've been there!

We then headed off to Frankfurt, or more specifically, Friedrichsdorf. The only problems were the miles, or should we say kilometers, of traffic, and the GPS telling us to drive off of a bridge that had been taken out due to being replaced. We suffered through the first one, and kept driving until the GPS gave up on trying to convince us to turn around and redirected us around the construction.

We got to the temple, checked into our room and had a relaxing evening of making food and talking.

Day 25: April 18th, 2014

Today we woke up and  Jeff left early to make sure that he had the car back to the rental company by 11am. We didn't want to take any chances with the GPS or traffic. He got there in plenty of time, especially because he wanted to enjoy the last few minutes of the autobahn. This meant finding out how fast the little 4 cyl diesel would go. He can now happily report that it will go 200 KMH which is just about 125 MPH, and the thing still averages 47MPG.

America, why not have a diesel, or even a diesel hybrid? I got better mileage than a Prius in a cheap little diesel! Now I may not have looked much better than a Prius doing it, but there are a few things that cannot be forgotten. #1 I was NOT driving a Prius. #2 I got as good or better average MPG than a Prius. #3 I don't ever have to worry about batteries. This means no worries about the constant threat of them running dry half way up a mountain pass and the car turning into a 87HP weakling trying to haul 1000 Lbs of batteries plus people and luggage up a hill. There is also the added bonus of not having to replace an intrigal part of the drive train at less than 100,000 miles. Instead I saved the planet, and my sanity, with gobs of low end torque and a 1000km( 621 Mile) range  between fill ups. Think about it America. My rental also cost less than a Prius, and most importantly, it wasn't a Prius. And another thing. You can buy a 2014 Mercedes C200 Diesel in America, because my Seat is not available, that pollutes less than a Prius and gets the same real world gas mileage. And it looks infinitely better, and again, is not a Prius.

Ok, this is the end of my shameless Prius bashing. I Promise.

After that we had a little problem with technology and how it cannot possibly take over the world just yet. Allie said that she would pick Jeff up at the main train station where he had to drop car off. The problem arose when the question about what the main entrance to the train station was. Both said to meet in the parking lot south of the main train station, but both had seen a different main entrance. This meant that both waited a mere200 yards from each other for over an hour before they were able to get into contact with each other and figure out their mistake. 

Eventually they found each other and met back up with Amber at the Temple and had a wonderful session in the temple.

 Week 27 of Pregnancy!

We then headed off to Western Germany for what turned out to be some great food and amazing hospitality. We first stopped at Trier, Germany, the oldest continuous town in Germany. It was started in the 16th century BC. In said town, which is very modern with some old walls and towers, there is a very good restaurant with hearty food. Allie loves this place and so we were glad to give her the opportunity to eat it again. As we have learned, the Germans aren't too hot on the vegetable topic, as you can see in these pictures. but they do love potatoes, meat, and cheese. All good things.

After that the baby was demanding some ice cream so we found some delicious gelato, for 0.90 €, crazy because in America we would have paid at least $2-3 for it. The Greek lady working there loved the baby bump and added on double!

 After that we headed to Allie's sister and brother-in-law's house in Orsfeld. It is a small farming village surrounded by bright yellow grapeseed fields. He is a counselor for the school on the Air Force Base in Spangdahlem. They have 6 adorable children who have loved to have us around. It is wonderful.