Ausflüge nach der Schweiz und Italien (Part II)

Livignio Countryside

We leave Liechtenstein, and now Trevor is driving. He's a bit more aggressive, and I'm sitting in the back with Brian and Anna. We're on our way back to the highway, and we're hungry. Ultimately we made the decision after search with Holly for other placed to eat in the vicinity. Holly was pretty good and giving us a good selection, but it ultimately led to time. We decide to stop at a Marché, a rest area along the side of the freeway. At 8:30 there were a lot people there. Again to our extreme luck, what was supposed to be a relatively quick pit stop get something to eat took again more time than expected. This time a huge tour bus of hungry Swiss Germany teenagers get off, and literally swarm the restaurant. We of course get there right after. After figuring out what the situation was, we decided to eat there. Marché has stations where you can choose what to eat and they prepare it for you. That's a great idea, except for the price factor, which is more than any restaurant that I've been to in Radolfzell. Prices per person could easily reach 20CHF per person. I decided to be smart and help myself to a very generous portion of chicken and roasted potatoes. They didn't weigh the plates so I took as much as I could load onto the plate, and then took an extra plate and split the meal with Brian. I didn't buy a drink, salad or dessert, and my meal (Chicken with Vegetable Side) was 15 CHF. But since I was clever, I paid only 7.50 CHF. It took us about 20 minutes to regroup for dinner and start eating. Trevor got Schnitzel which took the longest. We were all done by the time he sat down. He had to scarf down his food unfortunately. After quickly stopping at the quick mart for Brian to buy a pop, we were on our way again. This time, since it was dark, I was driving again.

After merging onto the highway from Marché, we travelled about 3 miles, and then had to take our exit onto the secondary roads. It was quite dark so we couldn't see the Alps, but we were entering Alp territory. According to Holly, we were only 45 minutes out of Davos, a good sign we though. Holly navigated us perfectly. By the time we exit the tunnel that leads to Davos, the navigation screen shows a loop de loop of roads and wants us to literally travel in circles. We listen, but realized finally that she had taken us to a train station, where we were supposed to board the train with the car and take the train through the mountains. That would have been great, except for the price tag (19 CHF - for the car, not sure if people have to pay too) and the fact that it was so late that it was not operating. For a moment, I was unsure what to do. The only other road our of Davos seemed to go in the opposite direction than that which we needed to travel. Finally, I redirected Holly and asked her to bypass the train thing, and she takes us forward. At this point, it's really dark, we're in the mountains, there are trees everywhere, and it's foggy, chilly and we're tired. I like driving at night though, so I was excited to be driving in the mountains on the serpentine roads. I listen to Holly and we continue driving down the road which I doubted.

Holly took us through the Fuela Pass, which is approximately 2500m high. Our car, had a nifty feature that told us our altitude. Along the pass, where the road serpentined, we took a break to look at the stars. Everything was so clear and air so crisp. It was amazing. We were so happy we had made it this far! We all get out and go into the nearby field. We have to jump a wire line, which actually was electric. We all go slightly electrocuted but didn't mind. We spent about 10 minutes looking at the stars, marveling out the peacefulness of the landscape. Trevor and Patrick make a comment however that there are these strange brown things on the ground. I hadn't seem them, but then again, I did venture too far off from the road as it was cold. The car read 4˚C ~ 41˚F.

We get back in the car, and continue on our way. It's about 9:30 by now. We drive through the pass and are literally immersed in the Alps. Immediately we see a difference in the towns and their architecture. It really looks different, and the language now is Romansch, the 4th official language of Switzerland. We drive the road Holly is telling us to take. We then enter the Swiss National Park and are driving through, what seems to be stunning scenery (except that it was dark). We finally are about 15km from Livignio, but still in Switzerland. It's 10:17pm and the tunnel that we are to take that goes directly to Livignio is CLOSED! Like closed for the night. It closed at 10pm. We were 17minutes too late. All of us were so discouraged. We couldn't believe it, and literally were just sitting there in front of the tunnel, which was barricaded and shut, like a garage. We were parked basically at the Swiss border station. We decide to call the Hotel to tell them our problem, perhaps they know of a better way. Despite having Holly, we also had a map, which I have to give credit to Anna for bringing along in any case. It was extremely helpful here, as we had to find another way through the mountains to Livignio. Concurrently, I was setting Holly to bypass the tunnel and recalculate the route. According to her, the new route would take us over 200km extra kilometers (130 miles) and 4 hours to complete, giving us a new arrival time into Livignio of 2:30am. That sucked! As I was talking to the owner of the hotel, he told to take the St. Barnardino Pass by St. Moritz. I asked him about another pass closer (as I thought he meant the directions Holly was telling us). He said that that pass also closed, but even earlier. However, he was busy and he had to call us back. We hung up, and then immediately in a BMW X3 arrived the Swiss border patrol. They asked us what we were doing, and we explained that we needed to go to Livignio. They were much friendlier, and their German understandable (as their native language is Romanch). They told us that we also had to go toward St. Moritz, but said the route to Livignio would take 4-5 hours. So Holly was right. Oddly, the Hotel owner told us 1 and 1/2 hours. We drove to the closest town to see if we could spend the night there, as no one wanted to go 4-5 hours to Livignio only to sleep in the next morning out of fatigue. We go to the first town, there are a couple of hotels there, and the hotel owner comes out and tells us he can give us a special student special of 50 CHF per person. This is the equivalent of what were paying in Livignio. But we'd have to share a bathroom, and Anna would have to be separate from everyone else since she was a female. We decided to think about it. Nobody else was going to come, unless they also planned on traveling through the tunnel and got stuck on the Swiss side. We called the hotel owner back in Livignio. He tells us that he cannot refund our money for our rooms (we had made the reservations that morning over email), but he said that it was not possible. He did say though, we could come another time for the same rate, like the following night. Uhh, we were only planning on one night. That would have really broken the budget. We decide that we will go ahead and drive to Livignio.

By this time our spirits were actually really high. We were laughing at how many obstructions caused us to miss the closing of the tunnel. We recalled the day at every single thing that could have changed and then we'd would have made the tunnel. I was driving towards St. Moritz. The radio was a mix of Yodeling, American Rap, Alpine Mountain Music and Swiss Oldies. We drove into the night, and were on our way. Right near the Italian border, there was a road that led to our East. Holly had told us to continue to travel straight, but apparently this was the St. Bernardino Pass. Right where the junction was, we saw a camper van turn onto the road and so we follow. Technically this road was also closed, but the border patrol wasn't there, and it wasn't blocked off. And since there was a car in front of us, we felt safer driving behind them. The pass took us pretty high up. It was 11:45pm and we were actually only 15 minutes from Livignio. We cross the pass, enter the valley and quickly find our hotel. It's 12:15, we wake up the owner, check-in to our rooms and quickly fall asleep. We were so happy to have found this short-cut.

(The front grille of our Opel. Click the photo and read the license plate frame)

Ausflüge nach der Schweiz und Italien (Part I)

So, I'm about to embark on a writing journey as this post should have been written a couple of weeks ago. There is also much to write about, and as you know, I'm pretty detailed in the way I write. So I think I will break this post into parts. We'll see...

On the weekend of September 11th- 13th, I travelled to Switzerland and Italy with 4 other PPPler. We actually started to plan for the trip way ahead, and the original idea was to go to Liechtenstein, a small principality nestled in between Switzerland and Austria. However, as we began talking logistics of making it a reality, we decided there was probably a lot to see in Switzerland as well. Originally, when I first when to Zürich and Switzerland for the first time in 2006, I hated it and couldn't understand why people actually go there. Then in 2008, I drove through Switzerland to go to Italy and I saw some of the most gorgeous scenery in my whole life. So Anna and I were the organizers of this trip and we though Davos, Switzerland would be amazing. A quick look at Google Earth told us that nearby was also the Swiss National Park that is also across border lines into Italy. After doing some research, we decided we would go here as well.

(This is really going to be a long post....)

Further investigating and planning for the trip, we decided it would be necessary to have a car. Luckily, because of my instinctive skills to get the best price for anything travel related, I found that Europcar has a glitch in their system which allows me to rent vehicles from them at 50%. Unfortunately, they removed the offer they had going on, making it impossible to book a car like this anymore.

Although Liechtenstein isn't so far away from Radolfzell, if we were going to try to do this excursion, it was definitely going to take the whole day, and we might as well as stay another day. (You can see how the costs are adding up). We decided that we would need other people to come with us in order to get better economies of scale. We started promoting our excursion to other PPPlers and we were able to convince some more people to come with us. This helped us of course, but then are budget was once more shattered as the Youth Hostel I found in Switzerland priced things per person as opposed to per room. I found a 6 bedroom room for 58CHF, but that was unfortunately per person. (1USD = 1 CHF). I continued looking for a place to sleep, but many hotels aren't connected to a Global Distribution System and I had to really search hard. Finally we made the decision that we would spend the night in Italy as Italy is cheaper than Switzerland. In fact, almost everywhere is cheaper than Switzerland.

The hotel that I found was called the Picolo Tibet Hotel in Livignio Italy. Luckily, Livigio happens to be a tax-free region in Italy (I didn't know this) but it claims itself as being a European community as opposed to an Italian one. This is historically true, as earlier this century it was part of Austria. However, nothing about Austria really remains here except for the architecture of the buildings. Since it's on the south side of the Alps, it's much more influenced from Italy and even the Church's walls have Latin writing. Luckily, our hotel included a full breakfast, and we paid only 39 Euros (although it was supposed to be 33).

The car that we rented for the trip was an Opel Insignia with Navi. Since we had 5 people traveling at all times, we needed a roomy car, and a VW Golf wasn't going to cut it for us. But luckily, because of the glitch in Europcar's system, we rented the car for a mere 73 €. (There's a catch though, and I'll get to that later).

So Brian, Trevor, Patrick, Anna and I were on board. We estimated that with the currents costs would average each person approximately 60€ for the weekend. Not bad for what we considered on doing.

On the day of our departure, the plan was to leave school and take the train and 12:17 for Singen (the neighboring town) where Europcar is located. However, being veteraned in renting cars and traveling in Europe, I was sure to bring my passport. But, I forgot to mention to the others, who naturally also wanted to drive, that the car rental needed our passports. I did remind them on the day of, but Patrick had to ride his bike back home (a good 2km) to get his. Well this problem actually was the first of a myriad to occur to one very funny yet incredibly inconvenient day. The train leaves exactly 17 minutes after we get our of school. But Patrick, being in a different class from us, wasn't told that we were taking the 12:17 train. We waited for him at the CDC until 10 after, but then we went to the bahnhof and actually had to run to make the train. Patrick naturally didn't make it, but he biked as fast as he could to make the train. Then because Patrick was so adamant about driving, he decided to bike to Singen (8km) as fast as he could to register as a driver for the car. Again, not necessary since we were able to work something out at the rental agency and there would be no way to get Patrick's bike back to Radolfzell afterwards. Registering the additional drivers cost money too, an additional budget breaker. 6€/day/driver. Anyways, the other guys still wanted to drive so we signed them up, and to our luck, Europcar Singen (literally the last town in Germany before Switzerland) could give us a Swiss Vignette (a sticker that costs 60CHF that allows one vehicle to drive on their highway system. The Vignette cannot be transferred or removed or else it will tear apart. Therefore, many strategies have been developed to "how to remove them with out invalidating them." The trick is to put some vaseline or other creamy lotion on the sticker coating before applying it to the windshield.) The vignette cost us an additional 9 Euro. We additionally asked for a manual since we were all excited to drive a stick. Anyways, who would want to drive an underpowered automatic to begin with?

After registering everybody else as a driver, we had to go pick up the car. We misunderstood the directions for the car park, and walked in the wrong directions. We basically wasted about a half an hour looking for the car park. We did however find it, got seated and were off. Our car, a beige (although described as grey on the key chain) was parked, and we were given a station wagon, which was great! The extra room was great. Our car though, was only had a 1.6 litre displacement, which correlates to approximately 115hp. Mind you, our car was the size of a midsized American car, AND we were set to drive through the steep Alps. However our car did have a full size navigation screen (sometimes in Europe you get just a screen with arrows and a voice telling you where to go). Our Opel was pretty nice, and I was impressed with it's build quality and nice interior plastics. Opel, by the way, is owned/was owned/is partially still owned by General Motors Corp. If only they could take more from the Europeans and use some of the same materials in US versions and products. Opel, though, is also basically bankrupt and was sold off to Magna (a Canadian Auto Supplier and the Russian Bank Sberbank). Also, the license plate bracket from our was stated that we were insured by the infamous AIG. It said, "AIG die Weltweit Versicherer," which translates to, "AIG, the world-wide insurer). I found it odd that we in a GM car and insured by AIG. I prayed that nothing happened to us since both companies recently have abysmal business records.

We set off back for Radolfzell, where we had to pick up our stuff and Anna. It was 1:45 by the time we left. After dropping everyone off at home, I packed my stuff quickly and grabbed some food and went to go pick everyone up. It felt really good to drive for the first time after 6 weeks. The Opel was great, despite how massively big it was, although was comparatively sized as the Renault Laguna Wagons were that we had in Italy. I picked everyone up. Anna was last. As we seated I asked if everyone had their passports with them. Trevor didn't, but everyone else had. Since were so late to start off, and since Switzerland is now part of Schengen (a community of European countries that has open boarders) we figured we didn't need it. Traffic was bad immediately leaving Radolfzell. We got to Konstanz, were we needed to find the Europcar in order to properly get Patrick registered for the car. Our navigation system led us the wrong way into the opposite end of town. Where were we? So, then Patrick called Europcar to get the address of the Konstanz branch, where then we were able to input the new address into the Navigation system. I was already losing faith in our navigation system after this episode. Finally we dropped Trevor off at the Deutsche Bahn and made it to Europcar to get Patrick certified to drive. We picked up Trevor and then headed for the Swiss border, which is literally at the cities border. There are two options to cross the boarder into Switzerland from Konstanz. We chose the smaller one since that's were the navigation system told us to go. At the boarder, the Swiss boarder guard pulled us over, of course. In German (Swiss German -which is an awful un-understandable version of German) he asks me the following quesitons:

1) Does this vehicle belong to you? (Naturally, this was a valid question as Europcar is seated in Hamburg, or Hansa League City Hamburg, and the code on the license plate is HH. Hamburg is basically at the north of Germany, and Konstanz on the very bottom). 2) Where are we going? 3) To see our identification cards.

Everyone except Trevor had their passports, and Trevor gave his American Driver's License with his Inwent ID card. The guard went into the office, while numerous cars passed by without being checked or stopped. After about 5 minutes, he came back out and told us that everyone but Trevor was allowed to enter. He told Trevor that at the Liechtenstein border, he would not be able to enter. Therefore, we had to return to Radolfzell and pick up Trevor's passport. Did I mention we were late to leave?

One hour passes...

So, we're on the road again and travelling back to Constance and we go through the border. No problems whatsoever. However, Patrick is now driving, and he's a little bit rusty driving a stick. Immediately after entering Switzerland, there's a detour, we take the detour and miss the exit we're supposed to take and actually take the opposite one. (Our navigation system misled again, but I will let this one slide because of the detour). After taking the wrong exit, the voice (who I will now refer to as Holly) of the navigation system is telling us. "If possible, make a U-turn" in British English. Since there was so much traffic, Patrick wasn't able to turn around right away, except for the road we were on was taking us exactly to the same border crossing that we tried crossing before, but this time we're on the Swiss side and Patrick is driving. Therefore, Patrick turned left onto some small street and we turned around. The traffic with really thick, and it took us a while to leave Kreuzlingen (the Swiss town that borders Konstanz).

Finally we were on our way, and we finally moving. It was almost 5:00pm at this point and it was going to get dark. We get on the Swiss Highway (can you believe that we were going to forego driving on Swiss Highways because of the Vignette, and had Europcar not had it, we would have taken secondary roads instead). At around 6:30 we arrive into Liechtenstein.

(Capital Building Liechtenstein)

We drove into Liechtenstein from the North, so as to see more. The country is separated by the Rhein river. At approximately 5 miles wide and 15 miles long, it's not very big. The largest city is Schaan. The capital city is Vaduz. We drove through Schaan and saw a lot of people. But not many buildings. Everyone was leaving work. Most people in Liectenstein are extremely rich, and it was clearly visible by the cars they drove. However, a lot of people also rode the bright green "Liechtenstein Bus". In fact, I think we saw more people in the Liechtenstein bus in Schaan than we did in the whole city (hmm? village) of Vaduz.

(Parliament Building - Liechtenstein)

(Henry, Patrick, Anna, Trevor - Main street in Vaduz)

We got to Vaduz, parked and took a walk. Vaduz has a lot of banks. In fact, that's all that is there. Surprisingly, many countries have consulates there too. I was impressed to hear though that the US does not have a consulate in Liechtenstein. Vaduz is literally a ghost town on a Friday night at 7pm. There is no one. No one on the streets, no businesses are open. Nothing. We found the tourism center, which closed at 6pm. I would have gotten my Liechtenstein stamp in my passport had we gotten there in time, but as you've read so far, we were seriously behind schedule. We tried to find a place to eat in Liechtenstein, but everything seemed deserted and not worth it, not to mention the extremely ridiculously expensive prices. We decided to foregoe eating, take some pictures and get on our way. We did see the castle in which the Prince of Liechtenstein lives.

(Liechtensteiner Castle)

(Liechtensteiner Fire Hydrants)

Fürstenberg Brauerei

Last Wednesday was our last excursion with Silkee, our PPP Tutor here in Radolfzell. Silkee studied at Amherst and is one of our most valued resources here in Radolfzell. We took the Bahn to Donaueschingen, just 40 minutes away from Radolfzell. We were all really excited to go to the Brewery. In fact, Fürstenberg is one of the most well known breweries of the world, and they sell their beer all over the world. It was amazing to see the headquarters in a town of just 15,000 people.

Donaueschingen sits at the foot of the black forest on the way towards Freiburg. There is not much in the area in terms of industry and large cities. Luckily the weather was perfect and just a short walk from the train station was the Fürstenberg Château.

There we met with our Brewery Tour Guide, who then quickly showed us the Brewery from inside. The tour was quite short, but all German beer follows a strict law that was introduce by the King of Bavaria in 1516 called the "German Beer Purity Law". It states that beer can only have 4 ingredients: Wheat, Hops, Barley and Water. Other than that, the liquid doesn't qualify as beer according to the German standards. Funny too, because in my Economics 430 course with Prof. Jim Adams we discussed the Germany Purity Laws dating back to 1516 and how they play within the bounds of the present day European Union and its trade laws between member states like Heineken of Holland.

The brewery uses modern technology, and most of it was closed off to us. However, we did get to see the old technology that was used and copper vats of wheat and barley. It was very interesting to see. The smell of the factory smelled like a college party gone wrong, but impressively, the factory was very clean. We saw the bottling room as well. In fact, in Germany because of its strict recycling rules, most of the bottles are reused and sterilized and then reused. I find that very impressive.

At the end of the tour, there was of course a tasting, and beneath the factory in some cellar ceremony hall, we were served our choice of Fürstenberger Beer. We had the choice of Pils, Hefeweizen, Dunkelweizen, Export and of course a Diesel, Radler and alcohol free with lemongrass. We were also fresh buttered pretzels. After an hour of sitting there, we had to scramble back to the train station and make the train, or else we'd be stuck in Donaueschingen for another two hours.

Back in Radolfzell, most of the PPPlers went out with Silkee to the "Tankstelle" we we ate dinner and had drinks. Amazingly, despite being the end of September, the weather here has been excellent. Chilly in the mornings yet very warm and sunny by mid-day.

Only in Germany

So I've decided that I will start writing about odd things that I've noticed while living in Germany or certain things that I have done. Each subject doesn't really require a whole blog post, so I'll probably do these every week or two.

ROAD CONSTRUCTION:

Like in the US, Germany has passed legislation to jump start the economy, and it has to do with road repairs. Since I've been here I've noticed that roads are in much better condition, and that very few require any type of repair, but since Germans insist that the roads are in need of repair, a lot of construction has been going on.

In Radolfzell alone, there are like 8 construction zones. Two are directly on my way to school. Interestingly, one is only about a 50m stretch of road but also required new sidewalks, and the other one was about 300m long and didn't require new sidewalks. The roads being repaired has no potholes, no cracks, and no signs of ware, yet both are being repaired. The small stretch that's being repaired has now been under construction for over 4 weeks. Luckily this week they just paved the sidewalks with pavers, which is extremely normal here. Seems like a lot of work for not much use. The road is still under construction and only has a rock base, which was installed several weeks ago, and is now being torn up yet again. The other stretch (300m) was literally torn up in a matter of 1 day, and was completely repaved by the 3rd day. Today workers were painting lines with paint. (I think in the US they use reflective tape.) Now they are completely done.

BUILDING VACUUMING

So apparently buildings can be vacuumed as today I witnesses a building in fact being vacuumed. There was a person on what looked like an electrical line repair truck parked in front of the building. In the basket raised up to the 4th floor was a man with a normal industrial vacuum actually sucking up things from the walls near where the walls meet the roof. To the defense of the Germans, there was dirt on the building but I didn't know that it could be vacuumed. It actually worked. I guess it's sort of the equivalent of power washing. However, many buildings in Germany need to be power-washed, but this one didn't.

ENERGY SAVING TRAFFIC LIGHTS

At night, often times traffic lights simply do not work. They shut off to save electricity. In fact, it's a very good idea as there is very little traffic. Mostly this happens in residential areas. In the event someone is driving, the person to your right has the right of way, and you treat the intersection with care and proceed as if you had a yield sign.

RIGHT BEFORE LEFT

Naturally, we have the same driving rule in the US, but it works differently. For some reason, it is thought here that traffic signs are not needed, so it's very rare to actually see stop signs. Instead certain roads have priority over other roads, usually indicated with a sign in the form of a yellow diamond. When you have this sign, you have priority over other roads, and you do not have to yield to traffic coming from your right. However, if both roads are the same size, then the person to your right has priority and the right of way before you do, even if you are driving straight. You are forced to yield to the traffic to your right. Also, if you are at a stop sign or trying to turn left at an intersection and both directions have a stop sign, the person turning left is still require to yield until all traffic turning right has passed.

GERMAN DRIVERS LICENSE

I have applied for a German driver's license. Luckily Michigan has a partnership with Germany that allows me to swap (or actually just get) a German license within 2 years of moving here, however, my Michigan license is invalid after six months of living in Germany. The reason, however I'm getting a German license is so that I can driver legally in Russia and have it as a souvenir.

Wind Surf School Radolfzell

One of my goals of this trip and two month period in Radolfzell was to learn something completely new that I have never done before. Taking advantage of Lake Constance (Bodensee) was my number one priority, and so I decided to learn how to windsurf. When I first arrived in Radolfzell I took a walk around the town, and I noticed a surf school. A couple of weeks ago I decided to go investigate how much it would cost, and how feasible it would be to learn wind surfing in German. Luckily for me, the cost was not too prohibitive, and all materials were included. Also, our instructor was willing to give us an individual time for instruction that worked with our schedules.

Some facts about Germany: In Germany, almost everything requires a license, including windsurfing. So I have the opportunity to take a test after I complete the minimum number of hours of instruction so that I can get a certificate and wind-surf on my own. Other hobbies that require a license are fishing (since you have to make sure you're not catching an endangered fish, wind-surfing, golfing, and most other extreme sports).

Our instructor, Sigi (short for Sigmund), is in his 40's and is part time wind-surf instructor, part time other profession. We have our lessons on Thursdays from 2-4pm. Before I committed, I was able convince some of my other classmates to do it as well. In total, there are 4 of us who are taking Wind-Surfing; Anastasia, Dana, Patrick and I. On our first lesson, we had 1 hour of practical ground training. Unfortunately or fortunately, it was extremely gusty our first day. Sigi was unsure of whether we should go out onto the water, but since it's only a lake, and we can't really drown as the water is only 4-5 feet deep, we convinced him to let us out on the water. Our first exercise was to practice just standing on the board without the sail. The board has a stabilizer underneath against choppy water and is approximately 2 feet wide and about 6 feet long. The sails also vary in size depending on how windy it is, and how talented one is. I started with a sail that was 4.0 sq. meters. Normally, trained wind-surfers use sails between 6.5 and 8 sq. meters. I was pretty successful at standing on the board and was able to keep my balance. Later, we each took turns getting on the board with the sail attached. The first step is to lift the sail out of the water. The trick is to use your legs to pull the sail up as opposed as your back. Lifting the sail out of the water isn't so difficult, but since it was so windy, it was hard to keep one's balance. Once you pull the sail out of the water, you grab the mast with your right hand, and then grab the bar (naturally, I have no idea what the terms are in English, as we're being instructed only in German). Your arms are to be completely extended so as the sail doesn't push you back from the wind into the water. Also you counterbalance the weight of the sail with your own weight and therefore keep your balance better.

At first I was getting the hang of it, but it was difficult to control the direction in which I wanted to travel. I fell into the water quite a few times because I simply wasn't experienced enough to stand, keep balance and travel. Another difficult task is to turn around, which requires flipping the sail around and standing on the other side. This requires you to move your feet and switch sides. Luckily, on our second lesson, there was just a little wind, and it was much easier to get the hang of things. So, now I can say that at least I have the basics down. This thursday will be my last lesson, and then I will decide whether I will want to get my license.

Porsche Museum Stuttgart

Sorry for not posting lately. It's been difficult to get pictures and ideas for new posts and life has become a little bit more ordinary and I haven't gone off doing exciting things. I have now some good topics for upcoming posts, so be prepared to do some reading this week.

This post is about my recent visit to Stuttgart, the capital city of the Bundesland Baden-Würtemburg. Stuttgart is the home to several famous German companies like Mercedes-Benz, Robert Bosch, and Porsche. It's also largely involved in the automotive industry. Stuttgart was completely destroyed during WWII as it was a center of industry for the Third Reich. Since then, Stuttgart has rebuilt itself, turning itself into one of Germany's prime centers for business and industry. Stuttgart is by no means a very pretty city, however, it has some unique characteristics that set it apart from other German cities. Stuttgart is very small, although it's the 6th largest city in Germany. Settled in a valley, the land area of Stuttgart if very small, and most of the city is built on the hills that surround the city. Only the downtown area is in the valley, where you can find the palaces of the Würtemburg family. The main pedestrian area of Stuttgart, known as Königstrasse is the place to go. Since things are closed on Sunday in Germany, and I mean completely closed, it's more of a place to go to get a cup of coffee and people watch. Luckily the weather afforded us some sun and warmth, as the weather here is definitely switching to fall.

I met up with my friend Patrick at the Bahnhof (Train station) and from there we took the suburban train to Porscheplatz. The train literally drops you off in back of the brand new Porsche Museum. The museum is located in the compound of the headquarters of Porsche. The buildings surrounding the museum all belong to Porsche, some are business/corporate buildings, one is the main Porsche dealership, and the other one is actually one of the factory assembling the cars.

The Porsche Museum itself was only recently completed, and it's marvel of modern engineering and design. The aesthetics of the buildings reminds passersbye of the direction that Porsche wants to go. Modern, technical, beautiful and advanced. The building is vaulted above ground and is support by large concrete pillars. The building is designed with angular surfaces covered in a shiny gun metal color. Interestingly the building has no windows, but because the building is so shiny, it reflects the colors of the sky and building around it.

Porsche Museum Entrance

Inside the museum, a modern white covered the walls and floors. We bought our tickets for the entrance (4€) and then stood on the long escalator that took us up. The museum doesn't have floors, but rather is a linear ramp that goes up and up (sort of like the Guggenheim museum in New York). However, the floor is the ramp, and so the installations are also on the ramp. Porsche was started by Ferry Porsche who helped developed the first people's car (Volkswagen) the Beetle in 1950. That's the reason why the original Beetle has a similar profile as all Porsches.

Original 911

I particularly like the Porsche's of the 1990's and I feel the design is classic much more unique. I particularly like the Porsche 959 and of course the 911. I was pleased to see that Porsche's signature color was a nice green color. In fact, when ordering a new Porsche, that green color fetches a $3000 premium.

Porsche 959

After exploring the museum, we went downstairs and ate at the adjoining restaurant. There were many Americans (to my surprise) at the museum. Maybe some of them were coming to pick up their Porsche using the European Delivery program.

The Porsche Centrum (Dealership) Stuttgart

After visiting the museum, we had to wait 30 minutes until the next suburban train going back to Stuttgart Hbf, so we ventured over to the dealership to take a closer look at the current offerings from Porsche. Not that I was shocked, but we Americans are really fortunate to know that most German products cost significantly less in the United States that in Germany. Odd to think that a German product built in Germany would cost up to 160% more in Germany. For instance, Porsche's Cayenne S SUV can retail in the US for ~$90,000, while in Germany the vehicle easily reaches the 110,000€ mark, (the equivalent of $150,000). Also, a big difference in buying a car in Germany is that every option is a standalone one. Unlike the US where options are usually packaged into bundles which are usually cheaper than selecting the standalone option. When getting ready to buy a car in Germany, you actually have to go to the dealer and pick up the order books, and which point you select every single feature that you want on your car. A base Mercedes C class will have not have the following features which are standard in the US: air conditioning, alloy wheels, power rear windows, sunroof, leather seats, etc. These options must all be selected when purchasing your car. In fact, if you're going to buy a new car, you can't just show up at dealer and say I want that one (although you can do that, there are only 2 or 3 vehicles available to pick up like that), but you have to place an order which takes usually 3 months to build. But at least you get every feature you want.

The Porsche Centrum (Dealership) Stuttgart

After Patrick and I got back to Stuttgart, we went to Starbucks. I was getting homesick, and the comforting feeling of knowing that I could go into a Starbucks and feel like I was at home (since all of them look identical inside). From there, we met Jutta for a brief 30 minutes as she was frantically trying to finish a 2+ month assignment for work before she leaves for the US this upcoming Friday.

Well, that was pretty much my day in Stuttgart last Sunday. On the way home, I rode the train with Anna, and randomly to our surprise ran into Ashley on her way back from Münster. Unfortunately, the good/bad thing about the German trains are that they are all air-conditioned. Since I've been living here, I have had no air-conditioning, so riding on the train always makes me sick, as I can't tolerate cold air blowing on me anymore. I've been the sole PPPler is perpetually sick, and all that I can say is that I'm tired of it. Hopefully this weekend, I will get the fresh Alpine air and feel better.

Next post: Surf School

p.s. Sorry for the poor quality of the photos, they were taken with my cell phone.