November 26-27, 2004

Date: Sat, 27 Nov 2004 15:06:25 -0800 (PST)
Subject: On The Road Again

Hallo,

As some of you know I'm back in Europe again. As some of you also know my trip
is now over and I'm going back home tomorrow morning. So here's my usual
"National Lampoon's European Email":

I left home on Thanksgiving morning, got an upgrade to business class all the
way from San Francisco to Frankfurt, and on the Chicago--Frankfurt
[international] segment, the flight was in a 767. Now, I always prefer the 777
over the 767, since the 777 has individual TV's on every seat. Besides that,
the plane is also a helluva lot better than the 767! But on the 767, in
international business class, American Airlines gives each passenger their own
DVD player with a selection of about 20-25 dvd movies! The 777 flights dont
offer that since all seats have an individual tv monitor... Anyway, this was
great for me -- the player was small enough to be put on the tray table even
during the "International Flagship meal service" (salad, choice of 4 main
courses, choice of 3 desserts, and of course all that with wine and sherry and
champaigne and more wine and other wine and even more wine and then port wine
with the ice cream sundae dessert). Needless to say, I didn't sleep much on the
flight.

The plane arrived over the skies of Germany about an hour early, then was put
in a holding pattern above Dusseldorf/Cologne/Bonn area for 45 minutes... just
flying in circles -- with the sun coming through all the windows as the plane
turned about 15-20 times. But it was all good -- I must have had about 5
glasses of orange juice with my breakfast. Unfortunately they took away the dvd
player 1 hour before landing, but I did manage to see a couple of good movies
(with the pause/rewind/fast forward features on the dvd player -- invaluable
when you have to go to the bathroom!) and a PBS/NOVA documentary on Mount
Kilimanjaro -- "Big Shiny Mountain".

So.... the plane ended up landing on time at Frankfurt -- 11:05 AM on Friday
morning. I went to the admirals club, freshened up, got my rental car (without
navigation system--first time in Europe) and was on the road again by noon..

The plan on Friday was to drive down to Strasbourg, a town on the French-German
border. It's a "typical" German small town. I did not go there.

Instead I just drove around western Germany on A5, A61 and A6, maintaining
170-190 kmph over long stretches and 220 kmph in short spurts... this car
couldn't go much more than that -- so my driving speed record of 240kmph is
still quite safe. Anyway, this turned out to be just a "driving day" and I
ended up at Novotel Inn in the town of Saarbruecken -- also on the French
border, 460 km directly east of Paris.

It rained overnight.

Saturday morning I woke up around 3 AM, had a big breakfast at the hotel, then
was on the road before sunrise -- 6:45 AM. By 8 the sun had come up and I was
on Hwy 51 -- a scenic road that follows Saar river up to the town of Trier. It
was overcast, with a lot of low clouds, and with the low hills on both sides of
the river, it looked beautiful!

That drive took 1 hour -- in Trier at 9 AM sharp. From here, it was a 4-hour
drive northeast to the town of Koblenz -- a road I've been wanting to go on for
the last 10 years! The highway numbers are 53 and 49, and the entire stretch
goes along the Mosel river, with tens of "small German towns" all along the
way, tens of hills on both sides of the river, and about ten castles on top of
the hills -- but you have to look out for those or you may miss 'em. My brother
had gone on this road ten years ago and had told me about it then, and now, I
finally went myself.... and it is..... wonderful! The pictures below don't do
it justice -- today was about the atmosphere, being there, driving, and
fantastic scenery. Low overcast clouds.... foggy in some places -- all adding
to the scenery!

I reached Koblenz around 1pm, and for a while was debating whether or not to
turn around and go all they way back on the same road to Trier again.... for
the view from the opposite side. Well, random chance put me on A61 going north
toward Bonn, and for some strange reason I stayed there. Ok, so the "strange
reason" was that I wanted to drive some more....

These roads are better than most others in Germany -- not too many people, and
most of the road had 3 or 4 lanes each way instead of 2... so the road was
emptier -- and there were more number of extremely fast drivers. I got
"blinked" once, but that was still ok -- I was in the middle lane with my left
signal turned on, and the car in the left lane blinked his highbeams, then
whooshed on by. So technically I was not yet in his way :> .... I think driving
here really tests your skills in high-speed driving!

So anyway, the rest of the day was spent driving around western Germany like
this, ending back at Frankfurt tonight, for my flight at 10:30 AM tomorrow
morning. It's in coach, but as of tonight there are still some seats available
in business class, so if that's still true tomorrow I may even get another
upgrade going back!!

Next stop: Australia in 18 days.

Oh, one more thing.... I didn't eat Indian food this whole trip! In fact I had
ITALIAN food for dinner tonight!

sorry, just had to say that.. heheh.... [inside joke]

guten nachht, (I think),
-me.

My car: