Itinerary:
– 4:15am wake up
– 5:00a leave hotel and walk to Terminal 2
– 5:30a check into Air France flight
– 7:30a depart Frankfurt
– layover in Paris CDG
– 10:30a depart Paris
– 2:20pm arrive in Houston
– drive home

Journal:
Today is another travel day without much to tell you about.  Our flight out of Frankfurt was early in the morning, but at least the hotel is right at the airport.  We just have to walk and take a tram over to terminal 2 where the Air France flights are.  It is certainly nice that we can go home together and I don’t need to have a sad goodbye to Mark in the morning before heading home.  =)

Our flights were all on time and uneventful.  Actually, our experience at CDG was the best ever.  The passport control was fast and easy and we didn’t even have to go through an additional security check!  We aren’t sure what was up with that, but we’ll take it.  Boarding the plane, though, I got pulled to the side for an extra security check and pat-down.  Part of the check is that you have to turn on all of your electronics.  Hah, the certainly picked the wrong person because I carry on tons of electronics with on/off switches.  Luckily, they only found about half of my electronics with an on/off switch to turn on.  And then we were on our way again.

The flight from Paris to Houston is about 10.5 hours in length and feels long.  I’ve spent the entire first half of the plane flight finishing up the blog and going through my photos, so I can post them all when I get home.

Since there isn’t much more to share with you, I’ll just include several more of the pretty photos that I took yesterday.  Thanks for reading and keeping up with our travels!  We’ve enjoyed all your comments.

Itinerary:
– 7a wake, 8a breakfast at hotel
– 8:40a leave Hotel Kranzbichlhof
– Drive the Rossfeld Panoramastraße from about 9a – 11a taking lots of photos
– 12:45p – 1:30p stop in Seebruck for a view of Lake Chiemsee and lunch
– drive to Stuttgart on the autobahn
– 3:40p to 4p stop for gas and pit stop along the highway
– 5:00pm arrive at Porsche DropOff north of Stuttgart and say goodbye to the car
– 5:30p S-bahn train to Stuttgart Hbf
– 7p train to Frankfurt (with a quick train change in Mannhein)
– 8:50p arrive in Frankfurt about 45 minutes late due to train delays
– Check into Hilton Garden Inn
– Dinner in the Squaire

Odometer:
Starting km: 1558km
Berchtesgaden: 1608km
Seebruck: 1685km
Edge of Munich: 1756km
Gas: 1909km
Ending km: 2021km

Weather:
It is another beautiful, gorgeous, perfectly sunny day in Berchtesgaden this morning, though it is chilly at 48 degrees.  It warmed up to about 60 in the sun in the area.  As soon as we left Berchtesgaden, the cloud cover rolled in and we drove in the gray and cloudy, 55 degree chilly weather.  With the top down it chilled me to the bone.  In Stuttgart, the sun was out and it was 66 degrees

Journal:
It’s a photo day!  I am excited to exercise my photography skills today, but also very sad that it is our last day on vacation.  We have to turn the car back into Porsche today.  We can actually turn the car back in at any point, there is no deadline, but we planned out our day so that we would turn it in around 4:30p and not arrive in Frankfurt too late.  Our flight is out of Frankfurt very early tomorrow morning, so we will spend the night there.

Breakfast at the hotel was the standard fare, and we were quick to leave this morning because we wanted as much time as possible in Berchtesgaden before we have to hit the road.  We even managed to leave by 8:40a!  We had decided to drive around the area looking for scenic overlooks to get more photos of the car.  Mark is going to need a lot of good photos to a) show off the car and b)remember what the car looks like because it’ll be some time before we see it again.

We randomly decided to drive on a road in the area we hadn’t touched yet, and it turned out to be the absolute best decision we ever made.  This was the Rossfeld Panoramastraße and was some sort of national-park-type-scenic-road.  There was a toll to enter the road and as such it limited the traffic to just sightseers.  Also, at 9am when we entered the road, traffic was light enough that we could stop and take photos as the opportunities came up.

I was hoping to get a couple good photos this morning, but I ended up with a slew of awesome photos to show off the car.  So, enjoy!

We drove the road up and down twice, and the second time through when it was after 10a, the traffic was definitely picking up and it was harder to find parking spots without other people in the photo.  Along the road we also saw another photography team, but this one was of a cyclist on his bike and the photographer in the car.  The photographer picked the spots for the photos (almost all the same spots I picked) and had the cyclist ride up and down and at different speeds to get the right shot.  I basically did the same thing with Mark, but he couldn’t turn around in the middle of the road, so we usually only did one pass of photos.  It was a fun morning.

Sadly, we had to leave, and on the way through Beschtesgaden there was lots of traffic from all the people coming in to spend the weekend.  No wonder I had trouble booking a hotel room here!  Finally, though, we were on the road.  Our plan is pretty much just to drive all the way to Stuttgart at this point.  We are going to stop at a lake we missed on the way up, and then keep going.

Then, the day turned gray and cloudy and we kept hoping the clouds would dissipate.  I kept checking the weather along our route and the forecast kept promising sun, but instead all we had was gray.  Gray and 55 degrees with the top down is very cold, by the way, in case you are wondering.  We only road with the top down to our lake and lunch stop and it took about 45 minutes for me to warm up again.  Mark was nice enough to leave the top up for the rest of our ride to Stuttgart for me.  I think he must have been cold, too, though. 

We made sure we weren’t driving through Munich as it is the last weekend of Oktoberfest and we do not want to get into that mess.  We pretty much took the big loop highway that went around Munich and headed on our way.  It stayed constantly 55 and cloudy for the whole drive, sadly.  But I guess it makes it easier to leave when the weather is bad.

We had to make a quick pit stop along the highway.  I was surprised that at the gas station we had to pay to use the restrooms.  I figured with buying gas, restrooms would be included.  Anyway, it was all automated and we had to go through a turnstile to go upstairs.  I think our restroom ticket turned into a 50 cent off coupon of some sort, but the information was in German and it didn’t matter.  =)  The restrooms were very clean and had scrolling ads digitally displayed in the mirror which was fun and interesting.

The autobahn on the way back to Porsche had lots of areas under construction, so really, there wasn’t too much highway where Mark could go as fast as he wanted.  We had to keep slowing down for construction speed limits.  So, it wasn’t quite the crazy road I was picturing it to be.  Actually, most cars were going at normal highway speeds as we went whizzing by in the left lane.  Mark managed to get the car up to 137mph for a stretch of road and he said he enjoyed it.  All I can say is that I am not the right audience for sports cars.  =)

We pretty much reached Porsche right at 5p, and about 30 minutes later than we were hoping to arrive.  If we had arrived at 4:30p, we would have been able to catch a much earlier train to Frankfurt.  However, it was fine, we have time.  We spent about 20 minutes at Porsche, taking some last photos and saying goodbye.  Mark had a little bit of paperwork to fill out and the Porsche guy helped us out further by driving us the 5 minutes to the Porsche S-bahn station.

The luggage that fit in the car.

Removing the license plates

From Porsche, it is a very easy train ride to the main part of Stuttgart, and then we had to haul our luggage over to the main train station and get a ticket to the Frankfurt airport.  At this point the earliest train we could catch was not for another hour, so we grabbed a snack and then were quite entertained just people watching at the train station.  It seemed that 90% of the crowd was wearing lederhosen and didls and were rushing around for Oktoberfest.  It was so entertaining to watch.  We could check out everyone’s clothing for one thing.  Also, we noted that many people were carrying balloons tied to their wrist (possibly to make it easier to find your party at Oktoberfest).  The balloons were shaped like unicorns, minions, beer mugs, and other random cartoon characters.  We saw how many people had a giant heart-shaped cookie of sorts tied around their neck.  Also many people were carrying bottles of beer.  No photos, but it made our wait time go by fast.

The train to Frankfurt was longer than it had to be due to train delays of some sort.  Most of the explanations were in German.  We had to change trains once, but mostly it just felt like a long time of traveling.  However, it did feel like we were back to normal carrying all our belongings through train stations.  We arrived at the Frankfurt airport about 8:50p in this giant curved mall-like building called the Squaire.  Our hotel, the Hilton Garden Inn, was just above the train station and super easy to find.  Wifi at the hotel was spotty in our room, too, which was too bad.  But, we were tired and ready for bed anyway.  Plus we were hungry.  We just went downstairs and grabbed some sandwiches to-go for dinner and ate in the room and then fell asleep.

Tomorrow morning the alarm is set for 4:15am!

Itinerary:
– 7am wake, breakfast at 8a
– leave Hotel Weßner Hof at 9:20a
– 11:36a arrive at toboggan run
– 12:36p leave toboggan run
– detour or gas (12:50p – 1:20p)
– 1:43p arrive at Hotel Kranzbichlhof
– drive back to Berchtesgaden
– 3pm load Jennerbahn cable car to top
– 4:30p load Jennerbahn cable car to bottom
– 5:10p to 6p hike to Malerwinkl
– 6:45p dinner at Hotel Königssee
– 7:30p leave Königssee
– 7:50p arrive at Hotel Kranzbichlhof

Odometer:
Starting km: 1403km
Unterwössen: 1406km, 9:30a
Reit im Winkel: 1420km, 9:45a
Ruhpolding
Inzell: 1451km, 10:28a
Ramsau: 1475km, 11:07a
Berchtesgaden: 1485km, 11:23a
Oberau: 1499km, 12:44p
Hotel Kranzbichlhof: 1529km
Ending km: 1558km

Weather:
Sunny and clear, beautiful day!  It started out at 50 degrees with a morning fog and climbed to 53 degrees at the toboggan run.  It was 51 degrees at the top of the Jennerbahn.

Journal:
Today we wanted to get on the road early to hit all the areas we want to visit.  Plus it is supposed to be a beautiful, sunny day!  However, we still did our normal wake at 7a, breakfast at 8a in the hotel thing.  Breakfast was extensive here at the Hotel Weßner Hof and was very good.  As it turns out it was a good thing we had a big breakfast this morning.  Even though the wifi wasn’t great on the 3rd floor in our room, the hotel was still a good place to stay and we enjoyed the view out our window this morning towards the mountains where we could watch the morning fog take over the lower areas and then encompass the hotel.

We drove out of the fog fairly quickly, and then we mostly just drove through the morning stopping at a couple places here and there for some photos. We managed to finally get a photo of the elusive Alpine Road sign.  The only way we knew how to navigate the Alpine Road or the Deutsche Alpenstraße was from a website we found giving us the list of towns we should visit in order.  I didn’t even have a good map of the exact Deutsche Alpenstraße.  I just kept entering the next town destination into the car navigation system and we saw these signs along the way, spread very thinly:

We also stopped to catch a photo of this interesting sign that we see before any size bridge.  It turns out the symbols are a military load bearing sign, but we were amused for the first few days with the tank icon on the sign.

There were several spots where there was traffic to slow us down for construction when the road turned into a single-lane road.  Our guide for the Alpine Road told us that today we would be viewing “typical mountain scenery” and we sure did!  I’m not sure how mountainy the earlier part of the alpine road was, but this was definitely a beautiful road with lots of mountains to look at.

We reached Berchtesgaden before noon and decided our first stop would be for a toboggan run.  The summer toboggan runs have been all over the place on our drives, but we haven’t had a chance to actually try it out yet.  Now we finally will.  I’m not sure if this is true at all locations, but at this one, we purchased tokens for the ride.  It was one token for one person to ride and we each got our own little car.  You sit in the car with your feet straight out in front of you and a brake lever between your knees.  You push the brake lever forward to go and pull back to brake.  That’s it!  Enjoy the ride!  My first run down, I was very cautious and went rather slowly.  The track had several sharp turns in it and also a speedometer halfway through that measured your speed.  Mark actually said he fell out the first time through, though it was easy to get back into the car and keep going.  All was fine.  We each went 6 times.  =)  We definitely had it down by the end and my fasted recorded speed was 30kph, while Mark hit 32kph.  At the bottom, the track moved us onto a chain system that then proceeded to pull us right back up to the top of the run!  No walking required!

We really did have a lot of fun and we took several videos of our experience.  We amused the lady behind the booth when we went back to buy more tokens after we realized how much fun it was.  There were not many people here while we were here, maybe 5 others, so it was fast to get on the ride.  We are both glad that we did this.  =)

Berchtesgaden was not very far from the hotel, though we had to get a hotel out of town.   In fact, our hotel was about 500 meters into Austria.  In order to legally cross the border with our car, we have to stop at a gas station and get a “vignette” or a tolltag sticker for the car.  As it turned out there was no gas station on the way to the hotel, so we ended up on a long detour trying to find a gas station.  Finally, though, we found one on the outskirts of Salzburg (yes, we were so close to Salzburg, but didnt visit) and went on to the hotel.

At 1:45p we finally reached Hotel Kranzbichlhof and only stopped long enough to drop off our belongings and get the room key.  This hotel was only open between 2p and 6p for check in which did not gives us much of a window of time.  We really wanted to spend the day hiking, but we didn’t want to be pressed for time at the end of our hike.  So we came by to get the room key first.  I’m not sure when it was built, but it sure felt very new.  Also, it was all built out of this special wood that’s scent is apparently good for the heart (or so the hotel host told us).  It did smell very woody and good.  We were happy with the room, happy with our view out the window from the 3rd floor, and very happy to see the wifi signal strength was very high even in our room.

Now we could head back to Berchtesgaden and park to ride the Jennerbahn cable car to the top of a mountain.  As we arrived, we found out that the parking area was enormous.  One parking area serves several exhibits and this is a very popular holiday destination for people from Salzburg as well as Germany.  And it is a beautiful weekend, so we had to park far away.  I was looking around for Disney characters in our row or something so we could remember where we parked!

it sure was about the prettiest parking lot, ever, though, with all the scenery surrounding us.  We loaded onto the Jennerbahn at 3p and were interested to see that the gondolas each only fit 2 people, facing out.  It basically looked like half of a gondola car.  The ride to the top was about 30 minutes long, too, so there was lots of time to look around.

At the top, here it was 3:30p and we still hadn’t eaten anything for lunch.  We didn’t want to waste time with food, so we grabbed a quick Magnum ice cream bar each and then started hiking.  At the top of the mountain, the clouds kept rolling over us, but the views were indeed magnificent.  However, we only really had an hour up here since the last car down was at 4:30p, so we didn’t spend a lot of time looking at the views or taking photos.  Instead, we just picked a direction and started hiking.

The path turned out to be crazy steep!  We started going down, down, down, down, and ended going up, up, up.  Going up, it was so steep, with leaning forwards, my hands were almost ready to touch the pavement in front of me to help me hike!  There were many other people out here hiking as well, but they all looked like they’d been practicing on the mountains more recently than us.  We were gasping for air as we climbed back to the cable car ride back down.

The top of the Jennerbahn was at 1800 meters, and it was 51 degrees at the top and windy.  We had incredible views down to Beschtesgaden, and we were supposed to see Lake Königsee on the other side, but we didn’t find the right viewpoint.  At 4:30, we were gasping and sweating with exertion, but we felt great.  It was good to be back hiking on a mountain again.

The line for the ride down was long, but the ride down only took 20 minutes.  We spent the time trying to figure out all the inner workings of the cable car system and how people could load at the mid-level stop if all the cars were full coming down.  We are engineers, and this is the kind of thing we converse about.  =)

At the bottom, we realized we were also at the location for the start of the hike to reach Malerwinkl, a good viewpoint of Lake Königsee.  However, as I had forgotten, the sun sets quite early in the mountains, so while there was still daylight out, we were already in the shade of the mountain at 5pm and our hike was dim and our view at the lake didn’t have the brilliant pop of color.  We still really enjoyed the hike though!  Fall colors, very few people on the path, and comfortable temperatures made it enjoyable.

We hiked for about an hour and ended up emerging in the touristy spot on Lake Königsee with lots of shops and restaurants, and also the boat landing if you were to take the boat ride across the lake.  We had originally hoped to take the boat ride across the lake as there is good hiking on the other side, but well, the day just needs to be longer.  Next time we will spend many days here.  It was 6p and we hadn’t eaten a meal since breakfast and as we were so hungry, we just started eating food from stands.  For instance, I stopped to get a German pretzel.

That only made us hungrier, so we stopped for ice cream.  And then, we realized we better actually go inside somewhere and get some real food.  However, the lure of continuing to eat junk food was very high.  Next on our list was the stand with the crepes!  We ate at Hotel Königsee which was very fast.  In fact, the food came out about 2 minutes after we ordered!  If we had known that, we would have just stopped here before the pretzel and the ice cream.  =)

At 7:30p, we left the Königsee area and drove the 20 minutes to our hotel.  At this point, we were pretty dead tired and even though there was great wifi at the hotel, it was all we could do just to shower and fall right into bed.  So, no blog posted tonight, but I’m only a couple days behind at least.  Tomorrow is our last vacation day!  How did that happen so quickly?  We are sad that we have to end our vacation, but we know we will be back to the area.  We are smitten with the SW Germany/Switzerland/Austria area.

Itinerary:
– 7am wake up, 8a breakfast
– 9:50a depart Hotel zum Zauberkabinette
– 10:10a stop in Bad Tölz
– 11:40a leave Bad Tölz
– visit Lake Sylvensteinsee (leave at 2p)
– Stop briefly at Wendelstein cable car station
– 5:38p arrive at Hotel Weßner Hof
– 6p to 7p walk
– 7:15 dinner at Hotel Weßner Hof

Odometer:
Starting km:1220km
Bad Tölz: 1230km, 10:08a
Lenggries: 1240km, 11:55p
Kreuth: 1297km, 2:20p
Rottach Egern: 1303km, 2:27p
Tegemsee: 1307km, 2:35p
Gmund: 1312km, 2:42p
Hausham: 1320km, 2:50p
Schliersee: 1326km, 3:07p
Bayrischzell
Nußdorf: 1366km, 4:30p
Neubeuem: 1370km, 4:36p
Rohrdorf: 1374km, 4:40p
Frasdorf: 1383km, 4:50p
Aschau: 1387km, 4:56p
Bernau: 1395km, 5:28p (traffic)
Grassau: 1400km, 5:33p
Marquartstein: 1403km, 5:38p
Ending km: 1403km

Weather:
The day started out cloudy and 59 degrees, but the SUN!!! came out about 10am and warmed up to 65.  After that it was a clear and sunny day.

Journal:
We were up at 7am and ate breakfast in the Hotel zum Zauberkabinette at 8am.  We didn’t see anyone else at breakfast, but there were cars in the lot so I’m not sure how full the hotel was last night.  Breakfast was the normal fare and then we went back to the room and spent a little time using the wifi to plan out the route today as it gets a little more complicated and also see if we want to make any detours.  We are excited to see the sun today.

We didn’t get very far down the road before we stopped in the town of Bad Tölz.  We originally intended to make this a brief stop to take some town photos, but then the sun came out and we started walking through the town and poking around in the shops.  We went into a stationary store that had 2015 calendars already out.  There were amazing scenic calendars of Bavaria, a waterfall calendar, and what caught my eye first was a baby bunny calendar.  =)  We also stopped and grabbed some sandwiches to-go at a cafe and then went to a bakery to order our mid-morning snack.  They had a tasty apfelstrussel (apple strudel) and käsekuchen (cheese cake).

Now that the sun was out, we were looking forward to our drive.  We made a slight detour from the Alpine route to visit Lake Sylvensteinsee which ended up being the greatest decision of the day.  The fall colors were reflecting amazingly in the lake.  I also got some GoPro videos of Mark zooming around the roads adjacent to the lake.  We stopped off at the main bridge over the lakes and I grabbed a ton of photos and then had Mark drive the Porsche across the bridge for another photo.  We ate our pack lunch on the bridge.

From here on, we mostly kept on driving with brief stops for photos here and there.  We hit some traffic around the Bernau area on Lake Chiemsee.  My original plan was to drop our stuff at the hotel and then maybe walk around the lake, 8km away from the hotel.  However, once we made it through the traffic, we were at the hotel after 5:30p and didn’t feel like heading out again.  Plus, some clouds came in, so we just did an hour walk around the general area.  It wasn’t a fantastically scenic walk, but it was exercise.

The Hotel Weßner Hof was full of people, but we were able to find a decent parking spot.  We were located on the 3rd floor which gave us a great view of the mountains out back, however, the wifi connection speeds were not good at all here.  After our walk, we ate dinner at the hotel.  The hotel was set up for larger groups, though.  Most tables sat 6 people rather than 2 or 4.  So, we were seated with another couple at a 6-person table.  This is fairly commonplace in places like Singapore, but somehow here it felt awkward.

Also, the menu was only in German with no English options available, so it took us a long time to decide as we had to Google Translate nearly everything on the menu.  The staff was too busy to help us out.  We were very happy with the food though.  The first couple we were seated with left before our food came and a family of 3 (mom, dad, and 6 year old kid) were seated with us.  This felt more awkward as we were basically sitting directly across from them and our food came while they were still ordering.  It was weird to start eating when they had no food.  But it all worked out and our bellies were happy with the meal.

Tonight I worked hard with the slow wifi connection to post to the blog and then we headed to bed.  We are looking forward to another beautiful and sunny day tomorrow

Itinerary:
– 7am wake up and breakfast in hotel
– 9am leave for castle
– 10:35a castle Neuschwanstein tour
– 12:30a get into car and start driving
– 2p pack lunch stop under covered area
– 3:30p rain stopped, got out at Kochel to take some fall lake photos
– 4:20p arrive at Hotel zum Sauberkabinett
– 5p to 6:45p walk around the area
– Dinner at Ristorante Pizzeria Da Ricardo
– 8:30p back at the hotel and rain starts again

Odometer:
Starting km: 1083km
Ending km: 1220km

Weather:
Gray and rainy.  Temps range from 57-60 and feels chilly

Journal:
The morning started out with a skype call to India, as Joanna continues to work with cycling club business while on vacation.  The call was at 7am, and we were eating breakfast in the hotel soon after.  The day was indeed starting out very gray and full of a misty rain.  We will keep on keeping-on, though and visit the Neuschwanstein castle today.  At 9am we left for the castle, but we only had a very short distance to drive.  The castle was almost right behind the hotel. 

I made a reservation for tickets for the tour online about a month ago, and luckily the timing worked out well.  Our tour tickets were for 10:30am and the map said it was a 40 minute walk up the hill to the base of the castle where our tour started.  We had an hour.  So, we started trudging up the road, though the rain, and with several other throngs of people heading in the same direction.  There is also a horse carriage ride up and a shuttle bus, but we wanted to walk.  As it turned out, the walking time was only about 20 minutes.  So, we didn’t have to rush. 

We were able to spend a little time taking photos of the castle, though it was rather annoying to deal with the rain and trying not to get my camera too wet.  I was not prepared this morning and didn’t bring the appropriate rain gear for my camera.  Everything I wished I had was sitting in the car.  Oh well.  I made do with a ziploc bag and grabbed the correct touristy photos.  The castle still looks quite grand even in the rain, though of course we would have wished for a beautiful sky. 

About 20 minutes before the tour started, the rain starting coming more heavily, so we, with several hundred of our best friends crowded in this tiny covered walkway entrance to the castle.  It was crammed with people and there was no walking through!  We waited it out and then scanned the barcode of our tickets to get into the main tour of the castle when our tour time was called. 

If you don’t know or remember, this is the story-book castle that Walt Disney used as inspiration for his famous Disney fairytale castle.  The castle was built because “Mad” King Ludwig II wanted a more medieval-looking castle.  His castle wasn’t stereotypical enough for him.  It was constructed between 1869 and 1886.  The only reason construction was started was because King Ludwig died in 1886 and the contractors all stopped working.  So the castle was never finished.  Our tour was through the rooms that were finished and included an extremely ornate bedroom.  We’ve been to places like Versailles and this was even more ornate.  The bed was topped with numerous gothic sculptures for instance, that looked like a hundred tiny buildings all with spires were on top.  We also saw the concert hall.  King Ludwig dedicated his castle to the operatic works of Wagner and the concert hall was for Wagner’s work.  Only, there wasn’t a concert played in the castle until the 1990s when they started having concerts in this room open to the public.  The acoustics are perfect, so they say. 

Throughout the castle there were many, many swan images either painted on walls, as sculptures, or as images coming out of the walls.  King Ludwig loved his swans.  There was one life-sized swan that was built as a humidifier.  It was huge and beautiful and was filled with water and put on a stove.  Also, the castle was filled with many chandeliers replicated crowns.   One hallway even went through a portion of a cave, complete with stalagmites and stalactites!  Our official tour with tour guide ended after about 30-40 minutes and we were free to continue on our own.  We passed through a couple gift shops, and actually many more rooms (unfinished rooms and not decorative) before leaving the castle. 

After our castle tour we walked around the back to the famous bridge viewpoint where you can look back at the glorious castle with the gorgeous lake in the backdrop and the Alps all around.  All we saw, though were clouds, and a castle peeking through.  There is a lower castle as well, but we didn’t spent the time to tour it.  We captured the obligatory photos, but I was rather disappointed at the lack of view.  I bought many postcards of the drop-dead gorgeous views of the castle to satiate me need for amazing photos.

It continued raining as we walked down to the car and we left about 12:30p.  It rained, and it rained, and it rained all through our drive, and there really wasn’t much to stop at because there were no views of the Alps.  Mark was starting to wonder why this was called the “Alpine Route.”  The route was, though, lined with deciduous trees changing colors for fall.  I was so intrigued by the trees that were just starting to change, or were partway through changing.  Some trees, only the tips of the leaves shown yellow, while the rest of the tree was green.  Some trees were half yellow and half green and all stages in between.  I’ve never seen anything like it before, and I marveled over all the fall trees for our drive wishing that I could take photos.

We till had our pack meal from yesterday, so we found a random stop on the side of the road with a covered area where we could eat lunch, late at 2p.  It was cold, rainy, and actually reminded me a lot of Iceland except for
a) we were not eating in the car, and
b) there was plenty of traffic

With lunch over at 2:40p, we kept driving until we hit the Kochel area.  The rain had almost stopped and we could see tiny patches of blue sky peeking between the clouds every now and then.  We drove down to the lake and walked around to get some photos as the lake was reflecting well.  This was about a 30 minute stop and then we were on our way again.  The rain is mostly stopped, though the sky remains gray. 

We arrived at Hotel zum Zauberkabinette at 4:18pm.  The hotel is mostly known for it’s weekend magic shows, but also the whole hotel was themed with magic illusions.  We were incredibly impressed by the decorations of the hotel, the friendliness of the staff, and the clean rooms.  The rooms were even themed, and we were happy to be in the “sun” room.  Outside the hotel there was an optical illusion to make it appear that person was coming out of a hat.  There were sculptures coming out of the walls and magic-like sculptures around of cards or hats, or the like.    It was also quite a maze to get from reception to our room through many doorways and themed rooms.  One hallway was covered in mirrors that distorted our image.  We walked through a fake cave area lit up with lights.  There was all kinds of art popping out of the walls, too.  The kitchen/dining area had a table and chairs upside down on the ceiling, and a water faucet filling a pot coming out of the wall.  The water faucet appeared to not be connected to anything, but flowing water moved from it.  The downstairs area was decorated as a dungeon with chains out of the wall and painted rats coming out of a grate on the floor.  There was an MC Escher-like stairway with figures of wooden people coming out of the wall everywhere as well as an MC Escher duplication of stairs on the wall.  It was elaborate, to say the least.  Also, the hotel appeared to be quite empty, but also we arrived early.

Since it had stopped raining, and we had time, at 5p, we headed out on a path for a walk to get the blood moving again.  We walked through the countryside, along a river, and near a lake before turning around.  We saw blue skies, sun, and horses came to greet us.  In fact as we walked over, they came running over to us hoping for food.  Cows moo’d their greetings and even a mule came to visit. 

After our walk, we walked on to dinner at Ristorante Pizzeria Da Ricardo about 7p.  In the country, places restaurants close early.  They had good Italian food for us and it was easier to order with both Italian and German on the menu.  Also, we got an Italian greeting, and I can speak/understand more Italian than German, so it was a pleasant communication.

We walked back to the hotel arriving about 8:30p, and just as we got in the room it started raining again!  Talk about perfect timing!!  We are excited for a sunnier day tomorrow as we head on with our road trip along the Alpine Route.

Itinerary:
– 8am wake up, breakfast in hotel
– 10a leave hotel, visit landromat
– noon, Zepplin Museum
– Lunch at Centrale Pizze in Friedrichshafen
– 4p Lindau (Official start of the Alpine Route)
– 5:30p short walk after a very twisty turny section of road
– 6p grocery stop in Wertach
– 7p arrive at Hotel Weinbauer
– dinner at hotel

Odometer:
Starting km: 917km
Lindau: 952km, 4:00p
Oberstaufen: 990km, 4:45p
Immenstadt: 1005km, 5:00p
Sonthofen: 1016km, 5:20p
Bad Hindelang: 1023km, 5:25p
Wertach: 1043km, 6:00p (food stop)
Nesselwang: 1052km, 6:36p
Fussen: 1078km, 6:58p
Ending km: 1083km

Weather:
The day started off cloudy, gray, and 57 degrees.  Rain started mid-morning.  Weather warmed to 64 degrees at one point, but stayed gray and misty/rainy all day.

Journal:
We slept in a little this morning, and then opted to eat breakfast at the hotel even though it was an extra cost and not included with our room rate.  The Comfort Hotel was a very nice place to stay.  It is the same brand as the Comfort Inns in the US, but this was a 3 or 4 start hotel.  It was super clean and new and modern and comfortable.  The breakfast was good and filled us up for the day ahead.

Our first stop was our one and only laundry stop.  We are so used to know laundry about every 3-4 days on our usual vacations, that having so many shirts has been wonderful.  We only have one laundry stop this trip.  The hotel was able to located a coin-operated laundromat for us and we spent just under 2 hours there getting the laundry done.

Next, we drove the 2km to the Friedrichshafen shoreline where the much-anticipated Zepplin museum was located.  I really didn’t know that much about zepplins before today, and this was a magnificent museum!  Probably the best part was a full-sized model of the interior of the inner cabins on the Hindenburg.  The model took 5 years to build and sits on the second level of the museum.  We could walk through and see the dining rooms, the cabins, the windows, and several other small rooms.  The Hindenburg really and truely was a massive machine!  I had no idea there was room on it for cabins.  But it makes sense since the trips from Germany to New Jersey took about 2 days to make. 

Small model of the Hindenburg and you can see how tiny the living area is

Picture showing how huge the Hindenburg was compared to the museum building

Full-size replica of a portion of the Hindenburg to see how all the framing was put together.

The Hindenburg made 63 trips in about a years time with about 50 passengers, and 50-60 crew members each time.  It even had a smoking salon on it!  Imagine that.  The museum was almost 35-50% devoted to the Hindenburg, it’s construction and the fatal crash on May 6, 1937.  It is still unknown how the crash was caused and there is quite a conspiracy surrounding the conditions of the crash.  Was it the passenger who went to check on his dog?  Did he ignite a gas cell?  Was it an issue with the technology of the flammable siding?  Or did a chicken farmer take a bullet and shoot it down?  Pick your favorite conspiracy.  =)

We had lunch in Friedrichshafen (there are people here during the day!), and also walked up a tower overlooking the lake.  It was super gray and misty out, though, so not many photos.  Then, finally it was late and we started our road trip for the day and the start of our Alpine Route.  We were really disappointed about the gray and rainy weather, though.

The Porsche's first rain

We stopped between Lindau and Oberstaufen to take a photo of the car’s first rain, and then again we stopped after a particularly twisty portion of the road so Joanna’s stomach could become untangled.  From now on, it will be a Dramamine a day for me!  But, for the most part, we just drove through the rain and the gray.  At 6p, we made a grocery run in Wertach.  We were actually hoping to dinner here, but we couldn’t find a spot open, so we grabbed some bread, cheese, and such from a grocery store and headed on our way.  I wasn’t sure what would be open near the hotel when we arrived.

Our final stop at Hotel Weinbauer was just past Füssen (the end of the Romantic Road), and at the base of the path up to the famous castles Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau.  We could barely see the lit castles through the rain.  Our hotel parking lot was completely full, too, and we had to park in a lot further away.  Plus, with the rain, we had to make two trips to get everything to the hotel as one of our hands had to be holding an umbrella.  It was an interesting stuff-shuffling maneuver to get everything inside, but it all worked out. 

Reception at Hotel Weinbauer was super friendly and the restaurant at the hotel was still open for us.  So, we abandoned the grocery items and ate at the hotel.  We were in a much better mood after the friendly greeting and good Bavarian food.  Tomorrow is supposed to be pretty rainy, so we are disappointed, but we will still go tour the castles and have a good time doing so.

View of the twisty road below

View of the twisty road on the Porsche map

Itinerary:
– 7am wake up, breakfast at 8a
– Depart Höhengasthaus Kolmenhof at 9a
– 10:50a stop at the border between Germany and Switzerland
– 1p Lunch in Gruyère
– 2:15p Maison Cailler chocolate factory tour
– 4:20p leave Cailler
– 8:10p arrive in Friedrichshafen, Comfort Hotel
– 9p dinner at Cafe Delhi

Weather:
Sunny, clear 50 degrees – 70 degrees  through the Black Forest.  Mid-70s in Switzerland and cloudy after 4pm

Odometer:
Starting km: 309km
Switzerland km: 408km
Gruyere km: 583km
Ending km: 913km

We woke early as last night we decided to break from our originally scheduled itinerary and make a side trip into Switzerland to visit the Callier Chocolate factory.  We love their chocolate, and they have one particular candy type that we can’t duplicate in any other brand.  Also, we’ve only ever seen Callier chocolate being sold in Switzerland.  So, we will make our 3rd visit to Callier.  We’ve now visited in September 2010, September 2012, and September 2014.  I guess in 2016, we better plan on visiting again!

It’s going to be a long day of driving, so we had breakfast as soon as the hotel offered it at 8am.  They had a good choice of cold breakfast items and we said goodbye and started heading out.  It was starting out quite chilly at 50 degrees, and with all the wind from driving with the top down, I was snuggled up in my fleece in the car.  We took a scenic route out of Germany passing two scenic lakes.  Lake Titisee had some absolutely fantastic reflections in it, but there was no pulloff from the road we were on and we could only enjoy it by car instead of by camera.  I was a bit disappointed, but I didn’t want to spend the time to see if we could find a place to detour and stop at the lake.  We did find a place to stop at Lake Schluchsee which also had some decent reflections.  Here, I also found places to take more photos of the car, too.

There is a river at the border between Germany and Switzerland, and as we headed down in elevation to that river, all of a sudden we entered a thick fog.  It was quite crazy that we were just above the fog in sunny Germany, and the in the border town it was all gray and foggy.  We stopped for a gas fill up and also to purchase a tolltag as required to take our German car over the border into Switzerland.  One more sticker on the car!  Luckily, it was easy to purchase and soon we were on our way to pass into Switzerland.  I was all set and prepared to take a photo of a Welcome to Switzerland sign, but there was none!  The only way we even knew we crossed the border (other than the map telling us we did), was a boring tollbooth that we didn’t even have to stop at.  So it was anticlimatic.

Soon, though, we drove out of the clouds and had a beautiful, clear sunny day with gorgeous views of the Swiss countryside.  It was starting to look a lot like the Switzerland we remember and the jagged mountains in the distance were a great backdrop to our drive.  In the foreground were bright green rolling hills spotted with the friendly faces of the Swiss cows.  Yay Swiss cows!! 

We were speeding along the highway at high speeds, so we could only glance around and appreciate the view as we whizzed past.  The car goes fast, too!  And it gets rather loud with the top down to the point where there was no point in trying to communicate.  We went through a few tunnels that were even louder.  But, it was still a lot of fun and Mark was having a blast driving his car.

We decided that we better eat some real food in addition to chocolate, so we made the stop in Gruyère at the cheese fromagerie to lunch.  It was crammed full of people, and we weren’t sure if we would get our lunch in a timely fashion!  But, we managed to get our cheese fondue with potatoes and bread as dippings and had a fantastic lunch.  The small round potatoes came in a little potato bag to the table, which was just too cute.  After a perfect lunch, we drove a few short kilometers over to Broc where the Cailler Chocolate Factory stands.  It was very different visiting by car and not by train and foot as we came in from a whole different direction.  They were doing some construction work on the front of the factory, so it was not as picturesque as it normally is, but we have other years of photos to choose from.  We were here to fill up on chocolate!

The English tour was in 10 minutes and we patiently went through the tour with the anticipation of the tasting room at the very end.  The tour hadn’t changed.  We stepped through various rooms that were automated to give us the history of chocolate and then got a chance to watch a conveyor belt make chocolate for us to taste.  We peeked inside the workings of the factory, and then finally we were in the tasting room that was filled with chocolate.  As long as we stayed in the room we could eat as much as we want, and we ate until we would burst.  They had a few new pieces out, too, and of course some were better than others.

We ended up in the gift shop where we bought lots and lots of chocolate.  I saw they had some baking chocolate, so I am looking forward to making some tasty treats at home.  We also had to get new tshirts and some mugs as their new graphic has the chocolate cows walking down a mountain to the factory and I just love their chocolate cows.  =)

Sadly, we had to leave, and with a long drive ahead of us, there was not much time for stopping for photos and exploring more that Switzerland has to offer.  Plus, as we exited the factory, the sky was full of clouds and it just wasn’t quite so photogenic anymore. 

The drive back into Germany and over to Friedrichshafen on the north side of Lake Constance was mostly on highways.  Even Mark had to stop and put on his fleece to stay warm, but we were able to keep the top down the entire time.  At the Germany border crossing, this time we were stopped in a long line of cars and were asked by a border agent why we were entering.  But, it was easy to enter and once again, there was no big “Welcome to Germany” sign. 

Speaking of signs…I don’t have any photos, but each region of Switzerland had a huge sign of the area that showed the whole silhouette of what the region or city looks like.  Many of the Swiss areas had mountains and rivers and trees.  Why couldn’t they have a large sign to signify a border crossing?

The drive through Germany was now mostly in the dark and we made it to the Comfort Hotel in Friedrichshafen around 8:30pm.  The hotel is very new and modern and clean.  The room has a painted sky above the bed, so you sleep with your head in the clouds.  We were happy with the choice, though, this is definitely the most “hotel-y” hotel we will be staying at during our road trip.

We quickly dropped off our stuff and then went to the main Friedrichshafen waterfront for dinner, but most everything was closed and no one was walking around.  We found a restaurant that was serving food for another 10 minutes and were able to eat dinner, but this is definitely not a late-night area.  As we continue on through the Alpine route over the next few days, we will need to make sure to eat dinner before 7:30p, I think.

Itinerary:
– breakfast at hotel
– 9:40a start driving
– 12:10a stop in Triberg for lunch (charity event on street)
– 1:15p Black Forest cake from Cafe Schäfer
– visit House of 1000 Clocks
– 2:30p leave Triberg, waterfall hike
– 5:10p leave waterfall
– 5:35p arrive at hotel, Höhengasthaus Kolmenhof
– dinner at hotel

Weather:
Sunny and clear.  Temperatures ranged from 55 to 73 throughout the day and dependant on elevation

Odometer:
Starting km: 165km
Ending km: 309km

It is another beautiful day for driving with the top down.  There was not a cloud in the sky when we woke up and we had a great night’s sleep.  Jetlag is now officially over.  We even slept in a little bit.  Breakfast at the Hotel Heiligenstein was fine.  There was no hot breakfast, but there was enough cold food to satisfy. 

We started driving for Triberg and realized that we were going to be driving right into the sun.  The great views were either off to the side or behind us, and I managed to forget my sunglasses at home.  I brought my empty sunglasses case thinking the sunglasses were inside, only to arrive and find the case empty.  =P  So, we’ve been looking for a spot to buy sunglasses as we travel.  There isn’t much open on the weekends, though, so it will probably wait until tomorrow at least.

The Black Forest drive on the B500 towards Triberg is very scenic.  There is just the hint of fall colors in some of the trees, even and we stopped at one pull out to get some car photos.  The car is still brilliant in the sunshine, but it is starting to show some dirt and bugs from driving.  The photos still look great, though.  This isn’t quite like driving in a National Park in the US, where there is a pullout at every lookout and lots of places to stop in between.  So, there were not too many places to stop and get photos, but boy did we enjoy the drive!  With the top down, we had a great view above us as well as off to the sides.  As the birds passed overhead, we could see the flocks soar through the air.  The wind whips through our hair and once again, I’m super happy that I have a short cut.  The wind does not get down by my feet, so papers or items are not at risk of blowing out of the car.  Mostly, though, the car has absolutely no place to store anything, so anytime we need something, we have to stop the car and get it from one of the trunks.  =)  We are still getting used to stepping in and out of the car, too, as it is so low to the ground.  but, it does make driving fun!

We made it to Triberg in about 2.5 hours and found a parking garage to stash the car while we walked around town.  I love Triberg!  It is a super cute German town with gorgeous buildings.  We arrived around noon, and there were not many people walking around, but by 1:30pm, the streets were getting crowded and the shops were opening up.  I guess the day just starts later here on a Sunday.  We ended up finding some sort of charity (maybe a school?) selling brots on the street, so we had lunch with them.  The brots were cut up and drowned in a ketchupy sauce with a side of fries, but it was all good.  Mostly, though, what we wanted to do was try the famous Black Forest Cake, or the Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte.  The place to do that was at Cafe Schäfer that used an original recipe from 1915.  The bakery has been open since the late 1800s even.  The shop was super cute, but the wait was long to get service and then our cake.

Black Forest Cake typically consists of several layers of chocolate cake, with whipped cream and cherries between each layer.  The cake is decorated with additional whipped cream, maraschino cherries, and chocolate shavings on top.  Also, kirsch (a clear liquor distilled from tart cherries) is added to the cake.  We were happy that we tried the cake, but neither one of us ended up liking it much.  I wasn’t sure how much of the liquor would be in the cake, but it turned out that it was throughout all of the whipped cream, making it impossible for me to eat.  So, I picked around the cream and ate some of the cake.  Mark ate most of his cake, but agreed the cream was too strong and he wouldn’t order it again.  But, we tried it!

After cake, we headed over to see the next famous stop in Triberg, the House of 1000 Clocks.  Cuckoo clocks are famous in the Black Forest and this is apparently the cuckoo clock capital.  We were very, very impressed by all the clocks in the shop.  They even had smaller clocks for under 100 Euro, as well as very ornate clocks from 800 – 3000 Euro.  I would love to have a cuckoo clock, but, I’m not yet ready to make the investment.  These are all made by hand and are absolutely beautiful.  Most of the clocks were off, but the shop keeper could turn the clock to the hour so you could watch it “cuckoo” and see how it moved and danced.  Amazing!  The store kept going, too, and there were some modern cuckoo clocks.  Some of the modern ones allowed you to see the inner workings which was fantastic, and others were just either colored or shaped in modern styles.  I’ve never seen anything like it.  Plus there were lots of other highly decorative clocks in the store.  We stayed here for a while admiring it all.

Finally, we had to leave Triberg, but not very far as there is a waterfall and hike just outside of town.  Finding parking for it was tricky, but we found a spot and spent several hours hiking around the waterfall and taking photos.  It was a pretty well-known area and hike, so it was full of people, and there was even a fee to get in.  But, there were lots of viewing spots along the stream and the waterfalls, so it was well worth the visit.  Plus, the weather was perfect hiking weather.  It was shady for photos of moving water and warm enough for short sleeves and hiking pants.  But it wasn’t too warm that we were breaking a sweat.  As I said, perfect weather.

After the waterfall hike, we headed on to our hotel which was a few miles outside of town.  The Höhengasthaus Kolmenhof was a family owned guesthouse up at the top of a road and had a wonderful area to sit in the sun and relax with food.  There was a family dog that roamed about, but didn’t seem to want anything to do with us.  He was relaxed and calm and just meandered about as he owned the place, but didn’t want to stop and get pets.

We sat and relaxed for the evening, had a wonderful dinner here, and eventually headed up to our room to bed.  The room was decorated in a more old-fashioned style, so it was cute and comfortable.  It was actually very chilly overnight, and we even turned on the heater to go to bed.

Itinerary:
– Leave hotel at 11am
– Pumpkin Festival at Ludwigsburg Palace
– Leave festival about 3:15pm
– Drive through Black Forest to Baden-Baden area
– Arrive at Hotel Heiligenstein about 5:30pm
– Dinner in Baden-Baden (Fresh Choice)

Weather:
Sunny, clear, with highs in the 70s cooler in the high elevations of the Black Forest.  Chilly at night

Odometer:
Starting km: 40km
Hotel km: 155 km
Ending km: 165km

Since we slept last night in 2 shifts (I was awake from 2a-5a), we actually slept in this morning until about 9:30am!  This was a shock when we first woke up.  We had a lazy morning getting up and ready for the day.  Breakfast at Hotel Heiligenstein wasn’t very extensive.  We were the only ones down when we went and as such there was no hot breakfast.  But we knew we were headed off to the Pumpkin Festival shortly and would eat food there. 

First, I found in my research, that Ludwigsburg was an environmental area and in order to drive in these areas, we need an environmental sticker tag on the car.  Luckily, the hotel reception was able to help us find a car service shop that sold these stickers.  It was easy to get, but took a little extra time.  And, we had to put a sticker on the car windshield!  Now, at least, we are cleared to drive in any other environmental areas we find.

Ludwigsburg Palace is open year-round, but for September and October, they also have a pumpkin festival on their grounds.  Ludwigsburg is about halfway between our hotel and Stuttgart, but still not very far away at all.  Since it is a Saturday, there are plenty of cars in town and all trying to find a parking spot for the pumpkin festival.  We sat through many traffic lights and finally found our way to a parking lot and got lucky to find a spot open!  The Palace and its grounds are quite large with a maze of gardens in the front and in the back.  There were tons of people, too, and it was easy to figure out where the festival was in the back since that’s where all the people were headed.

Just inside the entrance, we could already see that pumpkins were lining the gardens, the fountains, and the walkways.  There are thousands of pumpkins here!  I read that about 80% of the pumpkins come from this area, even!  I’d like to find one of those pumpkin fields! 

We headed behind the palace and every so often, there would be a small sculpture made of pumpkins.  First we saw some road signs, then we saw a lion, a crown, and then we looked in the distance and saw oodles of sculptures made out of pumpkins!  The sculptures just got bigger and bigger the further we walked.  The photos don’t even do them justice, but most were much taller than a person.  Also, interesting, was that the base of each sculpture was also made of pumpkins.

They had lots of pumpkins and squash for sale (whole) in several places.  Also, there were lots of food places to buy pumpkin treats.  But mostly we walked around and marveled at all the pumpkin art.  This is quite a festival!  One of our favorite areas was where the pumpkin artists took some gourds of some sort and added sticks as arms and legs and then made each gourd into a human character.  There were some gourds waiting in line to use an outhouse.  There were some gourds fishing.  There were gourds having dinner around a table.  Everything was so creative and life-like!  We loved it.

Finally, we decided it was time to eat pumpkin and we started the process of standing in line.  The food lines were quite long.  We started with some pumpkin soup, of course.  We also got some pumpkin fries which were extremely good.  They were close in taste to sweet potato fries, but much thicker than any I’ve had before.  Then we found another line that sold pumpkin strudel, a pumpkin cookie, and we had to try the pumpkin soda.  The strudel and the cookie, of course were delicious.  However, the soda had too much of the carbonated water taste for me.  We also kept walking by a booth selling 3 flavors of seeds and the cinnamon and sugar seeds smelled absolutely delicious.  We got a hot cone of fresh cinnamon and sugar seeds and just loved them!

In the souvenir shop we also even found some chocolate covered pumpkin seeds to take with us.  We didn’t get pumpkin-ed out, but eventually we figured we better leave and get on with our road trip.  So, around 3:15p, we headed out.  This was the first time we left the car in a public lot, and it was good to find it still there and safe.  =)

From here we drove to the Black Forest which is in southwestern Germany.  Specifically, we headed towards the Baden-Baden area on the north side of the Black Forest.  The weather is gorgeous and sunny and driving with the top down was a lot of fun.  Sadly, there weren’t as many areas to pull off and take photos as we would have liked.  But the roads were very windy and full of switchbacks and we went up and down in elevation.  Since we were going up and down, we could watch the temperature fluctuate between about 55 degrees and 73 degrees depending on if we were in the sun or shade or up in elevation or down in elevation. 

Our Hotel Heiligenstein is not in Baden-Baden, but about 10km away in a small little residential area.  The hotel had a great view of the surrounding hills and we had a lovely porch to look out on the lowering sun as the landscape turned golden.  We arrived at about 5:30pm and took some time to settle in.  Then we headed back out to the town of Baden-Baden where we found a parking garage to leave the car and went for a walk around town.  Even though it was only 7pm in the evening, the pedestrian area was pretty closed down and empty.  All the shops were closed as it was a Saturday and things close early on Saturdays in Europe.  Plus, we couldn’t seem to find an open restaurant.  We did managed to find a little sandwich place called Fresh Choice and had some sandwiches and smoothies for dinner.  The town was just completely empty.  But we had a nice walk around both before and after dinner.

Back at the hotel, we were disappointed to find that all the hotel parking spots were taken.  The reception, though, told us we could park on the street corner which made us a little nervous.  But the car was right under a street light and even better, we had a great view of the car from the hotel room.  Luckily all was fine leaving it there. 

We are loving the car and loving the road trip so far.  We are looking forward to more sunny days ahead. 

Itinerary:
– 5:45am wake up
– 6:30am breakfast in Hotel Schlossgarten
– 7:30am taxi to Porsche New Car Delivery
– 8:15am See new car!
– 11:00am lunch at Porsche
– 1:00pm Porsche Factory Tour
– 3:15pm On the road towards Bietigheim-Bissingen
– Walk around park and river
– Dinner in town at Lamabar
– Asleep by 9p/9:30p

Odometer:
Starting: 9km
Ending: ~40km

Weather:  sunny, highs in the 70s, cool enough for a fleece at night.

It’s new car day!!!  We’ve been waiting for this day since May when we ordered the car in Houston.  Mark is very ready to get his new car. 

We were impressed that we slept all the way until the 5:45am alarm.  Mark was up for about an hour in the middle of the night, but for the most part we completely crashed for 9 or 10 hours of sleep.  It felt so good to get sleep in.  Breakfast at the hotel was very good.  They had a variety of foods including hot foods, breads, fruits, yogurts, meats, and cheeses.  We also had a selection of juices and teas.  We packed up all our stuff and headed down to catch the taxi to the Porsche New Car Delivery.  We could have easily taken the train over, but since Porsche gave us the free taxi voucher, we figured we might as well use it.  Plus it was easy this way so we didn’t have to lug the bags all over.  Plus, the cab driver knew exactly where to drop us off. 

We went inside and after a brief wait because we were early, we signed the paperwork and were escorted upstairs to the showroom floor where all the new vehicles for delivery were laid out.  It was super easy to spot ours as it was the only blue one!  They will deliver about 20 cars today to new owners.  We were given the next hour for a detailed tour of how the car worked. 

Oh, and of course we got our official picture taken with the car:

We had never even seen the 2015 model before, so many things were new.  This is the first model with keyless entry, so that was the first thing we learned about.  To open the front and back trucks, we hold our hand over a certain location and the trunk will pop open.  Yes, a front trunk!  How strange!  And the ignition is still turned by a key of sorts.  In addition to the key fob, there is a little dummy ignition fob that stays in the ignition.  The key will only start the car when the fob is inside the car of course.  I guess Porsche didn’t want to go the way of the start button like so many other cars.  Also interesting to me was that you could set the seat and mirror memory direct to a specific key.  The navigation system is very different from the one in our Prius, so it took some getting used to.  Also, interestingly enough, there isn’t a new car smell.  I wonder if that has to do with the high quality of materials they use.  We will have to look that up.

Then, we had to take the car and drive it out of the building (some sharp corners to get out!!) and we had a time gap before our lunch appointment at 11:15.  So, we decided to take the car for a short little spin.  We couldn’t figure out where to go, but we managed to find ourselves in a tiny local park where we could get some photos of the car.  Plus it was all sunny out!  The car will never be this clean again! 

Back to the Porsche factory, we parked in the lot designated to us and then walked over to their special 5th floor restaurant overlooking the Porsche intersection.  We could see the factory, the museum and the dealership as we ate.  And finally, we went to start our factory tour.

Lunch with Porsche

No photographs are allowed in the Porsche factory, and we had to give up all our smartphones before we could go on the tour.  We had a small group for the English-speaking tour.  Besides us, there were 5 others on the tour.  One couple had just come back from a 7000km road trip with their new Porsche and one of the others had connections to Rice as his daughter goes there as did his wife.

The factory tour was amazing!  I love assembly lines, efficiency, and factories.  One of the most unique aspects of this assembly line was that the building was several stories high and so the cars had to move on an automated elevator between levels in order to move through the assembly line.  This was probably the least efficient aspect of the factory and cannot be changed because there is so little land here for Porsche.  About 200 cars are made in this factory each day and then are shipped out around the world.  The cars come through the line with the models all mixed.  You might have a Boxster, then a Carrera, then a Panamera, and a 911, etc.  Also, each car assembly came down the line toting a cart with all its parts on it.  Since each car could have 150 different options, it is faster for there to be a cart of parts specific to that vehicle rather than a slew of parts next to each station. 

The parts are all gathered in a separate building.  Someone receives the Porsche order and then goes “shopping” for all the parts for that car.  In the aisle of parts, there is a green light that lights up next to each part that corresponds to the car they are working on.  Then as the technician takes the part out of the bin, the part gets scanned leaving the bin and double checked that it is the right part.  This way inventory is always up to date, and there is a checking process for each car’s parts.  It was amazing.  Once a technician has 3 carts of parts lined up, a robotic car comes and takes the carts away.  These robotic cars are amazing.  They are not on a specific track, but talk to all the other cars around it to navigate around.  Cars with full parts will be given the right of way, and they even had turn signals to tell where they are going.  Amazing!

Back in the assembly factory, there are robotic cars that drive around on a black track on the floor and will take parts to workers, or other supplies, or just in general haul things around.  I could have stayed in the factory all day to watch how everything worked.  Most assembly stations were manned by people and only a handful had automated robots to do the work.  The windshield attachment was one station that was completely automated by a robot.  One robot scanned the coming car frame for exact measurements, while another robot picked up the windshield and applied the glue.  The first robot talked to the second robot and then the second robot applied the windshield in the exact right location.

But most stations had about 2-3 people working for 3-5 minutes per car to attach some specific part in assembly-line fashion.  The engine part of the factory was very interesting as well!  The whole drivetrain, wheels, and engine would be moving along a bottom line as workers were adding parts to the engine.  Then the frame of the car would be moving at the same speed along a top conveyor system, and there was a “marriage” of the two big parts of the car.  The drivetrain/engine would be married to the car frame and you’d have a full car. 

The engines are all assembled on site and about 1% of them are hot-tested.  Also, about 10% of the cars are road tested (about 30km).  So if your Porsche comes from the factory with 30km on the odometer it was road tested.  Ours had 9km on it.  Also, we were not surprised to see that the most common color choice was black, followed by white, gray, then red and yellow.

We were sad to finish the tour, but happy to get into the new car.  We are staying in a new hotel tonight a bit north of Stuttgart, but still in the general area.  So, we drove about 30 minutes up to Bietigheim-Bissingen and easily found the Eberhards hotel right on the river of this small town.  We found a parking spot within view of our room and reluctantly locked up and headed inside. 

Looking up at the mirrored roof of the Porsche Museum

From here we decided we needed some exercise and it was a beautiful sunny day outside, with temps in the high 60s or about 70.  So, we put on our running clothes and went for a long walk/run around the park and river that was just outside the hotel.  Lots of people were out and about!  We saw tons of people with strollers and kids or running with dogs, or out biking.  What a perfect day it was. 

Eberhards hotel on the water

When we got hungry, we came back to the hotel, showered, and then walked to the first restaurant in town we could find, the Lamabar.  Yes, with 1 L and not 2 L’s.  It was loud, but the food was good and we were tired.  We ate and then dragged ourselves back to the room.  We managed to stay up until about 9p or 9:30p before we crashed.

Sadly, though, I still have jetlag because I was awake from 2am – 5am.  =(  Thankfully, I went back to sleep at 5am.  I did get to hear just how eerily quiet this small town was at 2 in the morning, though!

Tomorrow we officially start our road trip!