Monthly Archives: June 2013

Returned car to factory

45 days … 4,245 miles … 120+ seat hours … see you again in August:

Big Catch Up Post

Hi All, Kim and I got pretty wrapped up in sightseeing and driving and catching up, so I neglected the blog last week. So here is a monster catch-up post to briefly note what we did. More pictures and commentary will follow from London or home.

Thursday 6-20: Nice to Aix en Provence
We drove portions of the Route Napoleon to get from Nice to Aix en Provence. We took a detour through the Gorge du Verdon, an enormous river canyon that is sometimes called the French Grand Canyon. In my opinion the Verdon is way prettier (sorry to me friends in AZ)!

Unexpectedly we passed the L’OCCITANE en Provence headquarters and factory in Manosque! Next time we will stop and take the factory tour (advance reservations required, 10% off all products, too)

Friday 6-21 and Saturday 6-22: Aix en Provence
Last week I posted a few pictures about a concert outside our hotel room, which was part of Fête de la Musique — World Music Day. Missing from the posting is that Aix en Provence is a super, charming, high-energy city. Much more friendly and interesting than Nice. Terrific food and good times. Would definitely go back.

Sunday 6-23-13: Arles and Pont du Gard
After three nights in Aix en Provence we drove north to Orange by way of Arles and a brief stop at the Pont du Gard. Walking through Arles was like walking through a Van Gough painting. We also saw several sets of Roman Ruins and one creepy Crypt. Highly recommend Arles.

Van Gough lovers may recognize the restaurant on the left:

We continued to Orange and planned on visiting Pont du Gard the following day. But our GPS rerouted us due to heavy traffic and lo and behold — there it was! So we made an unplanned stop before dinner. Boy, did the Romans knew how to engineer things! Impressive:

Then we settled into Orange for dinner and stayed two nights at cute B&B located just beyond the city wall:

Monday 6-24-13: Avignon and Châteauneuf-du-Pape
We took a day trip into Avignon, home of several popes while Rome was burning. The popes’ palace was more impressive from the outside than the inside. Where Arles oozed charm and history, Avignon, was tour-heavy and lacked panache. Great if you love the popes or want to soak up Papal History. Otherwise concentrate your time elsewhere (such as Arles or the city in the next paragraph).

Maybe we were just hungry and tired an poo poo’d Avignon. But we found the charm we were looking returning to Orange. We stumbled upon Châteauneuf-du-Pape, where the popes would take summer holidays. Awesome vineyards. We enjoyed a terrific wine tasting. A case of the good stuff is en route to Chicago. We ran around the remnants of one castle and had delicious dinner in another (a few pictures of dinner were posted the other day).

Tuesday 6-25: Orange to Lyon
We continued north a few hours to Lyon. Short drive between cities. Then another hour to wrestle with local traffic, filling the car up with gasoline and getting a much needed car wash. Then we had to drive through a pedestrian area to get to the hotel (nerve wracking!). Fortunately, no women, children or nuns were hit by our car. Nor were any men or dogs, either. The Old Town is cute but rather small. Fatigue definitely set in and we took it easy: Arrived at hotel. Took a nap. Walked for an hour. Ate dinner. Walked for less than an hour. Back to hotel. Goodnight!

Wednesday 6-26: Route du Beaujolais to Beaune
After an early lunch we drove along Route de Beaujolais. Gorgeous drive through wine country. More interesting hills than Napa! Stopped in several small towns and drank some bubbly. Our favorite was Cave de Clochemerle.

We stopped in Beaune for dinner and made a last-minute hotel reservation. What a find! Several buildings light up with animation at night. We didn’t know this ahead of time. We were just looking at the  church during dinner and said, hey, is water now falling down the side? Great effect.

Thursday 6-27: Beaune to Heidelberg
We drove to Heidelberg on Thursday. I laughed when we were told our room was “down the block” from the main hotel! This happened to me 20 years ago! But this time we were upgraded to an apartment suite bigger than many of my friends’ apartments in NYC or Chicago. And I don’t mean when we graduated from college but today! We had one of our better meals in the Old City and called it a night.

Friday 6-28: Heidelberg to Frankfurt

We returned to the Old City on Friday and toured what is left of the Castle. The picture below is a model of what is used to look like. There seems to be many more tourists than when I was here 20 years ago. Heidelberg is still charming, but I would advise my friends to drive through primarily to take a few pictures of the landscape. Or do as we did and treat it was a place to enjoy dinner on the way to somewhere else.

This is what the castle looks like today:

After the castle tour we had a quick bite to eat and set off for Frankfurt. Twice. As we approached the hotel near the airport I got the feeling we were nearing the equivalent of Midway when we wanted to be at O’Hare. Sure enough, the main airport was an hour and a half away! D’oh!

We cancelled one hotel reservation and figured out the new plan in record time. Then we we listened to more Radio Lab and Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me and eventually settled into the Steigenberger Hotel Frankfurt. So fitting that we ended up staying at a Steigenberger hotel on Kim’s last night. I stayed at the Steigenberger Zeppelin in Stuttgart the night before I picked up my car on June 17!

Unpacked and repacked suit cases. Late dinner. Confirmed plans for home.

Saturday 6-29 Nurburgring
Dropped off Kim at the airport. Bummer — see prior post. Continued to the Nurburgring. With More than 6,400 kilometers on the car and no traffic I was able to reach 150 mph, but 175 mph is not realistic with traffic. However, these spurts were good practice for what would come next here:

This was my ride:

Brand new (but broken in) 2014 Cayman S. Very well balanced and arguably more fun than a 911 in the twisties because there much less body roll. But the small interior might drive me bonkers as a daily driver! No matter, it took me a half hour to catch my breath after my first lap around the ‘Ring. I stopped being scared about 2/3 of the way through my second lap. Then I was all set for lap #3 when the track closed for the night. Two more laps are scheduled for tomorrow morning and then I have to return my car to the factory in Stuttgart.

Remember this?

Seems like yesterday! These last 45 days have gone by fast!. When you count the 10 days before the car and add the next few days in London I can’t believe I’ve been gone for two months! The yellow shoes have some well earned dirt on them. It will take a few weeks or months to process all that’s happened and everything that I’ve thought about during this time away. But what a great trip it’s been so far! More goodness waits for me tomorrow, in London and back home! I’ll post more soon. Hopefully without as long a delay as between the last set of posts! But now it’s time for bed. I have an early track call in the morning. G’night!