Except for the Lexington debacle, which we will not speak of, this was quite the exciting long weekend. Thursday evening, a large crew went down to the Schreveningen bowling alley, where you could setup the scorecard in one of eight different languages, including both "USA" and "English." I have no idea what the difference was, as my F.E.B. buddy insisted we play in proper English. I can only assume that English has a lot of superfluous U's. There, I bowl both the highest score and the lowest score of the evening, right in succession. The second game was full of joy and confidence as I rolled four straight strikes, then followed that game up with an expletive filled game of 7 consecutive gutter balls and a score I am more than embarrassed to mention.
From there, we were off to the Holland Casino to drown our sorrows in Poker and copious amounts of booze. After the poker tournament, we went and got shitty, where I had a 45 minute argument with an Englishman about the Second Amendment to the US Constitution. Quite a surprise on a drunken Thursday evening.
As Saturday rolled around, it was mostly a lazy day, but partially spent at the beach, as it was a glorious sunny day, but I returned in time to watch some college football. During the second quarter of the aforementioned Lexington debacle, I hear a loud pop followed by what sounded like ice hitting the ground coming from the kitchen. As the Dutch room mate and I rush into the kitchen to see what is going on, we see our other roommate, and the rest of the kitchen covered in tiny bits of safety glass. Turns out one of the sliding glass panels on a cabinet exploded some how. Cleaning that up eventually reached rigmarole status, but it was done.
Sunday, I decided to walk up to the beach and eat lunch to drown my sorrows and enjoy another, and perhaps the final sunny day of the year. While walking down the boulevard, I came across a big crowd and a street juggler. He did his little act in English, as he was a dirty Belgian, which was nice. At one point, he asked if everyone was ready for some egg trick, and there was dead silence for probably ten seconds. As it was painful to see him dying like that, I let out a bit of a cheer, which he appreciated, but would later come back to haunt me. Towards the end of the show, he was going to juggle fire and he singled me out to help him. Which was lame at first, until I realized that I got to throw flaming sticks at someone. So I lit them and threw them at the Belgian who commenced juggling them. All in all, it was a good day.
Normally I would finish with a series of photos, but I haven't taken many of late, but I assure you there will be plenty when I get back from Rome.
More to come,
Matt
13 October 2007
01 October 2007
Sweet Sweet Nurburgring Action
I have dreamed about going to the Nurburgring ever since I first learned such a glorious place existed. Seeing as I am now about three hours drive from there, I had to seize the opportunity. And I assure you, It will not be my last.
The day started out poorly as the damn bus decided to disregard its schedule, and not to run that early. So after about 20 mins I gave up on the bus and walked to the tram. Once I finally arrived, an hour late to meet my German/Dutch buddy Chris we were off to Amsterdam to rent the car, from a rental agency that will remain nameless, as I'm sure I violated the terms of the rental agreement. I forgot to bring my passport with me (the lesson here, as always, I'm an idiot) but that ended up not being a problem.
So we were off to the land of zee Germans.
Barreling down the autobahn was great. I got up to 200kph several times for a good bit of time. I think that was just about the top speed of the car. Its somewhat liberating to drive that fast on a public road without worries of doing jail time. Say what you want about their genocidal tendencies, zee Germans make a mighty fine highway. At one point I was cruising at around 180kph and got passed by an Audi like I was standing still.
We finally made it to what I would later dubb as the happiest place on earth, the hell with Disney land. The track is buried in the mountains. You can't even see it from the surrounding area like you can with other tracks. You can only see parts of it when there is a break in the tree line. Which there are a lot scattered around the track with people standing around watching.
After much searching, we finally found the entrance to the track and bought some laps. I pull forward towards the track and see this glorious sight.
I proceed through the gate and the cones and stomp on the throttle, which isn't very drastic in the rental 318 wagon. As we entered the first section of corners I am giddy as a school girl and cackling with delight. Although I look somewhat intense as I reach for a shift in this photo,
You could not wipe the big dumb grin off of my face if you tried. The track was everything I had imagined and then some. Long flat sweepers, a few tight bits and so much elevation change that my ears kept popping. It is a deceptively fast track. The first lap I found myself braking for before every corner, because they are all blind. But after a couple of laps you begin to realize that you can take a lot of the corners almost flat, in the care we had at least.
I was still driving very conservatively, as I didn't much want to wad up a rental car. Also, the track is so large, it is tough just remembering all of the 172 corners.
At the end of the day, as we returned the car with worn out tires and brakes, Chris and I vowed that we would come back as much as money and time would allow. Lets just hope the good people at the rental agency don't black list me.
And I leave you with photos of that glorious day.
The carousel was my favorite corner, the banking allows you to almost hold it flat.
Chris and the car before we got to the track. I wanted a photo of the car in good condition, in case it got wadded up.
We stood and watched at this corner for a while watching cars scream by. The variety of cars was amazing. There was everything from fully prepped race cars taking the track wide open, to mini vans cruising around. But mostly it was quick street cars like this great e30 M3 and this Porsche GT3 RS
Also, while we were watching, some guy took his e36 for a little spin. He apexed the corner too early and clipped the curb, spinning and coming about as close as you can to hitting the guardrail as possible, without hitting it. I didn't have any noticeable damage, but I'm sure he needed a new set of underwear. This is the aftermath of that incident.
This car was in a little parking lot near the track. Chris tells me that Germany doesn't allow vanity plates, so It appears to be legit. Lets just hope that 2008 doesn't actually suck.
Somebody blew a motor, so the oil had to be cleaned up, so we had to wait around at the start/finish line. You can see the extremely long straight in the background. You have to stop in the middle of it to exit or go through the gates again, but that behind Chris is only about 2/3rds of it.
A few of the many nice cars floating around that place
the yet to be released new M3
And a few more of the sweet on track action
My favorite shot of the day. Good work Chris.
And finally, as I was walking back home from the tram, I stumble upon this little character crossing the street. He froze when he saw me and let me walk right up on him to take the photo. Poor little hedgehog was terrified. Probably thought the fat man was going to eat him.
More to come
The day started out poorly as the damn bus decided to disregard its schedule, and not to run that early. So after about 20 mins I gave up on the bus and walked to the tram. Once I finally arrived, an hour late to meet my German/Dutch buddy Chris we were off to Amsterdam to rent the car, from a rental agency that will remain nameless, as I'm sure I violated the terms of the rental agreement. I forgot to bring my passport with me (the lesson here, as always, I'm an idiot) but that ended up not being a problem.
So we were off to the land of zee Germans.
Barreling down the autobahn was great. I got up to 200kph several times for a good bit of time. I think that was just about the top speed of the car. Its somewhat liberating to drive that fast on a public road without worries of doing jail time. Say what you want about their genocidal tendencies, zee Germans make a mighty fine highway. At one point I was cruising at around 180kph and got passed by an Audi like I was standing still.
We finally made it to what I would later dubb as the happiest place on earth, the hell with Disney land. The track is buried in the mountains. You can't even see it from the surrounding area like you can with other tracks. You can only see parts of it when there is a break in the tree line. Which there are a lot scattered around the track with people standing around watching.
After much searching, we finally found the entrance to the track and bought some laps. I pull forward towards the track and see this glorious sight.
I proceed through the gate and the cones and stomp on the throttle, which isn't very drastic in the rental 318 wagon. As we entered the first section of corners I am giddy as a school girl and cackling with delight. Although I look somewhat intense as I reach for a shift in this photo,
You could not wipe the big dumb grin off of my face if you tried. The track was everything I had imagined and then some. Long flat sweepers, a few tight bits and so much elevation change that my ears kept popping. It is a deceptively fast track. The first lap I found myself braking for before every corner, because they are all blind. But after a couple of laps you begin to realize that you can take a lot of the corners almost flat, in the care we had at least.
I was still driving very conservatively, as I didn't much want to wad up a rental car. Also, the track is so large, it is tough just remembering all of the 172 corners.
At the end of the day, as we returned the car with worn out tires and brakes, Chris and I vowed that we would come back as much as money and time would allow. Lets just hope the good people at the rental agency don't black list me.
And I leave you with photos of that glorious day.
The carousel was my favorite corner, the banking allows you to almost hold it flat.
Chris and the car before we got to the track. I wanted a photo of the car in good condition, in case it got wadded up.
We stood and watched at this corner for a while watching cars scream by. The variety of cars was amazing. There was everything from fully prepped race cars taking the track wide open, to mini vans cruising around. But mostly it was quick street cars like this great e30 M3 and this Porsche GT3 RS
Also, while we were watching, some guy took his e36 for a little spin. He apexed the corner too early and clipped the curb, spinning and coming about as close as you can to hitting the guardrail as possible, without hitting it. I didn't have any noticeable damage, but I'm sure he needed a new set of underwear. This is the aftermath of that incident.
This car was in a little parking lot near the track. Chris tells me that Germany doesn't allow vanity plates, so It appears to be legit. Lets just hope that 2008 doesn't actually suck.
Somebody blew a motor, so the oil had to be cleaned up, so we had to wait around at the start/finish line. You can see the extremely long straight in the background. You have to stop in the middle of it to exit or go through the gates again, but that behind Chris is only about 2/3rds of it.
A few of the many nice cars floating around that place
the yet to be released new M3
And a few more of the sweet on track action
My favorite shot of the day. Good work Chris.
And finally, as I was walking back home from the tram, I stumble upon this little character crossing the street. He froze when he saw me and let me walk right up on him to take the photo. Poor little hedgehog was terrified. Probably thought the fat man was going to eat him.
More to come
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