1951.4 km later (1,212.5 Miles) - Roadtrip through Neuss, lapped Nürburgring, Stuttgart, Karlsruhe, Black Forest, Freiburg, Bodensee/Friedrichshafen, and back to München

This German Road trip was definitely amazing. I took a rental car up to Neuss to stay at another IEP students place. I left, but because of traffic and a MAJOR accident, I didn't get to his house until 2am Saturday morning. On a two lane freeway/highway, there was a semi-truck/LKV that caught fire; there was no part of the truck that was not in flames, or on fire itself. The terrifying thing was, because it shut down both lanes, the Emergency response was gridlocked at a stand still 2 km from the event. There was absolutely no place for traffic to pull over.

I get to Neuss and quickly fall asleep. My phone had died and due to poor planning on my part, I was unable to organize the Ring Taxi. John and I left Neuss at 10am and ended up at the Nürburgring around 11:30am. We checked into Rent4Ring and took care of the paperwork for a half-day rental. I opted for the 130 hp Suzuki Swift Stage 2 rental which was included race oriented tires, brakes and suspension, bucket seats and rollcage. It was perfectly underpowered for a Nürburgring beginner.6 Laps, and gas were included in the cost.

Nürburgring
Frist Lap:
It was a good warm up lap, testing the tires and warming the brakes through cautious entry in corners and then more aggressive inputs when there was a clear line of sight for the track ahead. This was a learning process to try to remember corners for the following laps. I don't need to say it, but this track was amazing.

Second/Third Lap:
I remembered key corners of concern, but it is still impossible to know the proper driving lines. That comes with hundreds of hours and laps on the Nürburgring, I wasn't going to accomplish this in that time. But I remembered many of the right and lefts after each corner. The switching camber/banking in turns was the most difficult to tackle. It started to drizzle, but the Toyo R888 still felt fine and held good traction when pushing it hard. I was following a Porsche that finally signalled me to pass. John and I both joked around about being faster than a Porsche, but I totally understand the mindset of trying not to damage something so expensive, and enjoying the track for what it was. The Suzuki was underpowered which made it much easier to drive flatout and fast with headroom to safely manage emergency situations... I would be extra cautious in larger, heavier, more powerful vehicles. ....I was then passed by an Opel Corsa.

We took a break and another friend had met up with us at the Nürburgring after tending to some business in Köln. We sat and talked for a while, then headed into a Diner to eat and chat some more. It started to downpour, I was going to do my last 3 laps in the worst conditions outside snow on one of the worlds most famous racetracks.

Fourth Lap:
The ground was wet, but the R888 held up quite well! Some off camber corners I could feel the grip starting to surrender. There were a couple of accidents, one at Wehrseifen which is a hard right followed by a banked left before the second blind track entrance (there are posted speedlimits for public days for a reason). Then also another at Brünnchen which is a downhill right sweeper followed by an uphill right. There were a couple cautions this lap, so it was relatively nerveracking because the accident would be behind a blind corner.

Fifth Lap:
It is absolute DOWN-POUR. It is raining hard, the windows are fogging up, the deforst and wiper blades are on full blast. The tires were not happy at all. Squeeling tires are happy tires, these went silent. I attacked the course with caution. It was interesting seeing what driving lines other cars took, but i kept it wide and slow, trying to keep the shift and steering inputs smooth to avoid sudden under/oversteer. Right at the start, I was following a 7 series. It was accelerating very fast in the straights but I caught up in corners. Right hand curve into Hatzenbach and the 7er loses control. He is rotating toward the barrier and I follow the tail, passing on the left. With luck he managed not to hit the barrier. There were 4 moments during this lap where I thought I was going to snuff it. Aremberg was tretcherous, I entered too hot and got good amount of wheel lockup and understeer before the right hander. This was one of the panic moments where left foot braking really saved the situation. It was just enough to get the car to rotate pointing into the corner meanwhile shedding some speed keeping me out of the sandtrap. Nerves shaken, I turn back the dial a bit. The rest of the track surely will not be this forgiving. I enter Adenauer Forst, my favorite corner as it was the toughest for me to negotiate every single lap. Uphill and sharp left followed by a sharp right downhill. The camber changes in this transition was enough to make it a handful at the steering wheel. I would understeer in and oversteer out, even when taking it relatively easy with the rainfall. This lap was definitely riding on nerves and fear. It was exillerating and humbling to imagine professional drivers negotiate this track under these conditions for so long during the 24hour Rennen just a month ago. I have developed even MORE respect for these drivers, my boss, and this race track.

Sixth Lap:
The last lap was just a nice easy cool down lap. The rain subsided, it was actually clearing up, but the track was still very wet. I took it easy, savoring the last drive at the "Green Hell". It is quite a great experience, and I wish I had more time, or my own car to thrash on The Ring. I had my fair share of scary moments, but it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. The track commands respect, but if you go into it with the intention of experiencing the track with any shred of common sense, you will be fine. Knowing your boundries, and trying not to do more than you are capable of handling is important; again, I'm glad I chose an underpowered (but well set up) car.

Stuttgart
We returned the rental track-car and we were off on our small German roadtrip. We set in a course for Stuttgart and encountered extreme rainfall. In some areas we were only going 60km/h in unrestricted zones because of the level of water on the ground and low visability. We ended up in Stuttgart an hour and half behind schedule so we stopped in and took a walk downtown. There was a Sommerfest going on, a lot of live music, food, wine, and other treats. We went to a restaurant called Ochs'n Willi and had some of the Schwäbisch Fare. I had Maultasche Suppe (think of a ravioli, but meat stuffed, almost like a sausage, but not super slaty) and Gaisburger Marsch (another soup with beef, potatoes, onion and noodles). It was delicious. Got some Ice Cream, enjoyed the live music and headed out to Karlsruhe just north of the Black Forest. I pulled into a rest stop and slept for the night.

Black Forest
From Karlsruhe we headed toward Freiburg. We avoided highways and primarily took rural roads 462 to 294 cutting straight through the Schwarzwald (Black Forest). There passed through so many quaint picture-esque villiages and valleys. Because it had rained, there were great mists rising out of the forest creating a more mystical atmosphere. It was a very special type of nature, with the towns dotting the path through the hillsides and woods. Small houses built in scattered formation, no fast food places, barely any gas stations, a small Rathaus and a central church...simple living that gave the whole area a timeless feel. I wasn't able to take many pictures as there were very few places to pull off for a view. We had a lot of ground to cover and it was just one amazing sight after another. It made me wish that I had a motorcycle on a sunny day to just get lost and rediscover the Black Forest. After two hours we arrived in Freiburg and took a quick stop. We then headed out of the Black Forest and toward the Bodensee.

Bodensee/Friedrichshafen
The Bodensee (aka Lake Copnstance), is the third largest fresh water lake in Europe. It is bordered by Germany, Austria and Switzerland. We took route 31 all the way from Freiburg toward Friedrichshafen. At the lake's edge we stopped and took in the view. It was beautiful although the weather has been cloudy the entire day. The countryside has been absolutely LUSH green with orchards and vineyards appearing throughout the trip. The south of Germany is absolutely beautiful. There are only so many things to see when on a train, but being able to freely take roads, get lost in a countryside and view a multitude of magnificent views at different vantage points/elevations was well worth the rental cost.

Lindau/München
We follow route 31 all the way down to Lindau from Friedrichshafen and took the A96 straight back to Munich. The south has a large sky, you could see great distances in all directions; off in the distance, areas rainfall, others sun shine. There were wind turbine topped hills that had forming clouds, shrowding the silent blades in a partial fog. There were many large bridges traversing valleys and many more farms and villiages in the countryside. I had been driving for 9 hours, so I decided to pull off and take a nap. Then another hour into Munich. Finally arrived, another epic adventure to add toward the end of this chapter.