From Germany

It's now Sunday and I have just about recooperated from my LONG day yesterday. For those who don't know, I am in Germany for some training for my job. We -one coworker (Larry) and I- flew out of Charlotte Friday night at 8:10 eastern time. I specify eastern time because we are 6 hours ahead of that here. We made really good time flying over due to a strong tailwind and landed around 4:00 a.m. The thing is, it was 10:00 a.m. German time. I can't sleep sitting up so I didn't get any rest on the plane. Maybe I can take some lessons from Reuben when I get home ;)  Anyway, after walking a mile to get the rental car, we headed out of Frankfurt for our first stop in Magdeburg. This was supposed to be a 4 hour drive but it turned into 6. No, we didn't get lost. Well, we did get turned around a time or two but the long delay was caused by a wreck on the A7 autobahn. I started out driving, but after about an hour I could not keep my eyes open. I let Larry take over and I took a short nap. When I woke up, we were stopped. We sat for about 2 hours on a road that we would normally drive 100 mph on!

This is our ride. A 4 cylinder, manual 6 speed with surprising pep!

 The truck going past in the background is a wrecker. Because of all the traffic, it took over an hour for the police and wrecker to make it to the scene. By the time the traffic started moving and we made it to the wreck site, everything was cleaned up. There is no telling how many miles was backed up, but it was a LOT!

This was from the center that was eventually cleared for the rescue vehicles.

Looking forward on the A7

What was funny is that after it became clear that we weren't going anywhere for a while, people got out of their cars and started playing in the snow. I think we had almost 2" fall while we were sitting. Notice how much is on the road.

And yes, I did see a couple of fast cars on the autobahn. Matter of fact, WE PASSED one of the fastest ones around! How do you like them apples?!?!

Sorry, I couldn't cut myself out without messing up the pic.

Just in case your not a car buff, that is a Ferrari. A VERY FAST car!

As we got closer to Magdeburg, the roads clear up and Larry got to stretch the car out a little. I think he got it up to 145 kph which is around 90 mph. This was by no means the top end for this little 4 cylinder diesel. Maybe Tuesday when we head back south the weather will be clear and I can see just how fast it will run.