Driving

So, let's see... we left Amsterdam on Saturday, spent two nights in Düsseldorf which was a pleasant city. We ended up staying in a budget hotel which felt pretty luxurious compared to the dorm-style rooms we've been staying in. On Monday morning we rented a car and left Düsseldorf heading south towards the famous Nürburgring Nordschleife (we got a dorky looking Mercedes Benz A-class. I'd add a link but that would be hard on the computer I'm on so look it up yourself if you are interested). This is one of the world's longest, curviest, and most challenging racetracks, and it's open to the public. For a mere 19 Euros per lap you can take your car around this amazing track that winds its way through the trees and hills around the sleepy little town Nürburg. This track is featured in the playstation racing game Gran Turismo 4 too. One lap takes approximately 10 minutes if you are well-practiced, and maybe 9 minutes if you are real hot shit.

Anyway, you definitely can't take a rental car on the track. Apparently if you do take and rental on the track and the rental company finds out about it they will do anything from charge you $2000 for maintenance or they will ban you from future rentals. Rumor has it that rental companies even pay track employees to report rental cars being used on the track. But I had heard about a Ring Taxi where for a mere 180 euros, three people can ride around the track in an expertly-piloted BMW M5. I was under the impression that you could just sort of show up and hop a ride on this thing, but once we got there we found out that in fact you have to make prior reservations and it only runs on Sundays anyway. So I ended up just sitting at the entrance to the track watching all of the cool bikes and Porsches and other cars go on and off the track. I also found out that there are a few companies which rent cars out specifically for use on the track, but they have a minimum age limit of 25, so I'll probably have to plan a return trip for my 25th birthday or something.

This morning we hopped into the dorky Mercedes (at least it's black though. It's starting to grow on me too. I hope I don't want one when I get back home) and turned the magical GPS system towards Heidelburg for a quick lunch stop and then on to Würzburg (kind of in the middle of nowhere) where we are now. Much of the drive was done on Autobahn highways which are very nice. I think that much of the section between Heidelburg and Würzburg was no-speed limit. Dad and I still can't really figure out how to tell when there is and isn't a speed limit, so we judge it based on how fast the other cars are going. I was cruising at around 90-100 mph for much of the way and I was still just keeping up with the most of the cars and was definitely not even close to keeping up with some other cars. People really know how to drive well on the highway here; they are generally very good about staying out of the left-hand lane except for passing, it's great. I could learn to get used to it, haha.