9:00am
I finally slept in today and it feels so good. We didn’t get out of the room and on the road to Heidelberg until around noon today. We have a good drive ahead of us - about 6 hours or so.
6:00pm
We finally pulled into the hotel in Heidelberg. Wow what a long and tiring drive. Driving at those speeds that they do here really makes you mentally tired as you can never let your guard down. We managed to get the car up to 195km/h and still going but I had to back off as I was coming up onto someone fast. These highways really make you think and look ahead and plan your way through the cars. You very seldom see people come up on slower cars and then slam on their brakes everyone manages to time the passes and people really get out of the way nicely. Even the middle lane drivers will move over when a car comes up on them and there is an even faster car in the left lane. They are not only looking in their mirrors behind them in the middle lane but they are also looking for faster cars in the left lane so the cars behind them don’t have to pull out in front of them. ...so what's your point? (Ed)
Once we got settled into our room we headed off to walk into the old part of town which was about a 45 minute walk. It is raining a bit here but it is not all that cold. Driving down here the temperature got up to 22 degrees in places before we hit the rain and then it cooled off to the mid teens.
The old part of Heidelberg is really cool as it is so old with cobblestone streets and dark alleys. In the alleys there are sidewalk cafes and little vegetable stands and of course a couple of bars. The main street of the old part of town is a major shopping area, there is every type of store you ever wanted (and more) here. Lots of bakeries and chocolate stores as well as any clothing store you ever needed.
We saw the castle which is really neat at night time as the front of it is all lit up. It is huge! I attached a picture of it but I guess my hand is a little shaky so it is a little blurry. Liam and I are going to walk up it in the morning – no sleeping in tomorrow.
We went out for dinner to a restaurant that has been here for 305 years! ...big deal, we have restaurants here that serve food that old (Ed) I want to meet the manager that kept it going for all those years. They sat Liam and I at a table for 6 and I thought “what a waste - why not sit us at a table for two” only to look around and find that all the tables in there were for 6 or more. A family of 4 came in and they sat them with us which was kind of weird at first but it turned out good. It was a husband and wife and their two children 14 and 12 and they were from Geneva Switzerland. We talked all through dinner it was very interesting. The boys loved Liam’s I-Phone so that kept them occupied. We talked about the economy, racing, politics and weather the usual stuff. The father trades bio-fuel all over the world so we talked a lot about that also. They asked Liam what kind of car he is driving this weekend and we said “do you know Formula 3” and they said “yes” so we said it is a step down from that, and they blew us away with what they knew. The people over here really know their racing. You watch TV here and they had a full report on the Formula 1 and Moto GP races last weekend. They never mentioned NASCAR so I guess there was no race on! LOL
Before we left the hotel this morning I made Liam promise that he would not talk about or tell me about what kind of cars are passing us or we are passing or are going the other way on the highway - for 1 hour of our drive. Guess how long that lasted? That’s right - about 3 minutes! He picked out an MG from 15 car lengths that was in front of us. I had no idea that MG is making or made new cars - I was looking for an MGB and thought that he had flipped his lid. This car looks exactly like a Honda Civic.
The other amazing part about Liam today is that he was here in Heidelberg 4 years ago when he was 12 years old and he remembered where the hotel was as they stayed here the last time and which way to walk into town – how crazy is that?
Back to the hotel at 10:30pm and heading off to bed once I finish writing this. We are driving up to Frankfurt tomorrow to meet up with the USA VW people in the afternoon and we'll hang out with them for the evening.