Since I was the instigator of this adventure, I suppose I had a bit more clout when it came to picking destinations, and I had long wanted to visit the newly constructed museums of Porsche and Mercedes. Fortunately my automotive enthusiasm was shared by my travel pals, a bit more so perhaps by Hank than Josh as would be revealed later. So our agenda for the day was to get to Stuttgart but by meat of a run. Through the Black Forest of Southwestern Germany.
I had envisioned a morning ride through a deep, primeval forest emerging in time for a quick freeway run to Stuttgart and the Mercedes museum by noon or 1:00. Oh, well, you can’t always get what you want, but if you try…
That section of the Schwarzwald turned out to be very pleasant if not very interesting farmland replete with numerous charming farm villages as cute and as immaculate as if Walt Disney had commissioned them himself. What didn’t work was the map’s portrayal of the spiderweb network of two-lane roads, so we ended up virtually making a loop on ourselves before we got out of the BF and on the road to Stuttgart. And by that time it was becoming apparent to me, at least, that we could not keep our original plan of spending 4 hours that afternoon in the MB Museum, then travel to Zuffenhausen (a suburb to Stuttgart as Alpharetta is to ATL) where we spend the night and visit Porsche in the morning. Plans had to change. I was hysterical over the difficulty charting our course, which had become my responsibility since I had the only working GPS device, my I Phone, and we were all getting grouchy.
I had envisioned a morning ride through a deep, primeval forest emerging in time for a quick freeway run to Stuttgart and the Mercedes museum by noon or 1:00. Oh, well, you can’t always get what you want, but if you try…
The rolling hills of Schwarzwald; where's the forest?
With this Hi-Tech GPS, how could we get lost?
Early on in the trip’s planning, all of us had agreed to a covenant that required consensus making, but with every effort to accommodate the strongly felt needs or desires of each individual. Well, I knew I was pushing the envelope with the car museum thing, and now we were all nearing exhaustion, and the plan had to change, yet I wasn’t willing to throw in the towel. Though the process I used to change the plans may not have been completely true to the consensus model, it was a compromise that ultimately worked: we would go straight to Zuffenhausen and do Porsche first with the two or so hours we had remaining this day and we’d do Mercedes the next morning, even though that meant a late start on a day where we had a lot of distance to cover.
So often on this trip a change, even accidental, would produce a better result, kinda like improvising a script might. Such was the case here. We did the Porsche museum well within the limited time available, had a great time dong it, soothing all our nerves and salvaging the day.
Our luck held again as the hotel was a quick couple clicks down the road. But pit good fortune really improved when we were given a restaurant recommendation by the hotel clerk that turned out fantastic. Great Schwabian food and huge quantities of an excellent local brau, finished with a complimentary chilled ouzo aperitif. We again slept well.
An interesting Porsche exhibit showing how the 911 profile has grown
Another interesting exhibit: stand under to hear and feel different engines
Our luck held again as the hotel was a quick couple clicks down the road. But pit good fortune really improved when we were given a restaurant recommendation by the hotel clerk that turned out fantastic. Great Schwabian food and huge quantities of an excellent local brau, finished with a complimentary chilled ouzo aperitif. We again slept well.
Well a sure big adventure it was. I like the photos representing the areas you visited. Nice blog and article. The visit to the Porsche museum was nice thanks for the pictures the cars look awesome.
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