ED Memories: August 9, 2023

Wednesday, August 9, 2023

It's a super early start at 3:30 AM to drive to drop the cars off, as we have a ways to go and we have to get there by a specific time. The first part of the drive in the dark is misty and rainy, tricky, but the  headlights are really impressive. Definitely the best of any car I've ever had.

We breakfast en route, as we are keen to make good time, though  construction on the Autobahn makes the lanes narrow and dicey at times. I see a large truck come awfully close to Andrew ahead of me at one point, and he backs off rapidly stay clear. Yikes. 

We reach Sindelfingen in time to be able to give the cars a proper wash, before the shipping broker. Important to do, I think, as they are grubby and particularly coated in brake dust.

We definitely want to get that off before the cars sit in transit for several weeks. Who knows whether they wash them before shipping or not. We highly doubt it, and we don't want to take that risk.

With the cars reasonably clean, we strip the inside of them out, making sure we have all of our gear. We sign the paperwork, and place AirTags under the seats with the idea of tracking them somewhat. We will see how well that works. Handing over the keys is the final step and we say farewell to our faithful and brilliant companions.

Handily, Andrew has team members at IBM in Stuttgart, so a fellow named Martin picks us up and takes us to visit the IBM lab (I couldn't go in) and then to a nice restaurant for lunch.

I have an amazing schnitzel for the first time this trip and it is yummy. I should've had lots of more of them over the course of the adventure!

Time is ticking on, so Martin then takes us to the train station in time to catch our TGV from Stuttgart —> Strasbourg —> Paris. Easy peasy, although the bags are effing heavy as we now have ALL the gear. Some of it we would get to transfer to Brian in Paris thank goodness!

Once again, after an effortless and amazingly fast train ride, we meet Brian and the timing is perfect. He has just arrived on his train from the Loire (I think) and we drag the heavy bags to the hotel.

I say hotel, but that's pretty generous … it's an extremely small room, with three beds and a bathroom and not much space beyond that at all. It's hot and the A/C isn't working. We open the window wide for some cool air. We somehow turn on the sauna heat lamp in the bathroom and there's no off switch, only a timer. So now it's even hotter! Phew!!

We try to get the management to fix the air-conditioning but to no avail. Instead we decide to head out and see what we can find in the way of dinner. As it happens, we find a spot not too far away and a delicious salad hits the mark for me.

Back at the room, we do a bit of repacking, and by 10:30 I hit the sack. It's warm and uncomfortable, but there's not much we can do about it at this point.

~ Luke

p.s. You can read the full, no-holds-barred accounting of this day at gtschronicles.com.