And onto Graz, Austria!

Note... Part 2 of this Austrian trip is here... Blogger formatting was killling me.

From Stuttgart, I flew to Graz. This was on a jangly little plane, on which I was on of about 12 passengers - plenty of space.

Got there and went to get my car - the Hertz car hire girl was really nice and pleasant - gave me turn-by-turn directions to my hotel, sketching it out on a map for me. I got a Citroen Picassa C4 - not the Alfa I had last place, but adequate none the less.

With the help of the well defined directions from Elizabet, I found my way to the hotel in the dark and rain – pleasant receptionist in a nice looking business hotel – the Mercure Messe.

I had food in the hotel – an apparent local specialty – pumpkin soup. Gotta say, it was really good. Then sleeeeeeeep.

Then work on Monday morning – work was painful as things were not in place but this ain’t the place to talk about work. That evening, the rest of my colleagues arrived, and we headed out to the town center to have some food. Graz is an old very European city, with a lot of old towering buildings, hills, and narrow cobble stone streets. We went to a relatively modern South American restaurant called Maredo – it was OK in that the food tasted good, the service was fast and friendly – just a little generic. If you know what I mean.

Tuesday was Mardi Gras, so we ate early, went to one of the town squares, joined in the revelling to the 80's sounds, then went to a pub called The Office – there was a pub quiz and a good pint of Guinness, so we had some fun. The place was packed and smoky .

Wednesday, went to some Italaian place and had some OK fish. We also checked out Molly Malones - an Irish pub(!) as there was an important Rugby match coming up on Saturday and I needed to secure some place to watch it. Was OK - nothing special. Food smelled really good.

Thursday - Pizza at a large place called Da Vinchi - I had a Diavolo pizza and it was really really good and spicy - as expected!

One thing in particular I liked about Austria was the pumpkin seed oil that they use as salad dressing – this stuff was great – I never seen nor tasted anything like it before. Looks all brown, but when diluted with cider vinegar (I think), it goes a green color and tastes all nutty and nice. Kubiskernol (or Kürbiskernöl, or even Kernöl) is what I think it’s called. Trust me, it’s great.

On Friday evening, we went to yet another Irish pub for fish n chips. Flann O Briens. A fairly big pub with lots of Irish stuff hanging on the walls, and from what I could see, all the barstaff were almost all Irish. Fish n chips were good. We stayed and took it easy, then back to the hotel.

Saturday involved work early in the morning, then off into the center to Flann’s again. See, Ireland were playing England in the 6 Nations Rugby. There was a good crowd, wilt a good chunk of Irish, a handful of Austrians, Germans, French, and a few English. Naturally everyone, apart from the English, was fully in support of Ireland. This was the historic game at Croke Park – that’s a separate story that can be read here. My American friend who accompanied me had never seen rugby before and was impressed, and there is no reason on the world why he shouldn’t be. Anyway, Ireland tore apart England with record scores, so I was happy.

From there we got taken to another bar by an Irishman who joined us; lots more fun. Grazians seem to know how to enjoy themselves.

Anyway, Sunday was a cloudy, misty day but it was our only chance to go sight seeing as, in this ever-changing trip, we had to head off to Stuttgart again (and back to the Nestor) on Monday. So Sunday was walking around Graz day.

My hotel room backed onto a couple of houses which in turn backed onto a cemetery; one of the houses had a dog who was quiet until he seen me…….

While waiting for the American to get himself together, I took a walk in the cemetery, and took some photos – I don’t know if taking photos is the right thing to do in a cemetery, but I did it anyway, as there were some interesting grave stones or markers.

I'm guessing the guy <-- liked to enjoy a glass of wine with his loved ones - so they continue to have one with him in the afterlife.

I found the World War I burial plots...

<---See how elaborate this one is -Friedrich August Lapp. The one below is also real detailed - Heinrick Kless is the name on the stone.I wonder if the head / statue is a likeness of how he looked way back at the tun of the century. I'm not sure what these graves are but they looked good

I noticed a strange looking tree.

We then ended up in what I think was a flea market with lots of junk; there were some WW2 pictures in frames for sale, a really old Italian knife, a bear skin and about 2 million other odds and ends. ...walking down a typical Grazian street, and then into the "old" city, inside the wall, up a hill and to the church.

This should be the hill on the way up to the church.. .

There was another WWI memorial on the side of the church.

Sunday in Ludwigsburg

As there were some work shenanigans happening over the previous couple of days, I had to make Sunday my last day (for a while) in Ludwigsburg. I checked out of the hotel, and had a bunch of hours to spare before my flight time. So I went for a walk.

I visited the Palace that I had been ar the day before and seen that it was even bigger than I thought; in fact about 4 times bigger, with lots of statues and stuff. Apparently if is Germany’s biggest baroque palace – but isn’t everywhere? I did not go for a walk inside it; I wanted to cover as much of Ludwigsburg on foot as I could in a short period.

There seemed to be some fancy looking gardens there too – I guess they are nicer in the summer.

Across a busy road was some kind of a park, with a strange looking building on top of a hill. From reading afterward, it’s Jagdschlösschen Favorite, which, I gather, equates to a kind of hunting lodge / rest / retreat / happy place for the palace residents. It’s now used as a place for weddings and TV shows - I think.

I could see why it would have been a hunting lodge – there was a huge amount of deer in the surrounding park

I came across an interesting root/stump. Well, interesting to me anyway.

From there, I walked back to the market square - I seen this the night before- I gotta say, Ludwigsburg seems very quiet at night.

Seems they have graffiti in Ludwigsburg - seemed out of place!

The market square had some churches and a memorial in the middle.

People were filing out of one of the churches - it was all very calm - really nice Sunday morning!

I got stopped by a guy wearing a red jacket and a curly mullet who seemed to have issues with me taking photos - he spoke only in German, so I guess I will never know what he wanted..

From there, I walked back to the hotel and drove to the airport - a really nice trip. There I stood around ad waited for my flight to Austria... Bye bye to Ludwigsburg.. for now!

A Friday and a Saturday In Ludwigsburg

After leaving work Friday, I used to nav system to take me to a shopping mall as I needed to get a cable so I could use this wonderful typee pooter thing in Europe.

What struck me about the mall was how American it was for the most part. Except for the fact that there was a flower and vegetable stall. And a newsagents. In fact, it did look very much like an American mall with an English crumby inner city shopping center influence.

I found the electronics store and eventually the cable I needed. Alas, no power converter for my cell phone but whatever. At least I would have internet.

So I goes to pay. I thinks – lets use my American Express. They don’t take Am Ex. How about Visa? Mastercard? Nope. Cash only. Perhaps I am becoming too Americanized, but I thought that almost everybody took some form of credit cards – especially a store that (can’t remember the name) was part of a chain and as big as a Circuit City. Confused

Off I goes back to hotel, had to work from room for a while, and I go out to get food. From a very nice seafood restaurant, and a waitress who helped me with German in return for me explaining what each fish was in English. Naturally I had a beer.

Saturday morning, I was awoken by the church bells – that was cool. I again had to spend a few hours working but eventually I got out and went for lunch to the same place as Night 1. Had pizza, good, and watched as people started breaking glass all over the floor. Now that was bizarre, but nobody seemed to care. I just don’t know! Perhaps it's a German thing.

Back to the hotel and back to work, I then took a walk, seen a little tiny smart car. Cars are a lot smaller in Europe; I had forgotten that.

I walked down a really nice path to the “Residential Palace”, a HUGE building, apparently built around 1720, by the Duke Eberhard Ludwig. I bet he chose Ludwigsburg as a place to live cos it sounded like his name hehehe. It was actually really nice there, loads of gold type buildings.. pics to follow.

Hotel then out to eat, had some sort of German curry in a café that was really busy, again I was helped by an extremely friendly waitress, who, despite telling me that her English was very poor, seemed to have no problems getting by. With my food I had, believe it or not, beer. In fact, my wonderful waitress, after talking to me about the range of beers they had, presented me with a bunch of small complimentary samples of each beer they had. I can’t remember what they were called but the dark one was the best.

All in all, I found the people in Ludwigsburg extremely friendly and accommodating.

Stuttgart and Germany in general.

Day one at the office was ok. In a kind of jet lagged, where-the-heck-am-I-what-is-this-language-you speak-why do-you-smoke-so-much kind of ok way. Following checking into a pretty nice hotel (The Nestor, Ludwigsburg), I met some friends and went for food and a beer. So, being in Germany, we had to go to an Italian restaurant. Not too bad. I had squid and it was good. And beer. Ahhh beer.

The Nestor Hotel, Ludwigsburg.

I need to mention the hotel - as good things should be mentioned.

This place was cool. A really nice hotel. My room was up on the top floor, with a great view of the steeple across the road.

Early-ish view from my room

Room was large by European standards. One thing that amused me was the tv sound (granted most was in German). There was a speaker in the bathroom so you could listen in to your favorite show while in there.

The staff are super friendly; and the food was good. Breakfast was a great big breakfast buffet, and for some reason I was expecting the proverbial “continental” breakfast. Nope. I had a choice of eggs, bacon, sausages, cheeses, cold meats, juices and lots of other stuff, including smoked salmon. I love smoked salmon. Never had it for breakfast before..

Other Ludwigsburg links:

http://motorfamilymotorcity.blogspot.com/2007/05/sunday-in-ludwigsburg.html

http://motorfamilymotorcity.blogspot.com/2007/03/friday-and-saturdat-in-ludwigsburg.html

Europe in the Spring.

Recently I got sent to Europe for some work stuff. It’s been a wee while since I was out of north America, so some of it was a wee bit new to me. The flight out was not too bad, NWA have made their planes a bit more comfortable, and I do like the personalized movie screens. Food was just about the best airline food I had ever; I went for the vegetarian option and had vegetable and chickpea curry (chickpeas are no longer vegetables?), wine and stuff. The lady in the red who was giving me food and drinks was great. I asked for an extra G&T (the only drink for me on a plane – also the only time I drink G&T is mid air), and I got two.

I watched “The Departed” on the wee tv – not bad, a movie about Boston Irish mobsters with Jack Nicholson and DeCaprio – good for a flight but I’m glad I didn’t pay to see it. And then kinda slept, with the aid of another drink.

Woke up in Amsterdam. Sore. And then walked about 43 miles to get to the terminal to go to Stuttgart. And got on a wee bus to the plane. And stayed on that stoopid wee bus for an hour while they done stuff to the wee plane. And we went on the wee plane and I felt like I hadn’t slept for a year. The plane took off and some one gave me a bit of dry bread with cheese on it. And nothing to drink. So I kept the bread and waited til I got a drinks and then devoured the lot and then we were in Stuttgart.

All was easy from there on. Stuttgart airport was interesting. The store next to the car hire place was not what I expected to see in an airport, nor were the toys in its window. Not at that time of the morning when I feel like I ran a marathon. I was not appalled, just shell shocked.

Just to reinforce that I was indeed in Germany, there was an Oompah band playing outside the airport. Really.

Anyway I got my car, a pretty nice Alfa Romeo 159 and got familiar for the first time with a built in navigation system. And went to work.

The Michigan Sno*Drift Rally 2007

A friend invited me and the lad to the annual Sno-Drift rally in Altlanta, Michigan. Naturally we accepted. The event took place yesterday.

We left our cozy homes at 7am (original plan was 5 am; 7 was much better) and set out into the frigid Michigan air with the 250 mile trip ahead of us. We did see a massive amount of trucks towing snowmobile trailers - this first decent snow of the winter had all these boys out and heading north.

No issues on the road; a steady 70 - 80 mph the whole way to Gaylord. We stopped there; had a Burger King breakfast - the boys hat tater tots and there were many Napolean Dynamite references fryin around. The fun took the nastiness of my so-called food away. We then ventured into Normans - The place in Northern Michigan for outerwear, where we spent a tiny amount of cash on heavy duty socks and a coat for the lad. Anyways, enough of all that, we went up there for a rally. So on we goes to Atlanta - 33 miles of the most un-crow-like distance; but we got there. Atlanta is a small little town - seems like a regular nice up north kinda place. As my buddy commented, if ya lived up there, you'd have to really love yer wife. ok ok enuff.

We initially went to a hall where a friend of my friend was taking lunch - he was one of the organizers, and a marshal so we got some pretty good tips on where to watch. After stocking up on cocoa and snax, we headed out to the stage, bloody miles away. Beautiful snowy countryside, but I was drivin so there were few pix. Well none worth takin. What i did see was a heck of a lot of crazy snowmobilers putting all sorts of dangers on themselves and others.

Well anyways, Travis Pastrana was driving and driving pretty well at that. He was the overall winner of the rally. As many of the top drivers (and others), and many of the spectators, he was in a Subaru WRX. Are there any other rally cars out there competing? Yep a few Mitsubishi Evos, a Hyundai Triburon, but outside of that, that was it as far as competing was concerned. There was a Porshe 911 in there somewhere but not far up the ranking, and of course a load of also-rans (seen a couple of Focuses)

So we mosied onto our stage, had a swift beer, and found a good spot, on the down side of a 50-degree turn. Then we waited.. The boys played in the deep snow, then we all stood and got snowed on, then we had some hot chocolate and took it as easy as ya could in below freezin temps. The zero-cars came around, then the rally started. Our spot was nice for watchin the cars approach ya and then manoever into the corner; it was interesting watching the different techniques. No one hit the bank too hard, but there was a lot of snow flyin. That was all good until we noticed the ambulance moving and police activity ans so on.. after some inquiries we learned that there was an "incident" and the stage was on hold. Apparently one of these many snowmobilers had "wandered onto the closed road" and caused a rally car to hit a tree and nearly kill the occupants. I got a pic of the car involved getting trailered in - below somewhere - when i post it.

Look how far this guy is from the corner while turning already

We moved on at that point and decided to hit the school - which was the pit- we were told it was the elementary, middle, and high school all in one. That was a hive of activity; we got there just in time to see the cars coming in. Pastrana, of course was first, followed by many other Subaru WRX's. Blue ones. Imagine that? Pics of Pastrana and Comie-Picard coming in....




We also got to see the the left-overs of car that swerved off to avoid the crazy snow mobiler. Messy....

It always amazes me the speed these guys work at!


See the amount of snow under the wheel arches. These cars are tuned to carry as little weight as possible - how heavy is all that snow??

From there we went to what we thought was the next stage - but we wondered why all the people were leaving. So we pulled over and asked someone what was happening - amazingly he recognized me!! I had no clue who he was, but he knew my name. Seems I worked with him about 8 years ago 3500 miles east of here! Dang!!! Anyways, the stage we were trying to go to had been brought forward as the previous stage had been canceled, not just held up, and they went on the next stage ahead of schedule. Oh well.

So, onwards to the final stage of the day. Here again we got there, had a beer, found an awesome spot on the approach to a hairpin, and relaxed. No blizzard this time. The boys again had fun, egged on by the marshal in the center of the hairpin who started a snowfight with the boys which turned out to be a snowfight with half the spectators. The TV people were there, ESPN I'm told. I wonder if we got on there? The rally began just as it got dark, which was nice but kinda killed my photography chances. Thoroughly enjoyable! The first 10 cars kicked butt and the rest slowed down and cornered cautiously. Time to go.

So that was rally day, fun, snow, fast cars, snow, beer, cold, fun, snow and Subaru's. By the bucketload. I think I know what my next car will be.

The trip home was a bit more challenging than the trip up there. The roads were covered in snow, which meant slowing right down. We drove to Gaylord, felt hungry, and stopped at a Mexican, La Senorita I believe, for a somewhat average dinner. Then onto the road.

I-75. i would have thought it would have been clear. Nope. One lane was passable, and that was it. 5 hours later we got home.

600 or so miles total. 18 hours out. Snow. Rally cars. All great fun, We will be there next year!

The (Un) Official Review of the Detroit Auto Show! Illustriously Illustrated!

And what a messy day it was, but good fun was had. It was cold and dry when we got there and cold and snowy when we left.

There's a bit of local knowledge that pays off when going to the auto show or anywhere else in the area; I have never not been able to park on Cobo Roof. I think a lot of people don't even know that parking lot exists; granted there were very few signs up. What got me was the small parking lots that were 1/2 a mile from Cobo who were charging $4-$6 more than Cobo. Choice: Pay more in a less secure (maybe..) lot and walk through the rain to the show or park on the roof of the building where the show is, pay less and take the elevator.

In addition, I'd fully recommend getting there at 9am or even a wee bit earlier. You beat all the crowds, and you don't have to line up to get in. Also, ticket purchases. I paid via credit card, which you do using an ATM-type machine. Pretty cool and fast. Another way to avoid lines. Why did I not buy the tickets online before hand? Well because I had the young lad with me and online, you can only buy adult-priced tickets. I'm sure this is a money-making technique - you can get your kid's tickets on the web but you have to pay adult prices(= $6 extra). Plus then you have to line up to pick them up at the will-call booth.

The show itself was somewhat disappointing - i wasn't there last year, but comparing it to other years, it seemed much smaller. other years had a lot of focus on more than just cars - this year was comparatively boring. Sure there were some interesting concept cars, but over all it was a more bland affair. The Lamborghini's were nice, and the blond broad standing beside them was also .. hmm interesting. Glad to see at least one Auto company is sticking to the age-old proven method of selling cars with pretty girls!

I went to the Lamborghini area when there was no girl and I took the Murcielago photo with ease.

When girl returned, I had problems getting near the display.. hence the less sharp (but pretty good) pic!

Chrysler seemed to be the only one of the big 3 who made an effort to attract people to more than cars (apart form Lamborghini heheheh)- they had some pretty cool simulators. As ever, the line was big and not worth the wait. So on we went. .. but stayed with Chrysler - or more specific, Jeep. The new Jeep Wrangler looks the same .. just a wee bit bigger- the "waterfall" display was as good as ever - the same as ever too. The Mercedes-Benz had their display on a load of ice, with real ice towers around. Why? I guess Mercedes are getting "cool"!

The Smart ForTwo was an interesting little car - some forward-thinking by Chrysler - I like the look of it but I hope it doesn't fall flat on its face - or under the front wheel of a Hummer. Nice idea - may work in California, but not yet in Michigan. I've seen snow drifts bigger than that car. But with weather and thought evolution, who knows?

Volkswagen's display seemed to focus more on how the car's audio systems sounded than what was new with the cars. Yep, they had a concept SUV (The Tiguan), but it was a concept. I was pleased to see it had a "clean turbo diesel as an option. Good! About time that technology reached these shores. They also tell me the Toe-Rag (or Toureg) had changed but I couldn't see where. One disappointment at the VW area was the lack of injection-moulded gifts - in the past they had a contraption which took plastic pellets in one end and produced a small car out the other. This year it was replaced by a boring conveyor belt - no gifts. Darn cos cutting!

The Mini area seemed the same as any other year. I really could not see any difference.

Ford. Ford, Ford FORD! What are ya dooin? The new Focus was so bland I did not even bother wasting photo space on my memory card. Maybe I could photo a brick and be more interested. Why change a car that has recognizable image to look a late 80's regular escort? Automotive suicide! They were also still pushing hard on the "don't worry about the MPG, just look at the size of this truckI It's HUGE!. Ford, get with 2007. The did, however, have the Airstream concept. Real useful if Austin Powers is in town and needs a van.

Groovy Baby!

Ford - From Big to Daft!

GM got truck and car of the year. Yep, you told us once. Now I was pleased to see them getting more adventurous with hybrid technology. The Volt was good too. And a nice old car as well that I need to find out what it was....

Not sure what this is but looks sweet!

Here's some other bits and bobs we seen down there....

Rolls Royce were still displaying cars people can't afford.

The new Lexus Coupe. Nice. Excuse me, why are you wearing sunglasses on your head? Your eyes are on your face, and anyway, you're indoors, it is snowing outdoors, this is January, and you're in Detroit!

New Automotive Initiaive - Me Style - Just in time for the Detoit Auto Show - - or should I say NAIAS

The Auto Show started here in Detroit in the Cobo Arena today. Otherwise known as the North American Auto Show. See.. I can do links! How cool is me!

Anyways, recently I had 2 conversations about the North American auto industry. One with a colleague, and one with a friend via email - parts of which are copied here. this is my thinking on how the auto industry is here and how it is going to go over the foreseeable future. And how it will affect both the USA and Michigan, which to me means Detroit. An opinion... At least in the eyes of this poor sinner....

The US Auto industry is in a fair degree of trouble. At least from my all-over-the-place view.

Let's start with suppliers...

Local ones. Things are getting better. The herd has been thinned; only the fittest are surviving. And those who were ailing will continue to ail or go away. Those who, a few years ago, were willing to take a few wild chances and invest in forward-thinking are still doing well.

New competition....

China Auto is just about here - they are allegedly showing a mini SUV at the auto show (personal opinions will be here after I go there meself) . Quality? apparently better than US vehicles. Reliability: apparently better than US vehicles. Price: A damn sight cheaper than domestic. Why? 3 reasons as far as I can see: Cheaper labor, harder working/less bitchin workforce, and cheaper raw materials.

How to fix: Get rid of the UAW. Reduce wages in some areas of production, and make a lot of tasks target/bonus related - you do a good job, you reap the rewards, you don't, you don't. Look at where you are getting your materials from and source at origin - cut out the middle men.

More government assistance is needed, but I think a lot of the issues are with the UAW - they have been getting away with doing the bare minimum for too long - that apparently is not the original Detroit spirit where autoworkers had pride in their products - the quality and
reliability of US vehicles is perceived as way less than imports. Why?

Cos over the last 20 years, that has been the case. Poor design with shoddy workmanship. Granted it is improving but it's hard to shake the reputations. Some blame also lies with the boring designs that US automakers are coming out with but that is getting better.

There is also another factor - career engineers who allow poor work (and therefore under-par quality) to pass through- those who do not have the gonads to inform their bosses that the work that is being approved by them is over-engineered (and therefore heavier - need more gas in that tank to drag that over-engineered part and its friends), or worse, does not meet standards at all. The way the US Auto industry is structured now; the mindset is all about self-preservation. Right down to the guy doing the drawings, to the guy signing it off to the boss who approves the design. To the guy who QA's a part with a bad weld. With everyone looking up with fear, in case they are seen to no "produce". Where producing means 100% pass-thru, not 99% perfection. / ok maybe that's a bit of a rant.

America .. apart from the earlier points .... How to fix...

A wild idea - get help from Japan on a consultancy basis - like it or lump it, we are in a global economy, and these guys are our competitors, and doing a dang good job of it. These guys operate with a 50-yr business plan. US Auto : they are now looking at 15 years (well, at least one)

Currently, domestic auto companies are telling us that we are paying X amount more per vehicle to pay for over-inflated past and current employee benefits (health and benefits etc). My answer to this.. why should we, as consumers pay for poor executive decisions of the past? Cut executive salaries until car prices are competitive again...

Also, slow down on gas guzzlers. Make smaller good quality cars (lighter = cheaper = more economical), which you can export. America making cars only for Americans does not work anymore - the market is diluted and besides, most Americans cant afford to buy or put gas into too many new American cars.

2008 - The Ford/[insert Asian Automaker here] partnership will be getting more marketshare.
Wait and see...

Maybe I am off-center. yep
Anti-American - not in the slightest... I want this place to get huge again!
Forward-thinking - dam well hope so, but I hope the bean counters are too.