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Paul and Astrid
Our family of 5 gets around. Every once and a while we get ambitious and blog to keep friends and family updated. CanadianKiwis
Travel Blog Posts
May 5th 2012
Today we went to the spring festival but I’ll get to that later. First we went to get souvenirs for people back home. We went to a gigantic toy store to buy some things for Uncle Chris and little babbies (that’s meant to be spelled like that). I (josh) wanted to find some Rokenbok - that thing with the remote control cars and blue and red balls, sadly there were none. There were a bunch of cool remote controlled vehicles (including a working submarine). The best part of the store was a race track up on the roof with jumps for rc cars on it. The next store we went to was for kitchen appliances all boring. We bought stuff. Next we went to get traditional dresses and lederhosen, I was very excited to get one ... read more
May 1st 2012
Today was the “photo rally”. Last night we were provided with a series of pictures together with accompanying skill testing questions. The idea being that we would visit the area where the pictures were taken and that would permit us to answer the questions. Bear in mind we are at almost all times moving – quite quickly. Anyway, believing that we only had a few moments with the pictures, Josh whipped out his IPhone to make a quick copy so that we could get a head start on the rally. We were promised “valuable prizes” and didn’t want a poor finish. It appears that the Treffenmeister may have caught on to our plan. Either way, we were allowed to keep our booklet of pictures. We had great plans to use google to figure out the answers, ... read more
Through the Mountains and to the Old Porsche Factory
Published: May 3rd 2012Europe » Austria » Lower Austria » Gmund (Lower Austria)
April 30th 2012
We departed the Salzburg Sheraton and headed south into the alps. We had a full morning of driving. Our principal destination was the The Grossglockner High Alpine Road (Großglockner-Hochalpenstraße). It is a panoramic road in Austria. It ascends Großglockner, Austria's highest mountain. There are a number of hair pin turns on the way to the top – approximately 2500 metres. The pass just recently opened for the season, but there is still plenty of snow on the top. At points the narrow road is lined by up to 10 feet of snow on either side. At the top there is a small visitor centre. We were amazed to see the number of cyclists tackling this gruelling climb. It was truly one of the most exhilarating drives I have ever taken. Josh was delighted to hurl a ... read more
April 29th 2012
Today we left on the official start of our Treffen. Outside the hotel all 12 Porsches were neatly lined up. After a few photos, we headed out to Salzburg. We are driving in two 6 car convoys. I suspect we make quite a scene passing through some of the small towns. Certainly, every boy under 20 turns to watch us pass. Out on the autobahn, we pushed the cars. We were regularly driving at 200-230 km/h. On one stretch, Josh and I hit 290 km/h (about 180 mph). At those speeds, you lose peripheral vision. It was exhilarating and alarming all at once. The car performed flawlessly. This tour is very much about the driving, rather than site seeing. We did stop outside the Neuschwanstein Castle (the icon German castle that inspired Walt Disney), but did ... read more
April 28th 2012
Hello, tis I josh. Today we went to the Mercedes museum. Guess what we saw cars! We went through the museum in a weird way. We took an elevator to the top of the museum, then spiralled to the bottom with each floor we went through a different time period. So there was lots of stuff we saw. Some of the highlights where, the architecture of the building it was all wonky father might post a picture of it, next was the guide he was fairly old and seemed to like breathing really hard into his microphone (*sarcasm* that was actually a bad part). Okay I can’t really appreciate the cars so the next thing I found interesting was the fact that Mercedes supported Hitler, they produced engines for war planes and used forced labourers. One ... read more
Driving Through the Black Forest
Published: April 28th 2012Europe » Germany » Baden-Württemberg » Baden-Baden
April 27th 2012
Had another great day. We had breakfast with our new friends from Boise Idaho then hit the open road. We did not really have much of a plan. We headed to Baden-Baden. Managed a few minutes on the autobahn. The car hit 215 km per hour without breaking a sweat (or any traffic laws). In Baden-Baden we explored the ruins of a castle on the hills overlooking the spa town below. We then took a wander by car around the town. It was a very posh place. Lots of gorgeous homes. A river runs through the town. After Baden-Baden we headed south through the Black Forest. We found a number of excellent roads, including K5370 from Ruhestein to Oppeneau. A very steep road with lots of switchbacks with a 100 km speed limit. It is a ... read more
April 26th 2012
After months of waiting, we finally got to see the car. We were up at 7:00 am, had a hurried breakfast and took a cab to the Porsche factory. There was a bit of initial confusion which required a brief round of charades to sort out, due to our pathetic German – the only thing that I can usefully manage is: Ich spreche Deutsche nicht. I also know “ich ein Berliner” but it appears to have rather limited application outside Berlin. We did our initial paperwork in a comfortable lounge with a caffe latte and Porsche branded gummy bears – technically, they were shaped like cars but the rest was the same. Gummy bears seem to be oddly popular over here. We then escorted to the delivery room where our car was nestled amongst a dozen ... read more
April 25th 2012
Josh and I (Paul) have decided to have a boys week (or so) in Europe. I recently bought a new car and the opportunity presented itself to pick it up at the Porsche factory in Stuttgart. It seemed like an ideal opportunity for a road trip. We plan to pick up the car and drive it on the roads it was built for - the german autobahn. We will ultimately hook up with a Porsche group on an organized driving tour of the south of Germany. Ever once and a while, I expect, we will stop to check out the local environs. We started off our trip on an early evening flight from Toronto. An unexpected upgrade to business class had josh thrilled. This is the first time he has flown in the rarified air at ... read more
Galápagos Islands - Day 7 (Astrid)
Published: March 19th 2012South America » Ecuador » Galápagos » San Cristóbal Island
March 16th 2012
Today started unexpectedly early, which is something we really should be expecting, given the past week. We were woken by The Voice of Paula telling us there were dolphins at the prow. Stumbling into appropriate public wear, I stopped by the kids’ room to rouse them for the experience and was greeted by their less than enthusiastic grunts and groans. Leaving Paul to deal with them, I ran up to the deck and was thrilled to see dolphins frolicking within spitting distance. There were dozens of them, breaching and racing along with the boat. You could hear them squealing, like Flipper. Having never been accused of being a morning person, I felt very smug realizing that I was the only animal lover willing to brave the early air to appreciate these dolphins but when I paused ... read more
Galápagos Islands - Day 6 (Adrianne)
Published: March 19th 2012South America » Ecuador » Galápagos » Santa Cruz Island
March 15th 2012
Bonjour mes amis! I hope you’ll excuse my awkward French, I am rather out of practice. Bringing you Thursday’s blog is none other than the girl whose awesomeness is surpassed only by her nerdiness (a fact that will become only too clear later on in this post). If you guessed Adrianne, you get a virtual GOLD STAR!!! You know it’s important because it’s all capitalized and stuff. By the way, I noticed that my family is shamefully ignorant of most nautical terms. I intend to rectify this. Starboard is the right side of the boat, Port is the left, Stern is the back, and Bow is the front of the boat. Of course, I could be wrong, but I doubt it. Today is not actually Thursday, so I sincerely apologize for any details that may or ... read more
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