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Published: April 26th 2012
Josh in the Porsche Lounge
The waiting room for expectant fathers. 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 other new cars. We spent over an hour familiarizing ourselves with the car. It is an incredibly well engineered product. And of course, stunningly gorgeous.
Just as we were about to drive off, we encountered a problem putting up the convertible top. I was initially concerned that I had managed to break the car in the first minute in command. Turned out to
The Car
3.8L, 400 HP of open top motoring. be some kind of programming error. The car was initially hooked up to a diagnostic computer. After 10 minutes or so, we were ushered out of the delivery area, like the family members of a critically ill patient at a hospital. We returned to the lounge (waiting room). Josh and I played with the toy race car setup there and wandered around the displays. About an hour later, we got the key back (and a complimentary Porsche umbrella for our trouble). Josh and I spent another 30 minutes playing with the programming and adjustment of mirrors, seats and steering wheel. With some trepidation, I eased the car out of the Porsche parking lot (with 11 kms on the odometer) and into heavy traffic.
Josh has taken responsibility for operating the GPS system. It not as easy as one might have thought, principally because of the different ways that addresses are written here and the fact that they insist on naming landmarks using the German language. Ultimately, Josh and the GPS guided us back to the Hotel in once piece. It took about 10 minutes to find the perfect parking system – away from all the other cars.
With
Josh Apparises the Cola
Josh uses his delicate palate to conclude that the Coke is in fact Pepsi. car carefully and securely stowed, we went for a walk along Koenigstrasse, a pedestrian road which is the central shopping and business street in Stuttgart. It was a bright sunny day. The street was filled with people, high end shops and buskers. We had lunch in Schlossplatz across from the Neue Schloss (New Place). A former king's palace that was rebuilt following the war.
After a short nap, we took out the car and headed to the Stuttgart Television Tower (Fernsehturm). Here again the GPS would have been perfect if we only knew the German name for the tower. Happily, the tower is pretty big and we were able to visually navigate to it. The tower was built in the mid 50s and purports to be the first TV tower in the world. Parts of its design were used in the construction of Toronto’s iconic tower. There were some great views of Stuttgart and the surrounding areas, including the Black Forest.
From the tower we continued, with the top down to the Tram Museum. Sadly it was closed. However, right across the street we stumbled across the Stuttgart Spring festival (Stuttgarter Frühlingsfest?). We later discovered that it is
The Stuttgart TV Tower
Pales in comparison to the CN Tower, but built 20 years earlier. the largest spring festival in Europe. It had plenty of rides and “midway” like features. It also had at least 3 enormous beer tents. We poked our heads in to see hundreds of people swilling pilsener, standing on the tables and singing – presumably singing together but it was hard to tell.
We tried out an interesting elevated go-cart track. The go-carts were powered by 5 horsepower Honda lawnmower engines. My ride seemed particularly sluggish and I was quickly left in the dust. However, as Josh attempted to lap me, I put him into the wall, which temporarily stopped him, but not for long. I was reassured to know that I had 400 horsepower parked outside.
Before leaving we had some festival food. I had to try the “currywurst”. Turned out to be a steamed pork sausage cut into slices (by an automatic slicing machine) and seasoned with warm curry ketchup. Something to try once …
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