Whoops! And Germany Part 1 - Nurburgring!

Yeah, so I skipped a week when I promised to post.  Not off to a good re-start.  I was going to post Halloween pictures, but the only ones I've seen with me in them are either blurry or not flattering.  I'll contact some more friends to dig up a good one.  In the meantime, here's the start of the Germany pictures that I promised!

We flew into Frankfurt on Saturday, October 5, got our luggage and rental car, and immediately hit the road to head to Nurburg, home of the Nurburgring racetrack!  This was obviously an S request since he's so into cars, but it was definitely an interesting experience for K and I as well!  When we got to our hotel, K and I crashed hard due to jet lag, but S was so hyped up on adrenaline that he went out to meet a friend of a friend who is part of a German Corvette club.  We met up with our new friends again for dinner (it was nice to get a lay of the land and basic food translation from someone who spoke English!) and then joined up with the rest of the Corvette club afterwards at a Discotheque!  We were a little too exhausted to boogie down, but we did have a good time!  Also, it turns out that there isn't really any good German pop music, so all of the radio stations and clubs play American music!  We heard a LOT of American Top 40....

The next morning we finally hit up the ring!  S took 2 laps around the ring on his own in our rental car (a pretty nice BMW 535 (in the background of the first picture).  We got passed left and right by porches and corvettes and sporty little souped up cars, but S was in his element - he actually got to drive on this famous 14 mile long race track!

We also had fun oogling all of the cars that were parked between laps (every lap there are anywhere from 2-4 minor/major accidents on the track - crazy daredevil motorcycles or cars overheating, cars taking a curve too fast and spinning, etc - and so all cars were stopped for about 30-60 minutes between laps for clean up crews to come through). 

We met up with the guys from the Corvette club again for lunch and then afterwards S went back onto the track as a passenger in one of the 'vettes for 2 ridiculously fast and thrilling laps (it was the TRUE Nurburgring experience) while K and I hit up some shops for souvenirs (I'm a total foodie nerd and got a cookie cutter in the shape of the ring....).  That evening after S rejoined us we set off for part 2 of our trip in the Rhine Valley....