Tuesday, September 16, 2008

15 Sept: Day One In Fellbach (near Stuttgart), Germany


My two flights went smoothly, though I was right about packing "too heavy." The third bag cost $150 to bring along, and I arrived bathed in sweat from all the schlepping of the two large carry-ons, my leather jacket, plus the duty-free scotch and candy I bought for the Schmids. Dietmar (aka Gig, pronounced "Geek") and Sabine are in excellent shape, and have been the greatest friends I could ask for. Gig sends warm "Hellos" to all, but especially to Jamie.

Ferdi and Max are handsome lads of 11 and 15, growing up fast. Ferdi is a race fan, and helps Gig work on his brakes, too. He can change pads by humself, and does a perfect job, according to Gig.

I chose to stay up as long as I could this afternoon, so Gig took Max and me to see his racing shop friend Paddy O'Grady, where we met his other buddy Klaus, who owns a leathers shop for bikers. I'd met them both back in 2001, and we all remembered that. We had a raucous 45 minutes, after which Gig took Max and me to the BMW dealer, where we were to see the car they had found for me. I now own a dark red 1993 BMW 520I (see pic) four-door with a stick shift, no air, roll-up windows, but only 130,000 Km (80,000 miles) on it, I only paid Euro 2.250! I am having new brake pads, oil, etc. done tomorrow, while we are registering and insuring it. (My German home address is Kelter Weg 24, Fellbach, Germany.) I pick up my Beamer late tomorrow. If I can learn how on a German-language keyboard, I will post this message to my blog.

Tomorrow, I will be a guest speaker at Max's English class.

Please hug Preston. I am going back to bed! Love to all.

4 comments:

Kancamagus said...

Amazing! After one day in Europe, dad owns the nicest car he's ever had. Haha!

Jesse S. McDougall said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Kancamagus said...

You really are mastering the blog maintenance art quickly. Thank you for taking the time to make this available. I very much look forward to keeping abreast of your adventure here. -J

PS I am kancamagus.

PPS I thought of you today and how your heart will sink, having found Merriam Webster's dictionary lists sneaked AND snuck as the past and past participle of sneak. The art of the language continues to die.

Giddins@Porsche said...

Do you know how to get hold of Paddy O'Grady? I'm an old friend from Porsche and lost contact with him? My email is alangiddins@gmail.com thanks Alan