Get clear, we're goin to Trier...

so, how and where do i begin this adventure. Step one, Allen makes the gameplan (and I use that term loosly). Gameplan is we will go to Trier, Germany to see a WRC (World Rally Championship) car race. And might I add, the Subaru Impreza WRX has been one of my favorite cars for some time, and they are big in these events...Step two, meet up with Curtis and get on the train to Trier. It's about a 6 hour train ride from Munich to Trier, with one stop in ???????. When we do get on the second train it is full, and by full i mean I'm pressed up against the door, hoping my weight doesn't accidentally force itself to open while travelling 70 mph or so on our last one hour leg to get to Trier. Our initial thought was, "are all these people here for the race tomorrow?" Turns out no, train emptied out by the time we got to our stop.

So we arrive, just after midnight, maybe one. There are a few bars open just by the train station, and we see about 15 people in 'Subaru' jackets. After talking with them we get a map for the races, realize there are probably gonna be no hotels available, and realize we need a ticket to get in to the race for tomorrow. Crap. At that point I was imagining a 70 Euro ticket just to get in, on top of the 160 Euro we spent for the train to get here. So we proceed to walk around, eat McDonald's (Trier is not so small after all thank God), and then walk around some more. The low down...no hotels, and the bars have roudy Irishmen, Germans, French, etc. packed to the brim, not a place three American's wanna be, especially seeing that we were all carrying bags with us. Walking down dark alley after dark alley is not the way you want to 'discover' a city. But, the reality of the situation was that we went into this knowing this could happen, and planning ahead is for sissies. After all this new exercise being in Germany, walking everywhere, biking, playing soccer, biking, walking, etc....my left calf finally decides it needs a break, and tells me this by becoming excrutiatingly painful, almost to the point of not being able to walk, but I had to push through because we were still trying to explore the city. All the while thinking we had to stay 'in' the track area so we could maybe bypass security the next morning. We find a nice corner off the beaten path and scope it out for awhile. This is the point were we begin to feel homeless. It is now 3 in the morning and we are cold, tired, and a bit hungry again (well me anyhow), and knowing we cannot stay anywhere is becoming more real by the minute. So, we grabbed some beer and tried to relax, sleep, whatever, on the steps. I think Curtis slept for a bit, but lying on the concrete stairs was more cold than I could imagine, and i definitely did not come prepared for this. I tried moving to the phone booth, but that felt gross and awkward being in there at 4 or 5 in the morning, so that didn't last long.

Ok, fast forward. It's about 9, and we are sitting in the Race Pass only area, thinking we were clear. Nope, got busted, so we left. Now we have to buy tickets. Curtis made a sign, and after about an hour of waiting around we finally found a lady nice enough to offer one to us. Perfect...now we can just rotate and check out the cars all day, which turned out to be a pretty good deal. The view was not the best at first, but any glimpse of a car passing by, the sound of the engine, basically ice skating on the road, the control the driver's possessed, was awesome. I walked around for a bit to try and get a better view...there were many of us without tickets trying to peek through the fence. Polizia kept coming over yelling at us in German and then smiling, almost knowing as if there is nothing they can do about all the people. Finally about half way through they tore down the tarp covering the fence so all of us non paying folks could see the races. But I did get inside the race area 4 or 5 times during our rotation with our one pass. My favorite had to of been the Subaru WRX driven by ??????, and even enjoyed the Suzuki Swift, and Renaults. And top this day off with some hot Lancia Stratos action, pretty much rounded out the day nicely. Photos and videos follow...

Curtis put together this sweet video of all the footage he took. Big ups to CeeMonk...



I would have liked to see the rally in the mountains, but I guess that trip can come later. I have always loved to watch the WRC races on Speed Channel, but now I can say I've been there. I just wish this type of racing was bigger in the US, Nascar is for hillbillies! So for now, my heart is set on getting a Subaru WRX STi...and I will try to forget the fact that I haven't been in a car or drove one in three weeks. And it's funny because no matter how much I type about this trip, there seems to have been so much more. Guess the rest will settle into memory, tell some tales about Trier later or something around a campfire...

Parker