- 18 Jul 14, 17:00#408669
Well we're here, in Manheim, about 20 mins from the track....apparently. We were supposed to be that sort of distance from the airport to here, but you'll hear about that later.
Day started well. Up early off to airport. My sister leaves everything till the last minute so having got through security and grabbed a coffee they were last calling our flight. We made it and the flight was fine.
Car hire place. We met a very nice man at the car hire place, who patiently explained everything anout the car and wher we picked it up from . We asked if we could hire him to drive us about, because we didn't know where we were going and the roads looked complicated. He said he'd be very expensive. So we set off following his directions to find our car. We found the bay, no car in it. So we had to go back to the nice man. Nice man determined that we had gone to the wrong hire car carpark and explained again( it's a very complicated place with lots of lifts) So back we went , and we found the right row and the right bay and the car in it was MASSIVE! ( now some of you may remember my sister and the exploits with the jag, and she's driving) "oh no" she said." that's a huge car, we're supposed to have a little one." Ah well, it looks like we've got a big one. But the key wouldn't work on the car. So back to the nice man again to tell him the car was very big and the key wouldn't work.
We were in yet another wrong car hire place. Armed with very explicit instructions we tried again and this time we found our little car. Great! Now just a little poodle down the motorway for 60 Kim's and we're there. It didn't happen quite like that.
The journey
I had instructions. Just 6 lines of them from the hotel website and it looked easy. We had to go on the A3 a bit then get On to the A5 and just keep going following certain signs, then a tricky bit at the end. After going along the A3 for about twenty minutes there was no sign of the A5. And the numbers on the roads just seemed to be made up baring no resemblance to the little map the nice man had given me( a map that only went part of the way). We thought we'd better stop at a service station where another nice man, somewhat amused when we asked for Manheim, pointed in the opposite direction to where we'd been heading. The A5 turn off was apparantly right near the airport ( I swear it wasn't!! Or they'd named it wrong) so back we went not really sure where this elusive A 5 was. Seeing a sign for Darmstadt that was on the six lines of instructions we decided to follow it. Soon we were in lovely countryside but no motorway in sight. We stopped at a funny little garagey /workshop /packaging sort of place and shouted hello. Eventually a man came and realised from the waved paper and the uttering of A5 and Manheim what we wanted and he looked perplexed. He tried giving me directions and I looked perplexed. So he went away and printed off copious amounts of maps and routes( this was a very, very nice man ) and then he drew on the map and wrote in big letters A5. All this map printing and drawing took about half an hour , my sister thought I was being raped, but all was fine and we were off again. And lo and behold we got on the A5 and were going the right way on it!! The next scare was when this A5 seemed to split and we missed the bit that said Manheim, so once again we had to stop at the services and find a nice man. This nice man got out his mobile phone and brought up maps, and yes!! We were still heading in the right direction. And the next bit due to superb navigating and driving was easy. Having arrived in Frankfurt airport just 60 kms north of our hotel , at about 9 am, we eventually poled up at about 1 pm.
I believe some of you guys toyed with the idea of driving down to Hokenheim. Well I wish you had!! My sister and I have a room with two great big beds, one each. We would gladly share for some chauffeuring services. Because if today is anything to go by we have a very slim chance of getting to watch quali tomorrow.
Day started well. Up early off to airport. My sister leaves everything till the last minute so having got through security and grabbed a coffee they were last calling our flight. We made it and the flight was fine.
Car hire place. We met a very nice man at the car hire place, who patiently explained everything anout the car and wher we picked it up from . We asked if we could hire him to drive us about, because we didn't know where we were going and the roads looked complicated. He said he'd be very expensive. So we set off following his directions to find our car. We found the bay, no car in it. So we had to go back to the nice man. Nice man determined that we had gone to the wrong hire car carpark and explained again( it's a very complicated place with lots of lifts) So back we went , and we found the right row and the right bay and the car in it was MASSIVE! ( now some of you may remember my sister and the exploits with the jag, and she's driving) "oh no" she said." that's a huge car, we're supposed to have a little one." Ah well, it looks like we've got a big one. But the key wouldn't work on the car. So back to the nice man again to tell him the car was very big and the key wouldn't work.
We were in yet another wrong car hire place. Armed with very explicit instructions we tried again and this time we found our little car. Great! Now just a little poodle down the motorway for 60 Kim's and we're there. It didn't happen quite like that.
The journey
I had instructions. Just 6 lines of them from the hotel website and it looked easy. We had to go on the A3 a bit then get On to the A5 and just keep going following certain signs, then a tricky bit at the end. After going along the A3 for about twenty minutes there was no sign of the A5. And the numbers on the roads just seemed to be made up baring no resemblance to the little map the nice man had given me( a map that only went part of the way). We thought we'd better stop at a service station where another nice man, somewhat amused when we asked for Manheim, pointed in the opposite direction to where we'd been heading. The A5 turn off was apparantly right near the airport ( I swear it wasn't!! Or they'd named it wrong) so back we went not really sure where this elusive A 5 was. Seeing a sign for Darmstadt that was on the six lines of instructions we decided to follow it. Soon we were in lovely countryside but no motorway in sight. We stopped at a funny little garagey /workshop /packaging sort of place and shouted hello. Eventually a man came and realised from the waved paper and the uttering of A5 and Manheim what we wanted and he looked perplexed. He tried giving me directions and I looked perplexed. So he went away and printed off copious amounts of maps and routes( this was a very, very nice man ) and then he drew on the map and wrote in big letters A5. All this map printing and drawing took about half an hour , my sister thought I was being raped, but all was fine and we were off again. And lo and behold we got on the A5 and were going the right way on it!! The next scare was when this A5 seemed to split and we missed the bit that said Manheim, so once again we had to stop at the services and find a nice man. This nice man got out his mobile phone and brought up maps, and yes!! We were still heading in the right direction. And the next bit due to superb navigating and driving was easy. Having arrived in Frankfurt airport just 60 kms north of our hotel , at about 9 am, we eventually poled up at about 1 pm.
I believe some of you guys toyed with the idea of driving down to Hokenheim. Well I wish you had!! My sister and I have a room with two great big beds, one each. We would gladly share for some chauffeuring services. Because if today is anything to go by we have a very slim chance of getting to watch quali tomorrow.
You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.
Abe Lincoln
Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power. Abe Lincoln
Abe Lincoln
Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power. Abe Lincoln
I thought there was just one obvious one and that's it.
