Day 8: The Mediterranean
We woke up to the frightening news of the London bombings. After a breakfast of croissants from yesterday we strolled down to the bridge (the old one) to take some pictures (of the new one) before climbing the mountain back to the main road. There were several more spectacular grades before we got down to the lowlands and found our way to Sette on the coast. We lucked out on a parking spot being vacated and strolled through town until we found a wine shop to get a bottle to go with our lunch of leftover bagget, brie, and salami. We ate on the waterfront and strolled some more to kill time before the banks opened up after lunch (Must be nice to be a banker in France.) so I could cash a travelers check. In Montpellier I decided I'd had enough of the hip pain and sought out stronger medicine. I drove through heavy traffic looking fruitlessly for a hospital. Finally a pharmacy showed up which strangely takes its lunch from 1:30 to 3pm. After waiting outside for what seemed like a long time we went in to try to convey my problem to the non-English speaking cashier. After a bit we managed to get the point across and she called up a doctor and got me an immediate appointment. His office was just down the block and we followed an old man into the building, who turned out to be going to see the same guy (or else we probably would have ended up in someone's apartment). The doctor's office door opened up on a tiny room with 3 more doors and I started to walk in on the one with his name only to be chastised by the old man to go in another door 'obviously' marked for waiting. But without a receptionist it wasn't clear how we would ever be welcomed in. The doctor came out soon and welcomed us in for the exam. His English was iffy but 20 minutes later we left with 3 prescriptions and went back to the pharmacy. With that taken care of we stopped at Arle for the night and finally found an open room at the charming Hotel Flor. We walked down to the corner and picked up a pizza from a truck parked next to the gas station. It was good with the other half of the bottle of wine from lunch. Some more drugs and it was time to hit the sack at 8pm.
Day 9: The French Alps
The early night refreshed us and we were up at 6am. We went into the center of Arle and took pictures of the car in front of the magnificent coliseum. Then we strolled through the huge farmers market picking up blackberries, baklava, and a few essentials for lunch. Then we went down to the coast and dipped our feet into the surprisingly cold Mediterranean. From there it was off to Geneva by way of Gap. The road was non stop curves for 50 miles and I had a blast. Shortly before the Swiss border we saw a miles long traffic jam going the other way that we decided must be headed for the Tour de France. With great disappointment I saw that here was another missed opportunity to see Lance. I had missed the last day of his first win by one day in 2000 and so I had planned our schedule originally to catch a stage in central France before losing all that time at the beginning of the trip. We tried stopping at a Best Western the other side of Geneva but it was a gagging 155 Euros so we pushed on to Louzanne and found a room there. The drugs have started to work so the trip is more enjoyable now.
Day 10: Autohaus Büchle
Sunday morning we started out by going down to the village to attend the protestant church service. They had the service outside the town hall and many were dressed up in old style clothes. Someone shot off a tiny cannon a couple times in addition to the bells calling everyone to the service. There was a brass ensemble playing and the minister was dressed old time as well. Surprisingly the service lasted only a half hour and then they broke out a bunch of drinks but we didn't stick around. We drove straight through to the German border and stopped in Lörrach for gas. I bought a town map and got directions to both the original and current locations for Büchle VW dealership. This is the Karmann Ghia (not just VW) dealership where our car was originally purchased in 1966. (Our original maintenance book shows that after being picked up here it had maintenance in Geneva and Lisbon before being shipped to San Francisco.) After stopping at the original site, now a new Lidl store, we went out to the next village and the new dealership where we took a bunch of shots. We headed up to Freiburg for the night to a charming and historic hotel.
Day 11: The Autobahn
We got up early so we could go back down to Lörrach while they were open. I figured 45 minutes but made a wrong turn going out of town and ended up going through some small towns before finally finding the autobahn. Then shortly before our turnoff traffic came to a dead stop but after some maneuvering we finally made the exit and got to the dealership shortly before 9am. The people at the dealership were, of course, a bit incredulous that these Americans had shown up at their door with this 39 year old car sporting California plates. I presented them with a VWofA calendar (with our car on the cover) which they seemed genuinely to appreciate. In turn I asked them for a license plate frame and some fuses (for the hard start relay). They charged us 44 cents each for the fuses. After we left we made good time, at about 75mph, all the way to Göttingen. I didn't have directions or even an address to Lars' place but somehow drove right to it (having last been there in 1999). We arrived about 4pm seeing Richard, Tom, and Terri standing outside. I learned later that this was just about the time Richard told Lars to expect us. After awhile Richard suggested that we visit Axel Stauber so we drove back down to the south and met him at his shop in Kässel. He was about to close up shop but graciously showed us around is very large collection of VW parts. The first thing I asked about was T34 windshields and he said that while he had a few used ones he also knew a guy that would make new ones with a minimum of 10 pieces. (This later turned out to be a bum lead but Axel is working on another source.) As we browsed through the rest of the warehouse we found that he still had some NOS sheet metal and a spattering of other T34 parts as well. After leaving we went down to a charming little town on the river and had some beers and dinner before heading back to the hotel in Göttingen.