Route : Hamburg – Fuhlen – Berlin – Stuttgart
Kms : 1,350
Summary of event :
a) Puch’s engine blew
b) Checkpoint Charlie in Berlin
c) Oktoberfest
25th September Hamburg – We headed to the city via train (E6.20 day ticket) as Udhaya had his 1pm appointment with Apple to fix his phone. Apple Care managed to arrange for an appointment here in Hamburg. Alas, he could not get the repair under the 1 year warranty and had to pay E200 for the repair and replace a new screen protector. He had to leave the phone there and come and collect it a few hours later. We had a big dinner at home and Ralph came over too. Both Bert and Ralph ate with their hand when they saw us doing so. It was indeed their first time and they loved it..I hope…
26th September Hamburg-Fuhlen (250 kms) – It was time to leave and we did after breakfast. Heading out of Hamburg, at the set of lights, a guy came out from the van at the front and told us to follow him as he wants to chat on the cars. We then headed to the same gasoline place and he was chatting with us on the cars and our trip. Got back on the road, when we were 1 hour on the road, Puch had white smoke coming out from the exhaust and Terence pulled over at the emergency stop on the Autobahn. He was troubleshooting and also called Danny to get some help on what could go wrong. After 5 hours and replacing many parts, it was time to call Mirco. The plan was to go to Mirco’s workshop and surprise him f our visit and we told his dad, Kees about this. Udhaya called the highway SOS phone line to get a tow truck over. They came in 20mins and it was going to cost E150 to tow for 8kms out of the highway and to a workshop. It was too expensive and the fees is the same if he towed the car to the next stop area which was 5kms away. He asked for E20 for coming out here but accepted E10 instead. Nana towed Puch to the next stop area and it started to rain. Nana was driving like 30kms/hr. Mirco called and both he and Kees will be on the way with a tow truck to pick us up. What a surprise when we saw them 1 hour later. By the time we reached Fuhlen, it was like 11pm. It was great to be back at Fuhlen… Mirco was on the phone for 1 hour trying to borrow a tow truck and he finally got hold of the Grundmann (this was the last resort) and managed to borrow the van and the trailer.
27th-28th September Fuhlen – Terence and Udhaya wanted to get their phone lines sorted as their existing data has expired. Mirco directed us to this shop in Hessisch Oldendorf itself. Walking back to this town brought back memories as we were here 3 months ago for the event. It was a quiet day and we found out later that the shops close between noon to 2pm for lunch break. Luckily the phone shop was opened. He know us from the event and he was super friendly. Since 1st July, there is a new law in Germany when you get a new number; you had to register and ID check makes it a longer process. He was kind enough to register our new number with his passport but when he checked his passport, it expired 6 months ago! So, he called Mirco (its a small town and everyone knows everyone) to get his passport but Mirco has a dutch passport. So he called Elke (Mirco’s mum) and next thing you know she and Kees are in the shop! We got this all sorted and it was like a family affair with the Lakwijk to the rescue again! We then went to see City Hall to see the Mayor, Harold but the office closed at 4pm! We called Christian and his family for dinner tonight at Mirco’s place.. Indian food of course…
29th September Fuhlen – Berlin (390 kms) We got up at 4am and left at 5am for Berlin. It’s Friday and didn’t want to get stuck in traffic. Terence stayed on in Fuhlen as Alex from Hanover was helping him to replace the engine with Alex’s. We arrived close to midday and we were visiting Stephanie, who worked in the same restaurant with Udhaya in Sydney. She was there 3 years ago. We stayed at her apartment which was very central. Parking was E1/hr from 9am-midnight… We went with Stephanie to the city to take photos with Nana. I came to Berlin 12 years ago with my cousin Dorene (we were backpacking then) and it still seems the same except the Wall. There is “fresh” grafitti everyday all over the wall and its allowed! We were starving by 3pm and after a trip to the supermarket, Udhaya was cooking us steak/chicken with potatoes for lunch. For dinner we had a typical Berlin dish which is meatballs.. We were lucky as Stephanie was not working today and we also went for a walk after the late lunch around the city.
30th September Berlin – Stuttgart – (710 kms) Today was going to be a long drive and we left after breakfast. We were heading to Leizpig. This was the town that we were suppose to go to visit Mariana and her family the day that Nana’s engine broke.. So, we decided to drive to this town and visit her family’s house. Alas, when we reached, no one was at home, but Udhaya took photos of this visit and surprised Mariana who is now in Malaysia. We then headed to Stuttgart. When we stopped at Mcdonalds to have a snack, and on our way out, this man stopped us. He handed out E10 as we had a PL sticker on the car and he is Polish! The Polish people are just special. We reached Sanajan and Kai’s place close to 8pm and she had already prepared dinner. Luckily, its not chicken curry but chicken biryani!!! It was simply delicious. Kai made me my new favourite cocktail ; Moscow Mule.
1st October Stuttgart – We had the famous pancakes by Kai and watched the final Formula 1 that will be held in Malaysia. We had her neighbours over, Hero and Yumi ; whom we met the last time. We then took the train to the city for Oktoberfest. It was like a big festival with all types of rides and games (similar to the Easter Show in Sydney) and few beer tents. This is my first real Oktoberfest event and it was just WOW! The waitresses carrying 5 1ltrs beer jugs at one time, live band and yodeller, people dancing on the benches and lots of pork knuckle. Udhaya cooked prawn pasta for dinner and we finished it by the time Terence came later in the evening.
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