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Scott here members, I was lucky enough to
spend Christmas 2008/9 with a friend (Dietmar) and his family in
Germany, Stuttgart to be exact, home of Mercedes-Benz.
A mate I have known for about 5 years spent Christmas with my wife and I
the previous year, and he wanted us to spend Christmas with he and his
family the following year.
My wife really not interested in travel, said she was happy for me to go
and experience my first ever White Christmas.
So I have included a few photo’s from my trip.
My trip to Germany was based in Stuttgart, but while I was there Dietmar
and I took a trip on the TGV High Speed Train to Paris France, where we
spent 4 days touring the city, on foot I might add before going back the
Germany.
This Paris trip came about when mid way through last year Dietmar heard
about some special fares being offered, at the beginning of the TGV
services into Germany as a promotion, so he booked a couple of seats for
us.
It was on this trip to Paris that I saw the one and only Studebaker
while I was over there, which is better than seeing none, is it not!
As you can see in the pic’s on the page here, we visited the Eiffel
Tower (as you do) and we were fortunate enough to stumble upon a huge
restored/collectable car display being assembled around the large
fountain at the Parvis des droits de I’ Homme which is located directly
across the Seine River from the Tower.
 
We spent the whole morning there looking at the restored cars as they
threaded their way through the peak hour Paris traffic to be assembled
into position, and of course I was hoping to see a member of the
Studebaker Marque amongst the many European cars as well as a number of
the usual other American makes.
But alas there was not a Stude to be found, so after a few hours we
continues our walk across the Seine River and under the Eiffel Tower, to
take in the spender of this grand structure.
After we had photographed the tower from many angles, we continued on
our way, until we ended up recrossing the Seine again via another bridge
down stream to basically head back in the direction of the Arch de
Triumph and our Hotel.
Once across the river, we headed up one of many interesting streets full
of apartment buildings, where at the end of this street the road turned
left, but there was a grand set of stairs that led us up to the street
level above.
At the top of the stairs, a vision of slender was before me, my
enthusiasm renewed, for there, parked in the centre section of the
street stood a lovely Studebaker Silver Hawk, Black with white fins.
Amazing, I could not believe it, and this Stude was just parked there in
all it glory amongst all the other modern cars, and it stood out like a
beacon standing there, naturally I took many photo’s of the Stude, and
posed with it for posterity which you can see here.
The next day though in Paris, it snowed very heavily, and I must admit,
several times I had thoughts about the Black Hawk I had met the day
before, wondering if it was still just parked on that cold cold Paris
street in the snow, or was it away in a warm garage somewhere, because
believe me it was very cold, as you can see in a couple of the shots I
have added.
The Hawk was in very nice condition too, with red interior, and had
absolutely no rust showing on the car, a very straight car.
Well fellow members, that was one of the high lights of my trip the
Germany and Paris.
Of course back in Stuttgart I visited many of surrounding cities and
villages, and just for the record it did snow for Christmas and was
quite cold, mostly around minus 4 degrees, although when I went to
Karlsruhe visiting with other friends there for a few days, the temp
dropped to minus 12 degrees, and that I must admit felt cold .
In fact Germany had it’s coldest winter for 15 years, so I must have
brought them some luck in that regard.
Another high light for me was when I visited (several times) the new
Mercedes-Benz Museum. What and increasable place, I can highly recommend
that if you go to Germany, you have to make the effort to visit this
museum.
The building itself is worth going to see, let alone the contents of it,
which goes without saying was glorious
After you enter the museum foyer and receive the sound system device to
listening to the recorded information at every display, you enter one of
2 lifts that takes you straight to the top level, which is where you
start the tour, walking down a gentle spiral through the various display
areas, apparently the spiral is based on the DNA double helix, a tour
down through history.
Even when you have finished the tour down through the main part of the
building, where you hand in your sound device at a turn style desk, you
are drawn forward towards a glass railing, you look down into a huge
round atrium with 2 levels below, you then look up, and there on the
circular walls of the amazing atrium is a wide black strip painted on
the wall, about the width of a road lane, infact that is what it is, is
a section of banked race track, a road up on the vertical wall, and on
this vertical road are mounted Mercedes cars, up there as if they were
driving around the wall of this enormous circular hall, it takes your
breath away.
There is a gentle stair way the takes you down one level to a mezzanine
floor which runs around the wall on the far side of this atrium, this is
the coffee lounge area, with seat running around the walls, so you can
sit, enjoy a coffee, an both look up at these cars mounted 25 meters
above you, or you can look at a whole range of proto type and
experimental Mercs, displayed of wine glass stem display platforms from
the floor level below, but which are at your eye level sitting in the
coffee lounge, truly amazing.
The thought that has gone into the design of this Museum is mind
boggling.
As you can see in the photos I have included, in this coffee lounge
atrium there is a solar cars, E class Mercedes and many high speed
record setting Mercedes cars from the past, all mounted there 25 meters
or more above the coffee lounge floor level, it is amazing place to see.
Well members, I hope you can get a sense of what I saw on my trip, it
was truly worth it, totally enjoyable. |
