Stuttgart

Last night we packed up camp in Strasbourg, in order to make an early exit, which we did. But first we ducked downtown to an internet call shop and tried our luck with Qantas.We've feeling a little bit rushed. But enquiring about moving our late september flight out by a few weeks proved fruitless, so we're sticking with the current date.

We're getting better at accepting that we'll never see it all no matter how many months or years we travel for.

After investing a day's travel across the beautiful German Schwarzwald mountain range we arrived at the birthplace of the car - Stuttgart. Mrs Daimler & Benz simultaneously invented the motor car here 'independently' - a fact repeated so often today it almost sounds like a coverup. I think the locals are underestimating mankind's ability to abandon all sense of confidentiality after two large steins of Heineken Beer. 'Hans, you won't believe what I did to that old horse cart and diesel engine in the workshop today' etc etc.

We made a visit to the Mercedes visitors centre late this arvo. As a publicity stunt, a bus picks you up outside the factory and speeds you through the grounds to an ageing but modernist sort of building, under the pretence of security. The vehicles inside were mostly disappointing, but we had a few good laughs at some 80's concept racing cars which looked like they consisted entirely of 45 & 90 degree angles. I think the design folks from Volvo must have had their protractors knocked off prior.

On the bus back were 3 american freshmen who kept us entertained with tales of frightening stupidity. Stories of takeovers of honda by 'somebody' and Audi's poor build quality stunned me. Paula stopped me from instantly giving a lecture on the last few disgraceful decades of production by companies like Harley Davidson and Jeep.

Tomorrow we're off to Switzerland for a few days and we're meeting up with Paula's sister Toni on sunday night in Lauterbrunnen (Foey if you're reading this back at the office I'm finally going).

Love to all and see you in a few months,
Sambo.