While at the coffee shop I felt it too beautiful outside to waste a Sunday. I looked at a list of racing events my supervisor Eric Bauer threw together for us before we left. (Shout Out!) It's quite an awesome list, thanks Eric. So low and behold, Friday-Sunday WRC World Championship Rallye Deutschland in Trier! I looked at the time. 3:27. I looked at the Deutsche Bahn website. Train leaving Munchen Haubtbahnhof 5:39, arrive in Trier at 23:54. I put two and two together and called Parker to make sure he was ready to go. Two hours was plenty of time to catch the train yet Curtis had the house keys, was off at Dacheau and would kill us if we went with out him. I told myself it has to happen. It's meant to be. I wouldn't have checked that site in time if we weren't meant to go to this.
I get home and tell Parker, its time to go. Curtis can try to catch a later train if he gets a hold of us. As I'm walking out the door, Curtis calls, says he's still in Dacheau, but should be able to get to the train station in time to get on the Trier train. Long story short we got to the train station bought tickets 10 minutes before the train left right as Curtis was walking up. We all got on a 7 hour train ride to Germany's oldest city founded in 16 AD as part of the Holy Roman Empire.
We got into Saarbruken around 10:30 and had to wait for the train to Trier. For whatever reason the station was packed with baby boomers. We thought, man everyones going to Trier for the Rallye! Yeah right. Eventually the train got to be less and less people the closer we got to Trier. Our Expectations of a country town with a couple hotels and a bunch of rowdy race fans waiting to greet us became less and less likely.
I guess if I would've have even taken a second to look at how big Trier actually was, or where the race was being held, or if there were tickets, or lodging or did anything that was actually rational, then maybe we would have had some idea. But we didn't. We get off the in Trier look around and realize, 'ok so it is a city.' I know it might sound dumb, but just imagine that all you looked at was an email that said Trier Rallye 17-19th, then train 5:39. That's all I needed to know. The rest was in God's hands.
So there we are in front of the Haupt Banhof in Trier. We see about 15 Scooby (Subaru) fans sitting outside a cafe. First instinct : Man! It's the Subaru team, look at those jackets! Well once again, imagine if somebody from Europe came to see Nascar and found 15 dudes with Jeff Gordon jackets and Mullets and Mustaches, I'm sure they might think the same thing.
So we go up to them and ask if they could help us. Turns out they were just hardcore fans. Most in their 40s. Men and their wives. Pretty cool. I wouldn't mind following Rallye's around the world when I'm that age. They gave us a map, told us there are no hotels and no tickets. Most things are booked up to 3 months in advance. This was a tarmac rally in a decent sized city in the middle of Europe making it one of the most accessible Rallye's to get to.
We decided they weren't going to take us in and thanked them for their help and moved on. The town was pretty dead for a Saturday night and there wasn't a main hotel or bar going off with race fans, like I might have expected from races I've been to in the states. Our plan to maybe just mingle in a party and pass out at least inside on a floor died quickly. It was getting cold and we were getting tired.
The first place we decided to lay down didn't work out to well. There were many a drunks coming out of bars and it just wasn't time to fall out yet. We decided to pick up, walk around, keep up the heart rate and look for better digs.
We stopped for rations.
Now its about 3:30. We found turn 9 of the Circus Maximus. It was seriously beautiful under the moonlight. I'm a total car race dork, but I was so excited to see what was to come. I was walking on the track the night before the race. It was surreal. Check that dream off the list. I imagined the next day we would be seeing Solberg and Loeb destroying streets that never imagined enduring such a beating.
Throughout the night there were lots of people coming home from bars, not to mention girls walking alone. I figured we were safe sleeping outside. We felt a calm surreal being close to the track and made this our base for the night.
I didn't sleep much. I only had a hoodie and jeans. The concrete was so cold. Parker warmed up in a phone booth across the way. All night i heard the sound of the flag pole rope rapping against the aluminum thinking it might someone sneaking up on us. We wouldn't have done what we did unless we believed our intuitions were at their best. That being said, you can't control your imagination in a town you've never been 7 hours away from your new home, 6000 miles away from your real home. I tried to keep it all in check waiting for a little sign of sun rise.
After a couple hours, the cold was too much. I woke up Curtis and said we had to walk around. We had already been walking around for probably 3 hours, but it was time to keep moving. We went back to the Bahnhof, got some coffee from a kid who spoke perfect English with no accent. We asked how this is possible and he said his dad was German and his mom was from Iowa.
Enough with the theatrics. Morning. Race day.
We asked ourselves at 7 in the morning.....uh, so guys how are we going to get tickets? Security was pretty loose in the morning because everyone had to get to their houses which were all located throughout the stage. We went back to our stoop and decided to just wait there and act like we had tickets...um ok. Not thinking, no sleep.
So that didn't work. T-minus 2 hours until race starts. Curtis says, lets make signs saying we need tickets. Ok I decide we split up, I go by the train station and Parker and Curtis go up to the other main entrance to the track.
So this isn't Staples Center and there aren't a bunch of people selling the tickets of their friends who flaked out on them. I held up a sign that said "suche Karten" and looked sad. People looked sad back at me, but nobody had tickets. I wasn't too far from the gate and I was happy to see the race from there. I said whatever were here and were gonna see some rallye cars.
Just then Curtis called and said he got one ticket. Good enough for me. We switched back and forth and it worked out way better than expected. Curtis got down to the hairpin just as Solberg and loeb were taking turns navigating a full 180 while looking through their passenger windows.
Check out this video of some clips of the cars brought to you by me and Curtis pus us getting asked for tickets.
More picture at My Flickr Page
Another, now I can die a happy man moment happened when they let loose an Audi Quattro, Lancia Delta, Renault 5 Turbo Monte Carlo, VW GTI Rallye Golf G60, (yes!!!), and what no....really...what no....oh my god i didn't even get a picture..yes Lancia Stratos.
Things got weird after the race.
Me kissing a moose
Munich has lions, Seattle has pigs Trier has feet
All in all, I was happy about how everything turned out. I have done these "adventures" before and usually nothing spectacular happens. You think you're going to get lucky and some angel is going to come down from the sky and make everything fall into place. Having been through a couple before, I knew this wasn't the case and expected to sleep outside. I was worried a little about tickets, but I knew we didn't get on the train within 10 minutes of it leaving to not see some Rallye cars. It really went better than expected. From now on though I'm fine with maybe consulting a map or just bringing a blanket.
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