Hello Sports Fans! Sorry this is so late in coming, but not surprisingly this whole trip has been a whirl wind and it doesn’t look like there is any chance of it slowing up anytime soon.

Way back on April 12th, 2007 I got on a plane in Detroit headed for Dulles and then finally to Frankfurt for the start of the 2007 Dunlop Drivers Cup World finals. This plan was complicated by snow / rain in DC. Our flight was over an hour late leaving, thankfully the plane to Frankfurt was late getting to DC which caused a huge ruckus and a flurry of phone calls trying to get everything straightened out. In the end, we were blessed and everyone got on some plane or another and to Frankfurt within 3hrs of each other. This might not sound impressive, but remember that we had people from California, Texas, Florida, Ohio, Maine, South Carolina and Michigan all trying to get somewhere. I’d say that a three hour window is pretty good. It’s even more amazing that five of us made it on the same correct flight together.
The flight was a pretty easy one, no major turbulence, a couple of OK movies and a little sleep.
After several trips through immigration and a couple of baggage claims later we all had our bags and met our wonderful Dunlop De hosts. Then we all stood around

And stood around some more. Then, that’s right, we stood around some more.

Finally the last member of our group got there. Even though she was missing her baggage, she was intact and in pretty good spirits.

Finally, it was time for the jet lag to set in and the fun to begin.

To the hotel we went to unpack, have a second to, ah, freshen up and then back out we went. The general opinion was that the best thing to do for jet lag was get out, see the city, have some lunch sample the local specialties and generally see the local sights. So see the sights we did. We found the brothers Grim:

We found an old church that looks like it got bombed out at some point:

And some other great historical stuff:

And of course, the Best Worscht in town! And a big thanks to Egon for posing in this picture to show how we all felt about the food there, it was really great.

After that, it was back to the hotel for a nice 2hr nap, quick shower and then off to dinner with our most kind German hosts. At dinner, I ate the most delicious schnitzel and had some locally traditional Apple Wine. By the end of dinner, I was wiped out and it showed. However, in the confusion, I didn’t get any group photos so I will get a few later when we do the picture swap.

Next up, the opening day ceremonies!