My Car

In recent posts, I’ve written a few things about my car. Good and also bad things about it. A couple of weeks ago, it got so cold that it killed my battery and I went and got a new one. It was then I decided it needed a service, so it can get fixed and ready for an MOT test back home.

By driving the car, there are quite a few funny noises that seem concerning, like a rattling noise (which is a sheet of metal underneath rattling against the exhaust pipes), the grinding sound of the brakes (not sure what that is, but the brakes work fine), the whining of the steering (it’s ran out of power steering fluid, and it’s also hard work to turn the steering wheel), and the trouble starting it up. Especially after a while of being idle in the cold, the engine struggles to kick in when being turned on. I have to press on the accelerator to get more power into it, if I don’t, it would just turn back off (much to the amusement of passengers and others nearby).

But as I took it into the service at the local VW centre, the mechanics had a look at it, and said it would cost at least 2,000 Euros to repair it. It needed a new steering system, it needed new wheels and brakes, it needed some welding, it needed a new axle and there was some rust. I knew my car was getting old and needed some tweaks, but I didn’t think this much work needed for it.

For the first time since I had my car three years ago, I decided it was time for a new one. I really don’t want to get rid of it, but it’s inevitable. So I started looking at buying a car out in Germany, it took a while to find, but I came across this really good car not far away from me and was close to buying it. However, if I did, the insurance back home would triple due to it being a left-hand drive car. I was disappointed about that, but nothing could be done about it.

I then started looking for rental cars, so I could get home in a more structurally sound car, but even that seemed impossible. Hertz won’t rent a car to anyone under 23. The prices on a lot of companies were rather high. It didn’t seem there was a company who would rent a car to go from Germany to Wales, so I was looking for companies with places here and also in Calais, and there was one company who didn’t have a station to Calais, either. And the ones who did, their offices close at 6 in the evening, which was about 2 hours before my sailing time. So I decided it would be much less hassle to drive my own car home. It will be easier to get rid of, but I have to be careful on the car itself, even though I’m more than sure it’ll get back home still intact.

But it’s a pity that my car is coming to the end of its driving life.

München and away...

After Garmisch-Partenkirchen and Cawlchen and weird beards, we headed into München. It was really busy here and we didn’t have as much time as we hoped.

We did manage a Glühwein, and looked for some food, and took a while to decide where exactly to go, but we ended up in Burger King. And much to my surprise, they stopped doing the chilli cheese thing… so I ended up having a Big King thingy. And I also had Teresa’s chips, too. So I had my fair share of eating! But I did manage to flip the tray as I tried to pick it up… and basically everything went everywhere. This was not good, as we had to catch the U-Bahn and the train within ten minutes.

But we safely got to the train station on time only to find that our train was cancelled due to some engineering works, though there was a direct bus available to Augsburg for the passengers, and only arrived about ten or so minutes later… so it was all good. We played Monopoly on Rob’s phone, too… and I did better than I did in the previous game. Much better…

But then, it was time to head back to Worms. We quickly packed everything, and Nerys gave me a nice cup of tea for the drive back… which I thought was über kind! And also, the car started up alright, too… I had to try twice, but it got there! The others thought it was amusing that my car just switches itself off after the first ignition… but it just needs a li’l encouragement to get going!

More Glühwein, bitte

Today there was only 5 of us continuing on the rally… and we went down near the German-Austrian border to town called Garmisch-Partenkirchen. Also Zugspitze is also nearby, but the prices to get up to it by cable car were a bit high… especially as there was no visibility up the top!

But we headed for the market anyway… and more Glühwein, of course. The market was good, and had a couple of interesting features. One of which was Cawlchen. Basically, it’s a made up word for this broth/stew thing in a bowl made from bread (and a bread lid complete with a handle, too)! I had the Borsch variety, while Nerys had Gulasch. But they were just amazing. And the Greek and Finnish flags on cocktail sticks were a bit random, but it added some character to them! No words can describe the awesomeness of Cawlchen. I think it would have a good place in the market back home.

And another feature of the market here was the carpet beard. The carpet beard was this extraordinary ‘thing’ attached to this old tramp guy’s face. It looked like a beard, but it was all matted and knotted and yellow. It was the kind of beard, which would probably growl at you if you get too close. It’s difficult to describe this beard… I’d just have to put up a photo of it.

Zurück nach Augsburg

Apart from the Glühwein, the train journey back to Augsburg was one of the highlights of the day. Only myself, Rob (with the beard), Ollie and Ed were left, but at first we shared the carriage with a group of girls out on a hen night. They were a bit louder than the average group, but I didn’t complain… after all, we were all a bit drunk!

Somewhere along the line, they got off and the carriage was empty apart from us four. Ed was asleep as usual, so the rest of us were taking photos of each other sticking our heads out the window against the wind. We managed to get really good photos of each other… hair being massively windswept, eyes closed and watering, mouth wide open and the rain drops hitting us hard on our faces. But all for a good cause of a photo or two!

The journey was fun… possibly the best time I had on a train, to be honest. Ollie managed to get his jeans covered in chewing gum on a seat, too. He wasn’t going to lie, but he was livid!

As we got to the station, we were in no mood at all to walk to Ollie’s flat. It was late at night, and it was also cold. So we decided to get a taxi, and between the four of us, it wouldn’t cost much at all. However, it was a bit longer than anticipated. We told him a couple of times to stop in the right place, but the driver relied too much on his sat-nav and took us to the other end of the residential complex. I’m not sure why he didn’t stop where we asked him, too. But it took an extra twenty minutes to find our way back… it didn’t help that it was about three in the morning, and all the streets and buildings looked the same.

But again, a late night and an early start was ahead of us!

The search for a Glühwein and some Schnell-Imbiss

At Regensburg, we had more time to stay. Some of the group decided to end it here, and a few lived there anyway, and there was some birthday night out, too. One of the Robs was going out in Regensburg with the birthday lot, and he was going to meet us later.

So, me, Ollie and Rob (with the beard) had a look around for some Glühwein and some eats, the latter of which proved a bit tricky. Apparently there was a good place by the river, but it was either closed, or we couldn’t find it. I was too cold and hungry to take notice, so I decided to warm myself by this barrel fire in the middle of town… just like a hobo would do underneath the local railway bridge.

Rob (the one with no beard) told us of a good Indian restaurant, so we decided to go there… as it was a while that we had a good curry (apart from Ollie, who had recently been home for a weekend). The others ordered the masala and stuff, but I tend to be more adventurous with food, especially foreign. So I went for this Nungili (or something like that). All I can say about it was… it needed yoghurt. I wouldn’t say it was bad, just really spicy. So spicy in fact, I felt faint. I had to go to the bar and order a pot of yoghurt to help. Normally yoghurt would be mixed into the curry, but I had to take spoonfuls of this stuff and wolf it down. 

It was a pity it was really spicy, because it was a good curry. But I managed to eat all the meat in the end, and I left a li’l bit of rice. However, I was pleased with the effort of eating as much as I could. And, of course, time was against us, and rushing a curry that would make a horse cry wasn’t proving the best idea to ease myself enough to finish it.

A whistle-stop tour

Time ran thin at each destination we went to, we had to get off the train, take a photo of where we were (but kept forgetting about the group photos), run to the Weihnachtsmarkt, chug a Glühwein and then make it back to the station. We would have a wander about the place if we had time.

On the train to Würzburg, we had an interesting experience with a couple of the locals. The two men had quite a few too much, to say the least. And one of them spotted me wearing a ‘Liverpool’ football shirt, which was, in fact, a Welsh rugby shirt. 

So he thought he’d invite his friend to join us. The ogre-like one basically shoved my stuff on the luggage rack above us and made himself comfy next to me… though I wasn’t comfortable at all, I was getting to know the window as he squashed me against it. But he did give me a small bottle of liqueur; it tasted a bit like Jägermeister, but with a bit more kick to it. And I didn’t like either. But who can say no to free alcohol? Basically the conversation was about football, and how Chelsea are bitches. I couldn’t really contribute to it, but we did manage to get rid of one by telling him that Ollie supports Swansea City, but Shrek was still with us, unfortunately. 

The drunks moved around the carriage, trying to strike conversations up with the female members of the group, even getting in photos that were taken. It wasn’t a bad thing that they were there, it made the journey more interesting an somewhat different. These kind of things make travelling more memorable, and when we got to the station, the fat one was kind enough to ‘give’ me a bottle of beer!

At Würzburg, we got to the market and had some wine. And the mugs they gave were rather classy. They were the best mugs of the day, the mug was a kind of stem cup, but it was also a large cup, enough to hold a decent amount of Glühwein. It was different from the boring normal shaped mugs and the boot shaped mugs, which Rob finds being tacky. However, not much time was left to have a look around the place and in the end, some of us had to catch a tram back to the station and leg it to the train. We got separated from some of the group, who were on another train bound for the same place, but we decided to get on that train… however, it was still too close for comfort.

But we did eventually arrive in Bamberg, the Deutsche Bahn was behaving well today with no Verspätungen… well, maybe by a couple of minutes, but it wasn’t too drastic. It just meant we had to walk a bit faster, especially as the Weihnachtsmarkt in Bamberg is quite a distance from the station. But we managed some more wine, and hoped that we’d get back to the station on time, as Regensburg was waiting for us!

The Glühwein Rally

It was time to go to Augsburg now, and along with Rob and Ed, we filled the tank and made out way. We decided it would work best to take a scenic route, even though it was dark. But the start of the journey didn’t go to well, the traffic was slightly heavy and the weather was just terrible. What didn’t help were my windscreen and windows misting and condensating all the time.

Throughout the journey, we had to constantly wipe and dry the windscreen. Sometimes we had to pull over and thoroughly dry it, we even bought another sponge and a cloth for the job, as the other one was a bit old and manky. It helped, but still there were problems with it. The inside of the windows were soaking, and I couldn’t figure out why.

However, we finally arrived in Augsburg. Unfortunately, it was too late to visit its Weihnachtsmarkt, but we had about twenty beers in the boot in a fancy crate… so not all was lost! However, I kept managing to hit my head all the time on the low-sloping-roof-ceiling thingy in Ollie’s room… even when I was sober, it didn’t make it easier as I pitched up camp underneath a desk, too.

After a late night and an early morning start, we were on our way to the station and onto the train to Nürnberg for out first lot of Glühwein. It was a nice day and the town was really old and very German/Bayrisch, too. Had a lot of nice old buildings with good architecture and stuff. However, today’s schedule was really tight, as we had about only an hour in each town so we could catch the next train on time. If we missed a train, it would screw the day up.

So, the priority was first to get to the Glühwein stalls, get some and keep the mug. The mugs were an important part of it all. It had to have good decoration on it, along with the place and the year. Though some of the mugs were dated 2007, and some were timeless. But most of us managed a 2008 mug… which were pink.

Some of us decided to wander about the Markt and have a look about. It was quite a big group, so we decided it was easier to split up and go our own way, and then meet up later so we could go onto Würzburg.

Bonn with Ystalyfera

When I went back to Wales at the beginning of October, I thought I’d visit my old school at Ystalyfera. I went to see my old German teacher. And he said that he was going to Bonn with his class in December and said that it would be good if I came, too.

So, the time came to go to Bonn to meet up with Mr Morgan, along with a couple of other teachers (some of whom I remember from when I was at school) and also a couple of other former pupils, who were a year or two below me.

It was good seeing other people from school again, and so we met in the youth hostel they were staying at in Bonn (which happened to be the same hostel I stayed in a month before with the social sciences class at the school here).

The class was going into Bonn to have a look around the place; most of the kids went to the ice rink and the Weihnachtsmarkt. So my and the teachers went to a local watering hole for a locally brewed Bönnsch in a funny shaped glass. And then of course to get some Glühwein and went on a search for a fat fairy in a weird stance, although she couldn’t be found.

But it was easy to wind the kids up. They kept asking the teachers who I was, and they just said I was a student who was left behind on the trip four years ago. It was kind of funny looking at them in confusion! Bless… but it’s fun that way!

However, now the night was coming to an end, and I had to say Tschüßchen and make my way to Worms. The next day was onto Augsburg!

The Blog Strikes Back

This has been a bit dormant for a while. I’ve been meaning to write on it sooner, but things have just been too busy to carry on with it. But now I have time, I can carry on with it. But plenty of things have happened, so I got quite a bit to write! I’m sure I can remember the best parts! I got stuff to write about the Glühwein Rally in Bayern, along with its train journeys. I’ve also got things to write about looking for a car out here and the excursion to Luxembourg… and I do have to state my opinion on the German road systems, too.

So… I’d best get started on it!

How much is that PKW in the window?

It’s been a while since I last posted on here. Since the last post, a lot has happened (again)… including a pilgrimage to the Weihnachtsmärkte all over Bayern. But I’ll have to post about that when I get around to it. I’ve been too busy lately searching the internet and stuff looking for a new car.

As you may have read in previous posts, my car hasn’t been performing too well. And last Tuesday, I took it into the local Volkswagen place for a service, and they said that it couldn’t be fixed. It had quite a bit of rust, and it’ll cost over 2,000 Euros for a new axle and steering system… and other stuff, too.

So… I’ve been looking for a car since… and I may have found one! Woo!

But I’ll get back to you on that…

Toodles until then!