BBQ's and Nurburg!

Hello again!

One thing that we really like in Germany, that we have to share with everyone is how cheap their BBQ's are.  We bought our first BBQ for 3.99 Euro ... a bargain!  We took it to the park across the road and had ourselves a great BBQ.  The weather was just lovely!

 Amelie enjoying the sunshine, and the BBQ smells ..... don't worry, she didn't drink the beer and pass out, even though thats what it looks like in this photo!

 Amelie, still enjoying the sunshine, while Peter, Ollie and myself play a bit of soccer!  Ollie is using his usual defence tactics here.

Peter, tending to our BBQ.

For sale, one BBQ, slightly used, does not come with fork or leftover meat!

On Friday 13th May we picked up the kids from school and travelled about 5.5hrs to Nurburg.  We stayed at a really nice little hotel / pub called the motorsport hotel, just up the road from the BMW test centre.  On Saturday we went to watch an endurance race at the track (even though we could hear it from our hotel).  The country side in this area is just beautiful, but you would need to like motorsport to live there!

Brendan, a friend of ours from Australia and avid motorsport fan, was in Cologne for work and came over to join us in Nurberg for the day (or part thereof).  Here is a photo of us at the race!

Those who know me will realise that the beer in my hand is Chris' not mine.  We saw some really fast cars, and two crashes from our vantage point, and the kids had fun making cubby houses out of the picnic rug and umbrella.  Ollie did not like getting too close to the track because it was very loud, but we all had lots of fun regardless.  We had a BBQ lunch on a disposable BBQ.  We don't really know who was winning the race, but it doesn't matter, because Ollie and I were going for the one that won anyway (whoever that was).

Here is a photo of the kids at the track.  Amelie was being very helpful and proving what a big girl she is getting, by carring the picnic rug and chair all the way back to the car without complaining, Ollie carried the ball.

The highlight of the weekend was definately our trips on the Nurburgring.  Chris and I had a ride in the BMW ring taxi, then the whole family went for a drive in our very own high tech, finely tuned BMW!

Amelie and Oliver were very good and waited with the nice lady at the ring taxi office while mum and dad went in the ring taxi.  Ollie was very proud when mum arrived back safe and sound without wetting her pants :)  The track was a bit wet, so there wasn't much grip and the driver was battling with understeer a lot of the way (or so Chris says), but the ride itself was awesome.  I closed my eyes sometimes and held on with a vice like grip to the door handle.  We saw a Subaru which had clearly been driven past the limit and had crashed quite badly, we don't think anyone was hurt, but the owner will definately be finding another mode of transport home.  Chris kept talking with the driver, who was happy to have casual conversation, I was wishing Chris would just be quiet and let the driver concentrate!

 Prior to the ride in the ring taxi, I was keen to have a drive, then I realised that I would probably cause an accident by obstructing other fast cars, so decided against it.  I really didn't want to be responsible for my whole family and others in that situation.

Chris, of course, was happy to take us around in our car.  We told the kids it was illegal to play DS in the car on the Nurburgring because they had to help Daddy watch out for other cars etc.  Ollie was very excited to see lots of things he recognised from his Gran Turismo playstation game, like the carousel.  Amelie wanted Chris to go faster.  But don't worry, we only got to a top speed of 210km/hr in our car with the kids along the straight.

Here is a photo of us with our own race car at Nurburg ....

Thankfully, we all got around safely, and our little race car got us home to Magdeburg no problems.

Till next time ... Megan.