It's been a wild 10 days to say the least. I'll start by saying that the US Team once again defeated the Germans in Bernhausen by over 1,000 points. The team returned to the states on Monday but Lela, Chris Helwick and I remained and traveled to Woerden, Netherlands (where we are now) for another multi-event!
The trip from Stuttgart, Germany to Woerden was an interesting one. Below I am copying the happenings of the last 24 hours from the viewpoint of Chris Helwick.
"The problem initially started when our poles could not make it from Frankfurt, Germany to Stuttgart, Germany for our first decathlon. Fortunately however, the airport was nice enough to drive them down. As soon as this happened, Chris and I knew our poles would not make it on our next flight from Stuttgart to London and then London to Amsterdam, and after spending 3 hours in the airport talking with a British airways representative and her hard-to-find supervisor, our suspicions were confirmed. The only other option was driving, and preferably a third party. This option however was impossible because no one was able and/or willing to ship a couple of 17 ft. long pole bags. Final option: driving them ourselves. Part of our three hours in the airport also consisted of finding a rental car that could hold two 17ft. pole bags on the top. The rental agent insisted in broken English that none of their cars had racks on the top, so Chris, Lela (a heptathlete traveling with us), and myself wandered over to the rental company’s storage area and found numerous cars with racks. One was a Volks Wagon Passat station wagon, which would have been perfect, and the other six were Fiat Pandas (roughly equivalent to a Geo Metro with a little more head room). Naturally, the VW was already reserved…. so off we went with our Fiat Panda for the cool price of about $300 USD for a 24 hour rental (never rent a car in Europe).
The poles fit fine on the car; they just stuck out about 5 feet from the back and a couple feet in front of the hood. It was a pretty funny sight to see which is why I have attached a picture of the car in full force. The trip began with the three of us packing ourselves and all our bags into the car at 5:30 in the morning so that Chris and I could take Lela to the airport (she was still going to fly). After a quick drop-off, Chris and I take off in our Panda only to realize about a half hour later that we were going the wrong direction… it was very early… and dark... Finally we got on the right track and were headed north through Germany and into The Netherlands. We were about half way through our trip, cursing down the German Autobahn at about 140 km/h, when we notice that we are very low on gas. We were rather optimistic, however, because we actually had about an eighth of a tank and we had just seen a sign that said a station was 20 km away. Well, let me give you a little word of advice if you ever find yourself driving a Fiat Panda (but just so you know, it’s a bad idea to begin with): the last eighth of the tank goes a lot faster than all the others… We feel the car sputter a few times before finally loosing all power about 7 km from the station. Fortunately it was on the top of a big hill and we managed to coast down it for over a kilometer. Chris was driving on the shoulder (Hogue knows what I’m talking about) because we were not nearly keeping up with traffic on the Autobahn (as expected), even though we reached speeds of about 100 km/h going down this hill. I won’t go into full detail of the conversation Chris and I had, but we decided I would run to the station, get some gas, and then come back… but trust me, everything was considered. And so you know, neither of our cells phones would work. I take off down the road in the drizzling rain with a few Euro in my pocket to get a couple litters of gas when a service vehicle stops in front of me after about 1 km into my journey. I explained my situation even though I don’t think he understood a word I said because after I stopped talking he looked at me for a second, pointed to the passenger seat, and said, “Sit.” We drove in reverse for over half a mile on the shoulder of the Autobahn until we reached Chris and our Panda. He gave us some gas, I gave him some euro, and we were on our way. The potentially 2 hour long problem turned into a 15 minute disruption, and I felt very fortunate, all things considered…. That was about the extent of our best adventures, even though the entire trip was constant adventure. The rest of the trip went well and I was shocked that we didn’t get stopped at the border. We google-mapped our way to the track in Woerden and finally had a chance to relax… it was a couple days I will never forget and a couple days that I have learned some valuable lessons from. Traveling with poles in Europe is extremely difficult and is something that takes planning and often times some creativity. "
The poles fit fine on the car; they just stuck out about 5 feet from the back and a couple feet in front of the hood. It was a pretty funny sight to see which is why I have attached a picture of the car in full force. The trip began with the three of us packing ourselves and all our bags into the car at 5:30 in the morning so that Chris and I could take Lela to the airport (she was still going to fly). After a quick drop-off, Chris and I take off in our Panda only to realize about a half hour later that we were going the wrong direction… it was very early… and dark... Finally we got on the right track and were headed north through Germany and into The Netherlands. We were about half way through our trip, cursing down the German Autobahn at about 140 km/h, when we notice that we are very low on gas. We were rather optimistic, however, because we actually had about an eighth of a tank and we had just seen a sign that said a station was 20 km away. Well, let me give you a little word of advice if you ever find yourself driving a Fiat Panda (but just so you know, it’s a bad idea to begin with): the last eighth of the tank goes a lot faster than all the others… We feel the car sputter a few times before finally loosing all power about 7 km from the station. Fortunately it was on the top of a big hill and we managed to coast down it for over a kilometer. Chris was driving on the shoulder (Hogue knows what I’m talking about) because we were not nearly keeping up with traffic on the Autobahn (as expected), even though we reached speeds of about 100 km/h going down this hill. I won’t go into full detail of the conversation Chris and I had, but we decided I would run to the station, get some gas, and then come back… but trust me, everything was considered. And so you know, neither of our cells phones would work. I take off down the road in the drizzling rain with a few Euro in my pocket to get a couple litters of gas when a service vehicle stops in front of me after about 1 km into my journey. I explained my situation even though I don’t think he understood a word I said because after I stopped talking he looked at me for a second, pointed to the passenger seat, and said, “Sit.” We drove in reverse for over half a mile on the shoulder of the Autobahn until we reached Chris and our Panda. He gave us some gas, I gave him some euro, and we were on our way. The potentially 2 hour long problem turned into a 15 minute disruption, and I felt very fortunate, all things considered…. That was about the extent of our best adventures, even though the entire trip was constant adventure. The rest of the trip went well and I was shocked that we didn’t get stopped at the border. We google-mapped our way to the track in Woerden and finally had a chance to relax… it was a couple days I will never forget and a couple days that I have learned some valuable lessons from. Traveling with poles in Europe is extremely difficult and is something that takes planning and often times some creativity. "
I will send out a full recap upon getting back home the middle of next week. Hope you enjoy the picture. There are actually 2 sets of poles on the top and we filled the car with 6 full bags along with Chris and I.
Hope this finds you all doing well!
2 comments:
HILARIOUS!!!!
Helwick,
One of the most interesting and hilarious adventures you have been involved in. That's saying a lot considering: fireworks on video tape, water balloons, soccer games in blizzards and hiking the Lord of the Rings environment.
Good times!
Post a Comment