So I figured I'd start a post that might be of interest to some. Basically I wanted to share my experiences with anything motor or mechanical related that you guys may be interested in. I'll update with pictures as I can.

In Mulhouse France is an amazing car museum:
http://www.citedelautomobile.com/en/home
There had to be around 300 cars here ranging from a steam powered 1878 "wagon" to a brand new Bugatti Veyron 16.4. An incredible place to spend a few hours for a reasonable price of around $15.

After the museum visit we drove north to our lodging facility (apartment in downtown Colmar). Along the way, I see a large group (20ish) SUV pulling out of a field and seemingly staying off the main highway's. There were Land Rovers, Toureg's, Mitsubishi's, and other 4WD's I didn't recognize.
The following day, we saw the group further North doing the very same thing. This time they appeared to be gathering around a large mud hole taking their turns at it. It certainly caught my eye as I have yet to see anything like that in Germany, but I thought it cool to see in Europe, much less France.

With all there is to see here, specifically historically, I wonder how the US is perceived as a place to visit? We don't hold a candle in terms of ancient history, but have a lot to offer.

I hope you enjoy!

J.D.

Oh, a quick addition.



Whew that's good because my freshly tuned up tank can do 35 now...

You might have heard of this beer for the first time on the news late last year. It was my first time. But, as you can see from the picture - I got the privilege to enjoy one. It is considered, by most, to be the best beer in the world.

The story of how the Belgium Tappist Westveleteren XII arrived in my glass is like this:
My friend's wife found out when the phone lines are open at the brewery and began the calling marathon. She was greeted with busy signal after busy signal. Finally on the 100th try (no exaggeration), she got through. They proceed to take down your phone number and tell you when to arrive to pickup your beer. You jump in your car on that day and drive 5hrs to get there. When you arrive, your license plate number is taken down as well. In order to make it as fair as possible, your phone number cannot be accepted for another order for 60 days after you get your "appointment" and your license plate can't arrive for another 6 months! You buy whatever beer they give you, sometimes a case, sometimes a little more and you walk out with your trophy. From there, I understand, you can walk across the street to the ONLY pub in the world who sells the beer and buy two more 6'ers. Your Westvleteren beer shopping is done. You carefully pack your prize in the car and return home, much to the envy of your friends.

Was it a life-changing event? No. It wasn't what I expected. To non-beer drinkers, you wouldn't have enjoyed it. But it was excellent nonetheless and I certainly enjoyed it as much as I have enjoyed many other great brews! It is a very smooth dark beer that slightly warms your gullet going down like a hard alcohol. They say this is one of the few beers that gets better with time. And I will admit, I would love to have a case or two laying around for that special time, but I would not pay the $600 asking price I see on ebay right now. Probably not even the $85 they got for the select few 6'ers that sold in the US for the first time ever.

That's an entertaining story! Lol, looks like one I'll have to try if Crystal and I ever can afford to make it over there to see you guys!

Yeah man, I'll see what I can do to have one waiting on ya!

Well, it's official, I now have blood sweat and tears into my Ford Mondeo. Sweat when trying to figure out why my e-brake is sticking (not to mention the broken AC last summer), tears when I discovered replacing the caliper was the only fix and the price is $150, minimum, for ONE non-name brand caliper. And blood when I cut myself modifying my old ski rack to fit a new roof rack.

I just hate it when you're cutting something with your trusty pocket knife and keep saying to yourself, I really should move my thumb because it's going to cut thru any second and sure enough, it does. But not prior to you moving your thumb. Not a severed digit, but I sure left a blood trail to the bathroom. Thank goodness all the floors are hard surfaces.

Another bucket list check-mark...Ski the Alps!
Took the Ski Express offered at a local Army base this weekend. For $69, a bus takes you to the resort and brings you home. Lift ticket and meals are on you, but it's a cheap way to ski. The catch is you leave around midnight on Friday and return about the same time on Saturday in good weather. If you have bad weather, you can expect delays. But still worth the trip a few times!

I learned that I need to hone my skills in order to keep up with my friend in the powder and I am horribly out of shape for skiing. Never in my life have I been so wore out from skiing. My legs were cramping pretty severely even before lunch! But it was still a wonderful time in some amazing scenery.

The resort was St. Anton in Arlberg, Austria.

Here's my ski buddy in his element. And this is before we found the real powder.


The view from our lunch table:


The resort itself is HUGE. If you've done much driving across the states, you get a feel for about how many hours a few inches is on a map. That is until you get to TX or AK, then the scale changes dramatically. The same applies for resorts I have skied in CO vs what we skied here. Not to mention there were two other resorts in the same area we could have also skied that were about the same size! You could ski every day for a week there and not hit the same run. I was just surprised for the lack of trees.

Way jealous! You're havin' all the fun

Very nice, Austria & Switzerland Alps were some of my favorite trips when we lived there, send some of that white stuff our direction please!

Oh, so only some of CO got some snow? I heard Rye had a snow day the other day??

Nice pics. Jealous. Most the state is having another below average snow year. I did just get some great powder in British Columbia, but I wish the snow was here.

Saw this on the Autobahn today. Never seen a Mog in this configuration, but it looks sweet! Imagine the overland camping rig you could make out of that!

Imagine the snow bashing you could do in that thing. I'd love to roll up I-70 to the ski area in one of those lol

Yes, portal axles, weight etc, I'll bet it'd have little trouble in the snow up to about 3ft.

That thing is awesome, keep'em coming!

Pretty jealous. Ive always wanted to ski the alps. What part of Germany are you in? Ive got family still in Dusseldorf and Sylt up North.

Serious family off road hauler, love it

JD,

I just wanted to say Thanks for this thread - believe it or not, it has become one of my must reads as soon as I see a new post. Very cool!

Greg, thanks! I am glad you enjoy it. I just try to find things that may be interesting to everyone.

Yes thank you JD I look forward to seeing your travels and discoveries

Happy to share.

I really want to take my Super Duty out on the autobahn and have some fun. Although, as high as I'm sitting, I'd probably catch a wind gust and wind up in the ditch on the side of the road.

If you need an EB fix, get on over to Panzer Kaserne. Last I was there, there were 2 of them over there. Maybe you can rent one!

I may have to see if I can find an EB or two.

And we've actually got one member here on site who is in Italy, I think. Have to see if I can find the username. Maybe you can do a Breakfast with Broncos over there!

I don't know why, but this is my current favorite Hefe and Dunkel. I can't tell you why, but it is excellent. Nevermind the Sam Adams glass, it works with other beers too. ;)


Also, on Easter Sunday a different friend of mine allowed me to try his Westvleteren 8. Which I leaned means 8% ABV, whereas the 12 above is, yep you guessed it, 12%. I want to try them each again, but I think I like the 8% flavor better. Time to start digging into this and planning my trip to Belgium.

That's all I have. We spent two weeks in AK recently visiting family, so we haven't done much out of the Euro-ordinary for a while.

Boy do I miss the hefe selection from Europe.

For sure. I had a few 9am beers just because i was on layover in Frankfurt.

Last weekend we needed a quick daytrip to get out of town. We're getting short on these it seems, so we need to dig in and see what else there is to see. But I pull up my trusty google map and start looking at the larger cities within a couple hours of here. After some research, we settled on Luxembourg, Luxemburg. This is a medium sized city in a small country, 60 miles top to bottom and about 40 wide. It's about 1.5hrs from here. We had never been and didn't have any books to really tell us what to do. The internet was a little helpful, but we got the address for the tourist office and away we went.

We encountered rain along the way and that made us a bit worried it would ruin our plans, but it was to clear off. It did. We found parking and the tourist office, found some lunch at a good soup place and did our own walking tour. Along the way gathered intel on many other things we want to come back and see. But here's a snipit.

Some old castle ruins. I don't know the age, sorry.




There is a network of underground tunnels called Casemates as you can see from the above photos. We were not prepared to go through those, but it's on the list for next time. I'm a country boy, but there was something about this city that made me feel comfortable. Also, it was the highest concentration of "entry level" super cars that I have ever seen. Aston Martin, Jaguars, Maserati, some Mercedes and BMW.

Then we told our son that if he were good, we'd find the pirate spielplatz (playground).

He was in Heaven!

Way cool JD, we just got back from Orange County, CA my work sent me there for Land Rover/ Jaguar training and flew Crystal out for the whole week with me, it was a nice change in weather but way to many people, got to see Laguna beach and all kinds of stuff up and down the coastal highway, flew on a plane for the first time ever for me( I know it sounds ridiculous nowadays) also saw a lot of super cars got to see a mclaren dealership, looks like you guys are having a good time out there

That is a cool place to hang out for a few days. My wife had a conference a few years ago in Anaheim. We spent a few days traveling to Laguna Beach area and driving the coastal highway after the conf. Glad Crystal got to join you! First time on a plane? Wow - just - wow. LOL!

But yes, too many people for my taste.

Yep, traveling season is just "springing" into action here, so I hope to post more. In fact, headed to Holland this weekend for the Tulips. I hear it's amazing. I hope so because this is a lot of work for flowers.