Saturday, 11 September, 2004
Sinsheim
I went to bed on Friday night still not decided on my destination for the day… I'd let the weather decide matters in the morning. I woke up on Saturday to find that rain was due to be moving in, so the Rheinetal to the north would be too far and into the rain too early for today.
As is my habit, once I started filling the tank, I popped the hood to check my fluid levels. To my horror, I immediately realized WHY I'd been having rough idling problems. I had topped off my oil in Weil am Rhein the previous Saturday, and apparently forgotten to replace the oil cap. I had gone almost 500km (including Autobahn high-speed runs) with my oil cap off. Amazingly, it was still sitting where I had left it a week prior. I checked my oil level, and found nothing reading on the dip-stick. Not good. Two quarts of oil later, I was back to a healthy reading.
I took the climb up to Königstuhl, high on the ridge above Heidelberg. The engine performed flawlessly. Winding my way through some small back-mountain towns, I worked my way towards Dilsberg — a fascinating hybrid of modern and historic, with a medieval gate and fachwerk houses dating to the 1700s, sitting atop a hill with the Neckar river winding around 3/4ths of the base.
Eventually landing in Sinsheim, I passed the Sinsheim Bahnhof and noticed a fair number of people clustered around the tracks. There was a genuine Dampfzuge! An actual vintage Steam Engine, built in 1938 in Stuttgart, that had been operated by East Germany up until the mid 1980s. This particular train was on a Basel-Sinsheim tour for the day. I took quite a few pictures of the engine as the engineers worked over it. What those pictures don't convey is the distinct smell of a coal-fired steam-engine.
I didn't actually enter the Transportation Museum on this trip, but did get some nice shots of the new aviation exhibits that surround the buildings today — including an old Tupolev Supersonic aircraft still with Soviet markings, and one of the retired Air France Concordes.
By 1700 CEDT, I decided it was best to call it a day, and return to my quarters to catch the VT Football game. That's the news from this side of the pond.
Charles.