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More pics from Stuttgart area!

B

Big Daddy Kane

Hard-core CEG'er
Joined
Jul 22, 2003
Messages
1,952
Location
Rockenhausen Germany
First up is a Mercedes I saw in Sindelfingen on Monday. This town is the first place I've seen these test vehicles before (probly because they build them here!). This car is actually the 3rd I've seen, but first I've ever taken a pic of (plates are from München, a.k.a. Munich btw):


Click for 1600x1200 full size

Was 2 cars behind this guy for a good while going between Stuttgart and Karlsruhe... Can barely see it, but it says "TDI" on the right side of the hatch. "BB" plates are from the Böblingen district (pretty much a county) of the Baden-Württemberg state (which includes Sindelfingen)... Stuttgart district has "S" plates.


Click for 1600x1200 full size

Big ass wing on a diesel!
 
what? only two pictures, I expected more from you Kane. dissapointing :(
 
Ok, Pictures from Berlin/Hamburg!

Ok, Pictures from Berlin/Hamburg!

AliasJerk™ said:
what? only two pictures, I expected more from you Kane. dissapointing
Click to expand...

I know... I haven't really taken pics of many cars recently.

How are these... all car-related pics from my Berlin and Hamburg trip:

Shush about the preview picture sizes... they are for the Image Slide Show Power Toy thing I used to easily upload/display like 500 images on a navigable site... These happen to be the thumbnails it used!

But hey, at least they load real quick!

Only 10 Pics per post? WTH? 56k rejoice!

This sign allows you to drive on the right shoulder. Some places on the way back had it where only trucks could use it (and also they could not occupy the left lane for any reason).


New LED signs they're putting up everywhere on the Autobahns. They can instantly change the speed limit (or get rid of it) and add/remove restrictions (like no passing, no trucks passing, traffic jam ahead, accident ahead, etc) based on traffic at that instant. Out east, they have fog detectors that are next to these that my girl said lower the speed limit under fog.


Shows the 2m wide left lanes in construction areas... gets REAL hairy when you're trying to pass a truck, but instead of that yellow line on the left everyone is over, there's a cement barrier right there! Whoo... couple close calls with the SVT, good thing the Sentra is a bit narrower!


Huh Huh, Huh Huh, it says "Coc."


See setups like this everywhere... guess it's probly big buisiness to buy old cars that can't pass German inspection and take them to old Soviet countries, like this one from Poland:


Blurry, but a picture of a Dachshund with "LONG VEHICLE" printed on it's body:


Another setup like above, but from Chech Republic... I believe the car was also CZ plated and headed north, so I doubt it was a stolen vehicle (FYI, a lot of nicer cars are stolen in western Europe and taken to former Soviet states and sold on the black market)


An Isetta in downtown Berlin... just after I took this pic, light turned green and it was gone. Otherwise I was going to walk to the corner and get a pic.


'Ampelmann' green, which is the East German version of the walk/don't walk man. It's a dude with a hat that has an odd way of standing and walking...


'Ampelmann' red, there is even a store in Berlin dedicated to him. I walked right by it thinking like "WTH is Ampelmann" before my girl explained it to me. They had all kinds of stuff with him on there... check out what they had here.
 
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But wait, there's more!

But wait, there's more!

10 more!

So uhh yeah... your random Bentley dealership...


Your run-of-the-mill Flying Spur and some amatuer racing car...


A Contennintal GT under another random dealer, Bugatti...


And of course, the cool guy car... Just wish my girl and her cousin weren't being so pushy and wanting to keep going (they're not interested in cars in the least bit). I was disappointed, but oh well... I plan on going back!


In between the Bentely/Bugatti dealer and the famous landmark in the next post, there's a super high class hotel (probly 5 star or something) that has the following 2 cars (next 3 pics) out front:

Yep, Maserati Quattroporte V:


Back shot:


And your usual V12 equipped 760, probly an Li


I wonder if this guy lives near any American bases? He had to have chosen that plate for his Renault:


Huh Huh, Huh Huh, it says "SEKS"


Nissan!
 
Even more?!?!

Even more?!?!

Last 10 for the night (psst, it's 11pm here when I'm starting this thread).

East German idea of a parking lot lighting system...


The Brandenburg Gate:


Note that the article is true... I'm staring twoard the West Berlin side. To my 5 o'clock position is the Starbucks, right next to the French embassy (my 4 o'clock). Directly to the left of the gate (my 11 o'clock), the new US embassy is being built.

The Quadriga at the top:


This was where I was before I took the pic of the Isetta in the first post... Looks like Zues to me (I'm probly wrong, could be some Norse god):


This building (old 'Palast der Republik') is interesting... it was the GDR HQ in East Berlin which was built on the site of the Berliner Stadtschloss (Berlin City Palace) after they finished demolishing what was left of it after WWII because they didn't like who built it. Now they're tearing that 'ish down!


This was a science museum, but supposedly nothing was in English, so we didn't bother stopping there. Still took a pic from across the street, though:


This is what Hitler wanted to build a 'Welthauptstadt' ('World Capitol') and some amazing buildings like this 'Volkshalle' ('Peoples Hall'). There is a barely visible line at the highest point of the structure that reads 290m (~950ft) tall!
In the article, it says that while in prison after WWII, the would-have-been Nazi architect for this project (Albert Speer) figured that with 180,000 people in the hall at once (!!!), their breathing and perspiration could condensate on the dome and fall back down, effectively creating natural indoor rain! WTH?!?!


Real parts of the Berlin Wall... these are standing on a line of colored bricks that show where the wall used to be (I'm standing at 'Postdamer Platz' in West Berlin facing East Berlin). Also note the building with the Audi TT ad looks fake because it is fake. They made a facade of what the building looked like pre-WWII, and I guess plan on rebuilding it whenever they get enough $$$.


This is what the 'no man zone' of the Berlin Wall looked like in 1987 (pre-Soviet fall), 1989 (fall of the wall), 2002, and 2004. Notice that there was not very much development in this area until recently due to funding.


1 picture left, so figured I would show this oddity near a Burger King...
It's a '24 hour' (as in, they're on-call) Discount Bestattungen (Funeral Parlor)! My girl was like "WTH?!?!" when she saw it, we went up and she read the stuff in the windows... they have ads that make it look like a travel agency... wierd!
Writing on the window says: "eine wuerdevolle Bestattung muss nicht teuer sein." ("A willful funeral does not have to be expensive.") Then says "Tag & Nacht" ("Day & Night") and lists the phone number. At the bottom it's just telling you where the nearest parking garage is located.


Bed? 12:21am? Yeah, I'll post the rest tomorrow... I have at least 1 or 2 more posts (~20 pics I'd like to put up).
 
Ampleman!! He rocks!

For those that dont know, it was the Soviet cross walk signal. They made him all happy looking to raise spirits. Hes quite funny looking!
 
Ok, I lied, maybe at work Sunday if I can access these new boards from there? Our filter blocks the old forums for being a "chat board," but doesn't block the main site, or the older archived boards...

So maybe I have a chance these will work :shrug:
 
No pics of the The Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church? Visit the Reichstag Buiilding? Evidence of WWII is still prevalent on the outside and also in sections of the city where the larger bombs were dropped. You can still see big craters right in the city.
 
todras said:
No pics of the The Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church? Visit the Reichstag Buiilding? Evidence of WWII is still prevalent on the outside and also in sections of the city where the larger bombs were dropped. You can still see big craters right in the city.
Click to expand...

We went around all over the place... but were only in Berlin for 2 days.

We walked by the Reichstag a few times, not much too see at the moment since all the grass in the following Wikipedia pic is a huge construction site (no development yet, just a big fence and dirt):
800px-Berlin_reichstag_2005.jpg


Whenever I'm not sleeping, I'll do the rest of the pics...
 
I should be paying attention to this thread more closely. I love me that Germany! Im sorry we missed each other when I was there, but we were so damn busy. I dont think we were really ever that close, either. Isnt your base towards the SW corner? The closest we were to you was Munich, which wasnt exactly close.

That whole grassy area was fenced off for the world cup. The reichstad is freaking huge!! They had some big spectator area in the feild there that you needed a ticket for. You arent far from the fan mile either!

Berlin is pretty sweet, I wish I had been able to spend more time there. We had to leave the day before the World Cup final because hotel prices went THROUGH THE ROOF. A bed in an 8 person hostel room went from like 15 bucks to 100!!! Hotels were worse. Oh well! We got to watch the Paris/Italy final in Paris. Would have been more fun if France won.
 
KingpinSVT said:
That whole grassy area was fenced off for the world cup. The reichstad is freaking huge!! They had some big spectator area in the feild there that you needed a ticket for. You arent far from the fan mile either!
Click to expand...

Ach so...

That would explain the non-existience of equipment there. I was told by a local that it was a construction area...

Almost done with the Berlin pics above... have a couple pics of Checkpoint Charlie, then on to the Hamburg pics :cool:
 
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I wanted to go see that section of the Berlin Wall, but my g/f's cousin (the guy showing us around) didn't want to walk there from Postdamer Platz, and said he didn't know the way by car (I had my Yellow Sentra up there).

Oh well, not like it's 7,000 miles away... Takes me about 6hrs to get there!

Ok, so here's the promised other pics:

These pics kinda suck because I drove there in my Sentra, and we couldn't find parking, so just drove thru it a few times with Germans honking at me when I slowed down to take a pic.

Tourists were admiring my "USA" EU plate on the car...

If you want to read up on why this is an important piece of history, go to Wikipedia.

On the 'East' side, you see a picture of an American soldier (in case you can't read or something):


A closeup of the famous sign. It reads the same in Russian and French that it says in English, however, it just says 'Entering the American Sector' in German... doesn't say anything about firearms!
These guys apparantly went right up to it and took it back in 1990, guess the guards on both sides were like "whatever."


This is looking from the 'West' (American) side of the checkpoint. Picture shows a Soviet soldier. The sign says 'You are leaving the American sector'.


"The last Kremlin flag." Says to the left 'Wanderer - Stay and reflect: At this point the 'Western World' ended and the power of the Moscow Kremlin started from here to . And one of the last red flags of the Kremlin can now be seen in the museum. It hung here from October 1992 until May 1994. In order to protect it from deterioration, it was substituted by this copy'.


Early idea of double pane windows in an 'East' German apartment built in the mid-1800s. Guess it's code or something to have double pane since I have yet to see an exterior single pane window.


You supply your own light fixtures in Germany, and apparantly they chose this!


'East' German light switch. In-wall electric boxes are round here, and I suppose this is the cheapest type of switch. At first, I thought it was just a box cover.


I have 3 pics left on this post, so here's a couple random pics:

Canadian embassy for you northerners. In the background just to the right of the "fake" building, you can see another 'East' German version of a street light.


This is in the Sony center at Potsdamer Platz. It's a huge TV that is made up of LEDs.


And this guy would probly get shot if he were seen by the wrong people. It's a Renault 306, btw.
 
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Hamburg!

Hamburg!

And now on to the pics from Hamburg:

This is a lock from Finland. My girl's Aunt's house is a log cabin that was made in Finland, then shipped to and assembled in Hamburg.


Haha, it says "SEKS 69"


This church has some interesting history. I kept looking at this church because it looked very odd. Read about St. Nikolai on Wikipedia.


Picture of the where the "church" area would have been.


Top of the steeple... really cool looking


"Saint Nikolai Memorial"
"For the Victims of War and Persecution 1933-1945"
'Built 1845-74 from plans by Sir Gilbert Scott, London.
Destroyed 1943 during the firestorm "Operation Gomorrah"
16.12.1987 foundation of the Saint Nikolai Memorial Society'


The man himself at a wax musem in the St Pauli district. Below him is a sign that says it was made in 1943, leading me to believe, being the type of person he is, that he ordered them to create a wax figure of himself.
The guy with the stupid grin on his face is Joseph Goebbels, who killed his own children when it was clear that they were going down so that they didn't have to grow up in a non-Nazi society.


Yeah! I'm chillin with this cool guy.


Oh, and check out these cool guys:


It's the 'ol Martin Luther... he's really tall, BTW


More to come!
 
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DAMNIT, I lost what I was doing due to IE7RC1 crashing from me copying...

Hey look, it's Charlie Chaplain:


The Beatles playing at the "Star Club."


Last pic from St Pauli...
First off, that's the Davidwache (link in German... also note the Polizei sign is neon to match the rest of St Pauli), and Davidstrasse. My name is David, so it was pretty cool. Then I realized what it was!
A side road off Davidstrasse is the Reeperbahn, where no women are allowed...
This is what Davidstasse looks like at night. After 2000 is when all the girls come out.
We ate at the BK there watching them out of the big window. If you're a guy w/o a girl with you, steer clear of here, unless you wanna get hassled by 50 girls in 1 block! Dudes were like "No" to the first girl, so the 2nd girl went up, 3rd girl, etc. all the way down the block! It was crazy. Now don't get me wrong, a couple of these girls were gorgeous, but I sure wouldn't wanna find out what they've got! (plus it's illegal now for anyone involved with the US military to "utilize" a prostitute... that includes contractors!)
BTW, this is what St Pauli looks like at night...


Looking over Hamburg


Where the "church" part was at.


More of Hamburg


Hamburg docks... they were building 1/2 of a huge ship there.


Fire alarm box... kind of ironic that it's in a burned out building, and not wired up!


Surviving statue... both arms are missing.


Elaborate system of bells on St Nikolai. Scared the crap out of me when it went off!



More to follow!
 
10 more!

Definitely a Lotus dealer in Hamburg... didn't have the chance to stop by. Phone number is +49-230666


A Rover Streetwise parked at a mall in Hamburg.


Rear of the Rover


Nissan!


I dunno, some cool scenery


Don't have a whole lot else to show y'all, so here's a couple more pics:

This is a pic out of the Bild magazine
Dude had a highly modified "Bobby Car" and got drunk one day, decided it was a good idea to take it for a spin. Polizei clocked him at 70km/h!


I don't speak German, so here's what it says and a direct Google translation:
Mit diesem Bobbycar knatterte morgens um 4 Uhr ein junger Mann (33) durch Kaufbeuren (Bayern): Den Unterboden hatte er mit Stahlplatten verstaerkt, einen Kettengaegenmotor als Antrieb eingesetzt. Das Kinderauto ist bis zu 70 km/h schnell. Pech: Die Polizei zog den Bastler aus dem Verkehur. Verstoss gegen Zulassungs- und Versicherungspflicht, Verfahren wegen Alkohols. Er hatte 2,26 Promille ...​


With this Bobbycar in the morning o'clock a young man (33) rattled by Kaufbeuren at 4 (Bavaria): It had strengthened the Unterboden with steel plates, had used a chaining close AEG engine as drive. The child car is fast up to 70 km/h. Pitch: The police pulled the amateur handicraftsman from the Verkehur. Offence against permission and liability to insure, procedure because of alcohol. It had 2.26 parts per thousand…​
It says that he built a custom frame and put a chainsaw engine on it. He had a BAC of 2.26 parts per thousand (equivalent to 0.226% in the US).


For those who don't know what a bobby car is, this is my girl's niece's:


A couple Canadian cars here


A US spec Dodge Stealth in the UK. Notice how the plate is either painted or is a sticker on the car.


Rear of Stealth, with a "normal" plate.
 
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