In March '96, I was on a business trip to Bad Teinach in Germany. I had to
attend a course there. This Bad Teinach is a tiny village and all I knew was that it
was supposed to be near Stuttgart, towards Schwarzwald. But I couldn't find it on
the map. Fortunately, a friend of
mine, Uwe, also lives near Stuttgart. He and his wife Karin are both 2CV drivers as
well and we met a few months earlier in Slovenia, on the 11th world meeting of
2CVers. So I called Uwe, asked him about this place and how to get there.
"No public transportation," said Uwe: "You will probably have to take a taxi
or hire a car." Ten minutes later, Uwe phoned back, saying: "Listen Jure,
let's meet at the Stuttgart airport and we'll see about the rest."
My journey to Stuttgart was a real fun. First, I landed in Frankfurt where I met
my aunt and my uncle and we went to have a wonderful lunch in their favourite
restaurant. And in Stuttgart, we went to Uwe's home to meet Karin and chat til the
evening. But a real surprise was still to come. Karin and Uwe have a lot of 2CVs.
Eleven in March '96 (if I remember correctly) and probably a few more today. So, when
I wanted to go to the hotel in Bad Teinach, Uwe said: "Listen Jure, there is no need
to take a taxi or anything. Here are the keys of that 2CV in the corner of the yard. Use
it while you are here and on the final day bring it back and we'll go to the airport." I
was totally and pleasantly surprised because we only met once before
and that was eight months ago. But for 2CV friends, that's enough.
You should see the faces of other participants on that course when they saw this 2CV.
They were serious guys
from all over the world. Some of them came to Bad Teinach with a taxi and some with
rented cars. BMWs and similar, of course. The guys from USA made a comment: "This
must be the ugliest car I have ever seen." Not to mention the striking fact about
the engine size: 'What? It's got 602 cc? Are you sure? It must be 6002, that sounds
much more realistic. No? It really is 602? Can it move at all?" Of course it can move,
and it will still be moving when most of these ordinary cars seen on the roads
today will be taking their final ride to the breakers' yard.
This course was a lot of fun, the participants were nice people and so were the
organizers.
By the way, the name of our hotel was "Bad Hotel", and "Bad" is a German word for spa.
But the American and Australian guys had some doubts about the name: "Why have they put
us into a BAD hotel? Couldn't they find a GOOD one?" To be honest, the hotel was quite
good, not "bad" at all.
Having these English - German misunderstandings in mind, I have just remembered another
one. There was this famous English perfume named Silver Mist. But, strangely, it never
did sell well in Germany. If you speak German, you know why...
Another pleasant event was a meeting with my cousin: she was just moving from Luisiana
to Hawaii and decided to spend two months in Germany in between. She drove with a
car from Wiesbaden all the way down to Bad Teinach. We haven't met for
a while so it was a pleasant evening.
In the end, after saying goodbye to the cousin, the folks on the course and Karin and
Uwe, I finally flew back home. Thanks again to Uwe for lending me a car and I hope to
see you both in Slovenia someday, where we will have a really good time.
Uwe can be found on the Web, please visit his
Virtual Garage.