Taxis, Trains, and Automobiles

We had this wonderful idea to go to the Black Forest to snowboard because it is only two hours away and we could do a day trip and leave the dog at home. This is a fantastic idea unless you drive a brand new piece of shit BMW! Let's start at the beginning. Somewhere around 7 am we get in the car and go to Feldberg for a busy, but fantastic day of snowboarding where I fell in love with my new gear and got completely annoyed with impatient German Skiers (more on this tomorrow). We needed to leave at 3 pm to get back to Tut and were running right on time. The trouble began 15 minutes after we started back in Hinterzarten, luckily a town in the Black Forest, where we lost complete power and saw a million messages pop up on the navigation system. We were driving past a Shell station when this happened (thank God) and were able to roll in and call BMW service. He got there about 4:30 and started to assess the situation...PS he did not speak any English. Here is a photo of me with our snowboards pulled out (in the bag) next to our lemon and the Service vehicle...complete with snow pants. And it was getting cold.
Here is an even better picture as time went on of TJ with parts of our car discarded and lying in the snow. Notice the license plate...can anyone figure out who this car belongs to? And its getting much darker.

This is where it starts to get interesting. The service guy exhausts all efforts, including trying to jimmy rig a fuse with a copper wire hanger...and nothing! He calls in a tow and arranges a rental car for us out of Freiburg, which is the large town in the Black Forest, and while we are waiting he keeps tryig to get it started, and at around 6:30 it starts. And still...I am not getting in that death trap, I want the rental. Tut has now been in his crate for almost 12 hours and I am on the edge of losing it. The ADAC truck comes (like AAA) and gets us and we proceed to go on another call with him to pick up another tow and get him taken care of first. Its never ending. Yep, not kidding, and I'm about to have a break down. We finally go to the dealer, drop the car, and go to the rental car agency (about 7:45) only to find out we can't rent a car because we had to surrender our IDs and passports to TJ's company so they could submit them to the German authorities to get our German Driver's Licenses. What luck? I have to leave the building because it is 8 pm and I can't get home to my dog who hasn't peed in over 13 hours! Then starts the ugly, loud, and hysterical cry. TJ is inside and comes out to ask if we can leave our belongings in our old car so we can make the train to Mannheim. I think I said yes, but I only remember crying. Some guy takes us to the station and 88 EUR later we are booked on the 8:57 high speed train to Mannheim. Here is TJ at the train station waiting patiently...

And then there is me waiting for the train impatiently, upset about my dog...still in snow gear.

We were stuck on the train for an hour and 25 minutes, so what were we to do? We headed straight to the bar car and drank our way to Mannheim while playing scrabble on TJ's IPOD Touch. Here is TJ in the bar car with our empty glasses...

Thank God for Chardonnay, otherwise I could have easily cried all the way home. By the time we caught a cab and got home it was 10:45. Poor Tut, he was fine and so happy to see us! He hadn't peed for 16 hours and hadn't had his supper yet. I felt so bad, and have vowed to hate BMW for the rest of my life. And never again will we leave the puppy at home without a back up plan!
TJ is going to tackle the car situation today with the help of one of the Germans who can expresss how unhappy we are. We will see how this goes! Tomorrow will be about the good part of our adventure...snowboarding!

Auf Wiedersehen