VW Fanatic's Heaven
Trip Start
Jun 03, 2010
1
148
154
Trip End
May 28, 2011
Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony, Germany
Saturday, May 14, 2011
With regard to marketing, there was a full floor of computers staffed by sales reps where you could design your own VW. You could order one to your specifications, and if it was a model produced at Wolfsburg, you could pick it up 3 days later. And when you pick it up, you first spot your VW in one of the two circular 20 story glass tower parking lots with automatic vehicle retrieval system, and then await your vehicle in a special indoor presentation area, where the staff person escorts you down a staircase to where your vehicle awaits, spends 30 minutes or so orienting you to your new car, and then opens the doors as you splendidly exit the building. And all of this is observed from a balcony by us gawkers. Apparently about 15% of VWs sold in Germany/Netherlands/Belgium are sold through this facility.
There are cafeterias, restaurants and bars, as well as a complete Radisson Hotel to keep visitors happy and rested.
We finally left to make towards Berlin at about 3:30. We were to take the A2 autobahn, but noticed as we approached that it was at a dead stop as far as the eye could see. Fortunately we had not entered the approach, so were able to veer off southward. Unfortunately, so did a few thousand others, and we soon found ourselves creeping along at 4 or 5 km/h on a 2 lane byway. The good news is that we found a lovely little almost free (1 Euro for electricity) municipal camping in this little town of Koningslutter, so we ditched the traffic and holed up at about 5 pm. Perfecto! Apparently the town has some interesting stuff to see, so I’d better shut down so we can have a look before dinner….
Well, indeed it was somewhat interesting, though not as pretty as Bodenwerder the previous night. Kongislutter does have some 15th and 16th C houses and barns right in town, and a separate little town up the hill half a km built around what was a big church and palace. The palace seems now to be a psychiatric hospital and clinic with nice parkland around it. There was a moving sculpture and memorial hidden behind the church. While it was in German and we had no translation, it appeared to certainly have something to do with euthanasia during the Nazi times, so we are assuming it was probably the murder of psychiatric patients that was memorialized.
