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We woke up to the sound of a fierce rain storm beating against our hotel window. Would it continue? Would it end? It finally ended and we ventured outside. To our surprise, it was fairly cool outside. It was, in fact, extremely comfortable.

We opted not to have breakfast at our hotel this morning. Instead, we went to a local bakery located just down the street. We picked up some freshly baked goods and a coffee for Matt. Yum!

We also picked up our rental car this morning. It was really nice that the streets were practically empty. Matt was able to recall most of the basics of driving a manual transmission car by the time we got on the highway to Chemnitz. Drivers in Europe are so polite. They get into the passing lanes for passing only, and then return to the driving lane (the far right one) immediately. We arrived in Chemnitz and were able to check into our hotel early. Once again, our hotel room was a pleasant surprise. It is very spacious and has a very nice view. We unpacked a little and only took what we needed with us back to the car and headed out to Sachsenring.

We have only gone to one other MotoGP race before, but the experience today was completely different. Ridiculous numbers of motorcycle fans were everywhere. The task of finding parking was an interesting challenge. Parking lots 1,2, 3, and 5 were for buses. Parking lot 4 was for cars and motorcycles, but the entrance to it was very far from the track itself. Once we managed to park our rental car, we started walking to the track to find our seats. I think it took somewhere between 35 to 45 minutes to finally arrive at our seats. We walked passed thousands of cars, hundreds of camp sites, and many many food and drink (beer, beer, and more beer) stands. There were even carnival rides! It was quite surreal.

We arrived at our seats about halfway through the MotoGP qualifying session. The noise of the bikes racing around the circuit was fantastic. When the session ended, Valentino Rossi basically did a slow parade lap. The crowd went crazy: they were standing, jumping up and down, screaming, and clapping for him. Welcome back, Rossi!

We took our time getting back to our rental car in order to leave. As we walked, we schemed about getting to the track earlier so that we could get a better parking spot. We got back to our parking spot easily enough, but actually leaving was a whole other adventure. The good news: parking was free. The bad news: everyone else was trying to leave at the same time. I think it may have taken 45 minutes to an hour to get out of our spot and leave from the parking lot. It took so long that I fell asleep in the car.

Tomorrow will be another day full of driving challenges. Wish us luck!