This will be very much in medias res for regular readers of this blog (first off, if you are a regular: congratulations, you are defo more regular than I am writing it…), but if you follow me on Strava, or Pixelfed for example, then maybe not: so tl;dr I bought a Porsche. I posted about it in Hungarian, you can just go and translate that if you want my deep thoughts on the “why” and the “what” – you can also find a very quick backstory on my Porsche ownership here on Reddit too.
But this post is about my Amsterdam – Budapest trip, and it’s in English to be Reddit compatible. (I am still contemplating more than I should whether to post new stuff to my Hungarian blog or this here. I hate bilingualism.
For full immersion, I created a “944” YTMusic playlist from songs of the years when the 944 was in its prime – shuffle it, sit back, and let’s hit the road!
Ever since I bought my 944, the plan was to drive it — these are made for driving, not hidden away in some garage under a protective cover. This a public service towards males over 40 and below 10 years. And this October, the stars finally aligned perfectly: my kids’ autumn break coincided with my wife’s holiday, weather in Europe was still mild and basically perfect for driving… so, this being my “freedom” car (but also my “8 again” car), I decided that I celebrate this by finally having a week +VAT just for myself by doing a long drive from my new home (Amsterdam) to my old home (Budapest).
Preparations
My original high level plan was driving 3 days for the AMS→BUD leg, see old friends in Budapest, and then another 3 days for BUD→AMS. The 3 days would combine highway stretches but also some fun driving, mainly in Austria. I wanted to avoid hardcore mountain passes, because I felt 3000+ km in a 40 year old car might be enough in itself, but I also definitely wanted to have *some* fun around alpine lakes, lower mountain passes, and definitely the Balaton-felvidék, the hilly-mediterranean western part of Hungary that is one of my all time favourite places in the whole world. (And side note: I also definitely wanted to avoid Highway 3 in Germany, because whenever I go that way, I literally always get stuck in some traffic, road works, accident, or the combination of these 3. So I always take Highway 61 instead.)
This was the route I pre-planned:
- Day 1: Amsterdam → Highways A1, A30, A73 in NL and 61 in DE through Rosenheim and Heilbronn → Highway 8 to Salzburg → off the highway towards Fuschl → St. Gilgen → Bad Ischl 💤
- Day 2: Bad Ischl → Hallstatt → road 145 and 113, then eventually the A9 → enter Hungary at Szentgotthárd → M80, road 76, and M7 to Zamárdi 💤
- Day 3: Zamárdi → Budapest
I didn’t plan the way back — I wanted to see how the legs to Hungary work in reality, how the car will be… I did not shoot proper video of the trip unfortunately (wanted to… but the GoPro I ordered didn’t ship in time), but I did shoot quite a bit of “B-roll” — I uploaded these to YouTube and will insert them here and there in the post to convey a bit of the drive feel if that’s even possible. So then… let’s hit the road!
Day 1: the best place to break down with a Porsche
First off: I started my trip by forgetting my passport home, realising it around Amersfoort, and adding 100 unnecessary kilometres to my trip. After this, I didn’t stop practically anywhere, even to eat.
I picked up some fried chicken back in Amsterdam and planned to just eat that as dinner in a scenic parking spot.
I stopped somewhere after Sinnsheim around 7-8pm in a scenic spot to get out and stretch a bit and eat my chicken, but when I got out of the car I couldn’t not notice that some liquid is pouring out of the engine bay 😰 It was pink, so it was either steering or coolant, and of course I feared the second… I immediately hopped back in the car and drove to the nearest gas station, in Heilbronn — to at least break down near civilisation… and close to some light source so I can at least look at the engine. I know driving without coolant is not great, but at that moment this seemed the lesser evil, and the car was (still) driving great, no overheating, no noises… I was fully prepared to have to abandon my trip already on the first day: Saturday evening in Germany, even if I get myself towed to a garage, who’s going to fix it for me on Sunday. (In case you don’t know: even grocery stores are closed in Germany on Sundays, let alone garages.) But then my guardian angel descended, on a bicycle, in a rain suit. His name is Ali.
He stopped next to me and said “das ist kühlwasser, du kanst nicht meer fahren” (or something to that effect… basically “this is coolant, you’re f@ed my friend.”) and I answered something along the lines of yeah I’m afraid it is, but I can’t figure out where it’s coming from.
But then he got a bit closer, inspected it and found the coolant’s rubber pipe that probably got mislocated somehow and got cut… I think by my cooling fan?
And at this point he said he had a little garage about 1-2 kilometres from here… if I bring the car there and give him 20 minutes to drop off the shopping at home, he’ll come meet me, and fix it quickly. At this point we are at around 9pm on a Saturday evening — who says people don’t help each other any more? (We communicated in German – Makainé I hope you read this and are proud of me!)
So I took the car to Ali’s garage, and he and his colleague Taji fixed the car for me.
The morale of the story: if you absolutely have to break down with a classic Porsche, do it near Stuttgart.
Day 2: uneventful
After the double delay of the first day, I got nowhere near to where I was supposed to be… my planning was out the window. I slept in Heilbronn, partly to let the newly filled coolant settle and see in the morning if I need to top it up, but also, I was quite done. While warming up (and checking the coolant level) in front of my hotel the next morning, I met 2 kind gentlemen who, after conversing in English for about 5 minutes, turned out to be Hungarians, and as it turns out, stayed in the hotel on their trip to visit the Porsche Museum… I hope they enjoyed the extra presentation I gave them of a piece of Porsche history!
And so, I set out to get to Austria, and get back on track. I decided to add a day to my AMS-BUD leg: make second day a highway-only day and, coolant permitting, get to Austria by the end of the day, and then on the 3rd day have my alpine lake – mountain fun. I decided not to skip this – one of the keystones of the whole trip. Bad Ischl as end station was out as well – I had to improvise.
So that’s what I did: from Heilbronn took Highway 81 and then 8 and stopped in Augsburg for food and a walk. I always wanted to see Augsburg, see what these Fuggers were up to, but also nerd out on the little canals of the city. Augsburg is lovely, I highly recommend it.
I booked a nice lakeside room in the village of Attersee, overlooking… the lake of Attersee. And after Augsburg (and after a schnitzel consumed along the way) I didn’t stop until I got there — it was already dark by the time I arrived.
Day 3: back road bliss
Attersee, but the wider alpine area and, heck, Austria in general, is fucking beautiful. Even during the fall.
Also, Austrian back roads are fun, and of course these are the kind of road where the 944 really excels. Not very fast, but bendy, beautiful, perfectly utilising the 49.5-50.5% weight balance of the car.
First, I went from Attersee to Hallstatt — did get to cross (but only cross) Bad Ischl after all! I stopped in Hallstatt to eat and look around… but it was way too touristy. Not an ugly place of course. but too many people.
This leg along the Attersee, the Pfaffenberg, and the Österreichische Romantikstrasse was already beautiful, but it really opened up after Hallstatt: Hallstattersee Landesstrasse, the Koppenstrasse and the Koppen Pass, then road 145 and 320 — pure bliss. This is essentially what I did this whole trip for, 100% worth it.
After Graz I basically took highways to get to Szentgotthárd, which I did, with perfect timing: I got to drive road 76 in Hungary in the sunset. The landscape is beautiful, traffic minimal (random Monday evening), and I know these roads somewhat, heck, I don’t think they did any renovation on them since I first drove here ~20 years ago! (Yes, they are in terrible condition.)
Day 4-5-6: Budapest intermezzo
Day 7-8: The Click
On day 7 I managed to get to Passau… also in dark by the time I got there, but got a nice steak dinner, a good walk in the city, absorb the vibe a bit… and in the morning, observe the vista as well.
On day 8 my engine developed The Click. This scared me a bit; The Click is not good. But I stopped, refilled (I always have 2-2.5 litres of spare oil with me), and then The Click went away. (Since then I had it checked — the car is fine. In retrospect, I did forget to check oil levels before I left, which was a rookie mistake. I’m glad it did ~2500 km before showing the effects of low oil levels.)
With my oil issues resolved, I decided to do a long day and just drive home in one go… but I did squeeze in an unplanned Natuurpark Nassau stretch: I turned off the highway around Mainz and continued on road 42, along the Rhine river, all the way until Kaub where I had to go up to the hilly-foresty bits due to a road closure. This was a perfect mishap, the Nassau is also a whole lot of fun to drive, frequent turns, hills, patches of forest, and as it happens I was there again during the golden hour. After this I drove directly back to Amsterdam, so the Nassau was a perfect closure to my little road trip.
Technicalities: the full route, stats, etc.
Daily routes (simplified — without stops, hotels, etc.)”
- Day 1: Amsterdam – Terra Nova – Heilbronn (583 km not counting the +100 I did to pick up my passport)
- Day 2: Heilbronn – Augsburg – Attersee (511 km)
- Day 3: Attersee – Hallstatt – Koppen Pass – Szentgotthárd – Zamárdi/Budapest (624 km; technically Budapest was Day 4, including a +100km north of the Balaton, but never mind that)
- Day 7: Budapest – Passau (531 km)
- Day 8: Passau – Natuurpark Nassau – Amsterdam (933 km)
So a total of ~3200 km excluding the extra detours, passport, driving in Budapest etc.
My average fuel consumption was actually very good: mainly between 7.5-8.5 l/100km even on the bendy mountain stretch, and except for Budapest, where you basically spend your time standing in traffic jam on absolutely horrific streets — there the 944 did 13.5 l/100km…
What I planned, but didn’t do: making/drinking coffee in a random scenic Alps spot, influencer style.
And finally:
- wiener schnitzels consumed: 5
- steaks consumed: 1
- kaassuflees consumed: 2
- servings of chicken wings consumed: 4
- beers consumed: haha, 0