Frank filled us in on his trip to Europe and scrounging for Vanagon parts. I just got back from Europe this weekend (Germany, Austria, France and Holland... maybe we crossed paths Frank?) and was also wondering about junkyards. In over 15 trips to Germany and Austria, I can't ever remember seeing a junkyard.

I do know that a lot of older vehicles get bought up and shipped off to eastern European countries, where the inspection rules are a lot less cumbersome (trucks from Hungary and Romania with car trailers are a common sight on the Autobahn from Germany toward Vienna). In fact, on this trip we witnessed a road accident on the Autobahn near Chiemsee where an eastern European-licensed car carrier had his trailer unhook at Autobahn speeds. I'll never forget the sight of four cars tumbling end-over-end down the highway. Thankfully, I don't think anyone was hurt.

We had a GPS navigation system in our rental Opel wagon, and it was really great (both the turbo diesel Opel and the navi!). It convinced me to buy some software and a GPS unit for my laptop to use in the Westy. Suggestions are welcome as to the best software/GPS unit to buy.

As an aside, we spent four days in the Bavarian Alps (Garmisch-Partenkirchen area) and I saw a lot of (well, more than 10) Vanagon Syncros in all guises; Westies, extended roofs, setup for off road, etc. My wife told me to stop drooling over all of them!

Brian