Addendum - some trip costs

As compiled and analysed by Fatrat:

Pertol - £863 or around 29p per mile! Estimated ar around 158 gallons at an average of 19 mpg.

Toll charges - Mainly Italy and France, over £100

Other costs - not monitored (just as well we think!)

Day 10 Koblenz to Forest Row

Sunday 14 September 2008

Awoke to a beautiful sunny but noticeably colder morning. As usual I opted for the full works breakfast, German style, with Fatrat opting for gallons of strong coffee only. We managed to set off by 8am and for the first two hours or so the roads were very quiet. We thus were able to make it into Belgium before our first pit stop, which was as much about giving the Beast some respite as anything else.

After hearing the news from my better half that I had become a great uncle for the first time (making me feel much older!), we continued around the infernal Brussels ring road and up to the coast road towards Calais. Nick phoned ahead and managed to get our reservation brought forward from 4.40pm to 2.10pm.

Arrived at Calais at around 12.30 pm with therefore plenty of time to spare. This was just as well as the queues for passport control were much longer than usual. We travelled back on an older Sea France boat, which we think had been specifically pressed into service at the last minute.

A good problem free final journey up the M20 and round the M25 saw us back in Forest Row at 4.30pm. We did not think we had seen our model of Mercedes at all on our entire trip, but as we passed through East Grinstead we saw a blue version travelling in the opposite direction! Even more surprised when a white Mercedes of a slightly different vintage was following right behind us as we turned right into Rystwood Road. Spooky!

So the old boys and the old girl made it, noisy steering and all - a fitting tribute to the quality of German engineering!

The final day's tally was 4 countries visited and 395 miles covered, making 2,989 miles in total on our tour. (End mileage 58,963)

Day 9 Heilbronn to Koblenz

Saturday 13 September 2008

We set off from Heilbronn in the pouring rain, the skies blacker than a hooker's thong and the whining steering worse than ever. We headed south to the outskirts of Stuttgart and the Merecedes Museum. We parked up on the ramp right outside the front of the museum and Nick managed to reel off a few good shots. We had been told that classic and vintage Mercedes were permitted to park there rather than in the underground bunker. An officious official came over, thoroughly checked our documentation, and concluded that at only 27 years old the Beast was too young to warrant a place at the top table. So underground we went.

The museum itself is exceptionally impressive. On 8 floors it is huge, very smart, clean and well organised. The entrance fee was only 8 Euros and this included a free audio guide with over 48 hours of information available should you need it - the main downside being that all the recording was done by an American lady with the most nauseous accent you could imagine! We were there over 4 hours and barely scratched the surface of what was there.

Back out in the drizzle, we headed north for Koblenz and arrived around 5 pm. just in time for a little shopping and a very rich coffee made with white chocolate. Covered 213 miles in the day. With the various mechanical issues the Beast has we decided not to risk it on the Ring tomorrow and instead to head back for an earlier ferry from Dover.

Dined out at the excellent Italian restaurant we had visited a couple of years earlier on a Ring trip - still good and the bottles of cold white wine went down a little too easily!

Purple Haze - Cologne's finest

A mad dash to Reading earlier in the week saw me buy the old shed that my son Seb and I are going to use for our Ramshaklel Rally trip to the Munich Beer Festival in September - A 1994 purple Ford Scorpio with a few dents and dings but sufficiently robust to make it back to Forest Row at least. Dirt cheap on ebay and plenty of space and toys still functioning! More too follow soon.......including photos

Glorious Goodwood

Fatrat and I wafted in the luxo barge down to the Goodwood Festival of Speed yesterday - amazingly it was Fatrat's first experience of the A8 and he claimed he was impressed. Mind you he was more impressed by the latest offerings from Skoda and Chevrolet, which does cast some doubt on his judgement. We also spent a considerable amount of time in several expensive watch emporiums there, it seems he may be working up to an wallet smashing purchase in that department. We also spent a good amount of time oggling the cars and partaking of Audi's hospitality. If only we had a 10 car garage and a million or so to spend, then you could have some real fun!