Route map

4,000 miles round Europe. 38 days, and one broken arm later.

Last gasp

Final drive along the coast through archetypal Dutch scenery. Makkum, Workum, Hindeloopen and Sneek. Boats and water everywhere.

The satnav gave us a nasty final moment. With time running out to get to the Amsterdam ferry, she left us at a dead end in the middle of an industrial area, on the wrong side of the waterway. Once again Googlemaps on the iPhone sorted us out, but not without a few more grey hairs.

Ferry overnight to Newcastle, then across to Cairnryan for the last leg home. Somewhat sorry to finish the trip.

Peaceful day in Harlingen

After the long drive yesterday it seemed a good idea to give the patient patient a rest, so we stayed put. Plenty to supervise, and a pretty town to stroll round. Our hotel is the white building where the waterways meet. Perfect.

Change of scene

Reunited with beloved SL, the open road beckoned. Don't you just love these older cars. Having surprised me with a differential failing, it teased us today. Temperatures were in early 30s to start, and reached 38. To keep Maire cool we put the roof up, and then the aircon decided to have a break. Roof down again, and gentle breezes (well, 130 kph gentle) and all was well.

Made it from deepest Middle Germany to the Netherlands coast - a real change of scene. Watched yachts coming in, through the lifting bridge, and surveyed Harlingen (briefly).

Thunderstorms and rain now just to complete the change of scene.

More repairs

Having tested the German system for the repair of 'older' cars, we had a busy day testing the system for human repairs. (Decided not to repeat that bit about 'older'). Maire tripped and fell, and unfortunately broke an arm. Now strapped up with a fiendish sling that will keep her in order.

Eisenach was bright and sunny. As if someone flicked a switch the street cafes came to life and the square was buzzing.

Who knew that Eisenach was once important in the motor industry? BMW might just have been EMW. We might have been talking about yer man and his Eemer. Also home of the Wartburg - now alas defunct.

Carry on regardless

Really enjoyable time in Goslar, in Wernigerode, and generally round the Harz.
Suspect the Michelin a Green guide is prone to superlatives, having had the
'Most important castle in Germany', 'the biggest wood church', 'the finest half-timbered building in Germany', 'the most admired building' (no 74 in photo).

Spare parts for the sick car did not arrive in Eisenach while we were off elsewhere. The race against time is on. Plans B, C, and D looking more and more likely, with various permutations of hire cars, trains, foot passenger on ferry, flying back for car later, all under consideration.

Harz National Park

Hire car trip north through the Harz park to Goslar. Hire car seats not the same as beloved SL seats!

However Goslar well worth the trip. Old half-timbered houses and slate frontages with great square for sitting watching.

Martin Luther

Sad but efficient day today. Phone call to the Mercedes service garage at 07:08 resulted in "Can you be here in 15 minutes?" By 08:00 the car had been tested and diagnosed. It was the differential. By 09:00 they had located the necessary part, printed the contract, and I had signed up for the work to be done. So efficient you almost forget that it is the price of a small car.

RAC organised a replacement car delivered to the hotel. Mondeo Man! Full of gadgets. It even parallel parks automatically.

But back to more historical things, we visited Wartburg Castle, ("the most important castle in Germany") where Martin Luther was kept safe while he worked on his translation of the New Testament and avoided the Church hierarchy who had unpleasant plans for him.

Bach's birthplace features strongly in Eisenach, and the Church where he was baptised was on today's dripping itinerary.

Photos are of Georgenkirche, corridor in the castle, and Luther's study.

Bach to Bach

After all the Leipzig celebrations, we retired to a highly recommended traditional restaurant. The traditional German speaking and (perfectly reasonably) non-English speaking waiter had a good go at sorting out what we would eat. Two delightful German ladies from the next table stepped in to help. They managed to translate to the waiter that I wanted a traditional German dish with no meat and no fish. He sat down and held his head In his hands. There ensued a debate of which we caught the odd word. He overcame the inherent oxymoronic nature of my request and settled on an asparagus dish that he had to negotiate with the kitchen. Who has heard of potatoes with no meat! What was extremely impressive was the time all concerned were prepared to take to get me sorted out. Big tip required. Food was delicious.


The idea today was to go from where Bach worked for the longest period, back to his birthplace in Eisenach. Halfway to Cologne it fitted well. However the car has decided we need a break. A horrible grinding from a bearing in the differential means we are stuck here till we find if a local garage can sort it out. The best laid plans .......

Bach again

Surprisingly easy drive north through Czech Republic to Karlovy Var then over the border to Chemnitz and Leipzig.

The Nikolaikirche with its light interior was where prayer-meeting opposition to the old regime became the peaceful revolution in 1989, leading to the fall of the Wall and reunification.

Special treat to be in Leipzig for the week of the 1,000 year celebration of the city's founding. Bach concerts yesterday and today in Thomaskirche, with the famous choir, the 'Bach' organ, and musicians from the Gewandhaus orchestra.

Czech-out

Busy day in Plseñ with visits to Cathedral (including more vertigo challenging up the tower), Synagogue (including atmospheric photo exhibition of the WW2 liberation of Plzeñ), the Pilsner Urquell brewery, and a City of Culture gala concert. We met two other guests in the hotel who were leaving in disgust, except the stairs were blocked and the lift wasn't working due to a power cut.

We meanwhile are relishing the faded glory. Breakfast alone in a hundred yard ballroom has a certain splendour.

Czech-in

After the buzz and bustle of Salzburg off to the very different streets of Plzeň. (Pilsen). We disagreed with the satnav's route and chose our own obviously more direct route. Big mistake. A winding road through every village, and through a national park. It had the label E53, so was clearly a major European road. Oops.

Checked in to the restored Continental Hotel. Huge rooms and possibly no other guests. We are resisting jokes about how many Czech waiters it takes to make a cup of coffee.

City of Culture events here. Gypsy Jazz last night and a gala concert in the town square this evening. A tour of the Pilsner Urquell brewery in between.

Meanwhile, the cost of two Camparis, four glasses of wine, a salad, a beef goulash, and a mushroom ragout? All excellent incidentally. £16 in all.

Umbrella city

Salzburg is famous for Mozart, but not many people know about the statue to the early experimental umbrella maker. Part-time soldier with a big helmet, he forgot to put the spokes in.

Mozart museum, Cathedral, Franciscan Church, Festungsberg Castle, Tomaselli's cafe - it's amazing how many sights can be dealt with while the rain comes down.

We found the city weather station, which showed the hygrometer stuck firmly on 100%.

The city view is another in the 'hotel' series, but this time from the bar on the roof terrace.

Grossglockner Hochalpenstrasse

To quote from the Michelin guide:

"The most famous of all Austrian mountain roads, the Grossglockner Alpine Road leads to the celebrated Grossglockner, the highest peak on the Austrian Alps (alt 3797m, 12,457 ft). "

Good news this morning - the road was open. It was built in the 1930s and is often closed obviously because of snow. The squad of snow ploughs and blowers cleared it, and by 11:30 even the highest spur, the Edelweissspitz, at 2577 m was open.

Naked ambition

Bad news confirmed this morning that the Grossglockner was closed due to snow. Maybe not surprising for the highest Alpine road.

Plan B was a drive to a motorail train through an alpine tunnel to Bad Gastein. That worked well, and the celebrity resort of Bad Gastein was worth seeing. It is built around a gorge, with a waterfall and river thundering through the middle. Very out of season now so no other celebrities about.

It is also a renowned spa, so a suitable compensation for missing the Grossglockner was a visit to the Felsemtherme Spa, thus satisfying a long ambition. Only one of us was interested so the other drank lots of coffee. Meanwhile I nearly forgot my swimmers, but retrieved them from the car, only to find they were superfluous. The spa had endless thermal pools, plunge pools, saunas, steam rooms, icy showers, icy water buckets to tip, and loungers indoors and out. I felt like first day at school - all the signs and instructions were in German, I had no glasses anyway, so I hadn't a clue. However a bit of copying what others did and all was well. It is a strange sight to see naked Austrians lying back on a lounger, snow still lying on the nearby grass and covering the mountains, enjoying a cigarette before going back into the sauna or the icy shower. One of life's more unusual Sunday's.