FB5K diary: The Alpine Rally

Our new GTspirit.com member Limahl shared one of the best and most comprehensive write-ups in our Furball 5000 forum.
We are happy to share this great diary now with you! Thanks again to Limahl!

Day 1 Saturday 7th July 2007

All our bags are packed loaded into the car ready for the off. The fuel tank was already full. We went to bed at 1.30am, set the clock to go off two hours later. It seemed like only a few minutes before the clock goes off, get up in a semi state of sleep and jump in the shower to wake up. The adrenaline was now starting to flow as the excitement was building up. Couldn’t wait to get going and see what the next seven days had in store. So at 4am, my wife Wendy, my son Brendan and I headed out to the car. God, 117 decibels is loud at 4am, thought I better get away quick before I annoy the neighbours. So there we are, Wendy squashed up in the back and Brenny and I in the front heading for the M1.

We were due at Brands Hatch at 6am where everyone was meeting up. At that time of the morning the M1 and the M25 were clear so it didn’t take long to get there. We pulled intro the car park to be met by about another twenty odd cars; people were huddled around chatting together. The arrival of my car made people look up, or it could be that it was a pink car or then again it just might be my good looks, err… maybe not.

Brands Hatch Meeting Point and Porsche New Style Fly Screen

We recognised a few faces from London / Paris tunnel runs, so we went over to say hello and introduced ourselves to a few others. There was quite an array of different cars on show and I was quite pleased to say that the GTO did not look out of place in the car park. Three Ferrari’s, two of which were 360 spiders, and a 355, three Skoda Octavia’s, two Lotus’s, one Elise and one Eclipse, two Porsches, one being a 993 and the other a 997 Convertible Turbo, an M3 BMW, a V8 Vauxhall Menaro, an Audi RS4, and a classic Audi Quattro, a TVR Cerebra, an old classic Lamborghini Espada, an MX5 and off course a little Suzuki Cappuccino (660cc).

The drivers briefing was held in the conference room overlooking the track, hot coffee was served along with bacon rolls, just the thing at this time of the morning. The organisers explained the basic rules of the run, no bad driving would be accepted and if they had two complaints from other members of the party then that car would be asked to leave the group. Start the day off with a full tank of petrol so as to save time in the morning as it can take an hour every morning to fill all the cars if we all turn up at the same time to refuel. A professional camera crew had been hired to film the run and we also had a young lady called Jane who was in charge and was running ahead off the pack to make sure the hotels were ready and expecting us.

At 7.30 am we headed off to towards Dover to catch the Euro tunnel train to Calais. The convoy certainly looked impressive. Hopefully this was a sign of things to come. The train was due to leave at 8.40am, everyone made it on time. First causality was Stuart in a Skoda, this I believe is a 480bhp car but had some teething problems so he returned back to Winchester to get them resolved. The idea was that he would catch up with the pack the next day. After moving the time forward an hour it was now about 10.20am, the pack heading south on the E17 towards Reims where it was arranged that everyone would stop up for lunch.

Reims Town Centre and Reims Cathedral

I cruised along at 90mph in a steady convoy off differing cars. A lot of the guys seemed to be in a hurry and were motoring hard at over a ton. I was content running at 90mph. The further south we travelled the hotter the weather was getting. By now I was wishing that I had got my air con repaired that I promised to do during last years run. We arrived in Reims, parked up by the cathedral and went for lunch. After lunch we continued down the E17 / A39 past Dijon towards our final destination of the day Bourge-en- Bresse, a beautiful little town just outside Lyon. By this time I was so tired I had to stop in a service station for a half hours sleep. It was like a power nap and after filling up the tank with juice we were on our way again. We soon teamed up with the red 360 spider and the two of us cruised on down the final couple of hundred miles to the hotel together at about 100mph. We arrived at the hotel at about 7.30 pm. Most of the others were already there. We checked into the hotel and then went down for dinner, caught up with a few stories from the other and by midnight we were tucked asleep ready for the next day.

635 miles – 130 Euros for Petrol

Day 2 Sunday 8th July 2007

Early breakfast and ready for the off at 9am. This morning though it was pouring down. After the mad dash out to the cars everyone headed off for the motorway and Grenoble. It didn’t take long for before the convoy broke up. The spray from the cars meant that you could not see 100 feet in front of you. Still, most people had Tom Toms in their cars so these were programmed for the next meeting point. From Grebnoble we headed onto the N91 for a little town called Briancon. The N91 is a mountainous road of many twists and turns. Having travelled for the last three hours on our own it was nice to meet a couple of the cars parked up doing a photo shoot, so we then continued in a three car convoy with the Black Skoda of Roy & Elaine and the Lambo Espada of the Boss Man Phil.

Considering the Lambo is such a big car it can move very well. It also dates back to 1979. What I didn’t realise at this time though was that Phil is an ex race driver so some of the moves and overtaking that he did on these twisting roads was no where near as frightening for him as it was for Roy and myself. It wasn’t long before we lost sight of him, nevertheless, we continued into Briancon where a McDonalds made a welcoming sight. Phil was across the road filling up with petrol so we joined up again and refuel as well.

The official lunch point was Digne-les-Bains which was still over two hours away. So after a little discussion we decided to head on down the N94 past Gap towards Chateau Arnoux. At this point we decided to skip the lunch meet and reverse the rest of the route and take the Napoleon Route through Riaz heading towards the Gorge of Verdon. What amazing roads these were through the rocks and mountains. By going this way we were sure that at some point we would meet the rest of the pack coming the opposite way. Sure enough an hour later we met up with four cars doing the route the other way, so we stopped for a photo call opportunity and pressed on, on our way. The roads are very twisty with a big rock face one side and a small wall or barrier to the right with a several hundred foot drop. Stunning views but it makes nervous driving. So there I am with Roy behind me in his Skoda heading down the mountain at about 40mph when an BMX X5 came flying round a bend a bit to quick and a bit to far on wrong side of road, then realised that he was too far over, swerved to the right to correct himself and managed to run his car down the rock face. I thought it a good idea to keep moving at this point. We carried on through till we reached Grasse before heading off to Cannes and our hotel for the night. The car park of the hotel was so low I had to park out on the street. A quick shower and then we headed into town and met up with several other Furballers dining in many of the fantastic restaurants. After dinner we did a tour of the harbour where the millionaires were having midnight drinks on the top decks, how common I thought….anyway back to the hotel, get some sleep, another big day tomorrow.

465 miles – 150 Euros on Petrol

Day 3 Monday 10th July 2007

The day started with rain again, only slight showers but rain nevertheless. Today we were heading off to cover both the Gorges du Cians and Gorges du Daluis, known locally as the red rock area. From Cannes we headed back the way we came the night before via Grasse heading north of Nice.

The Accident

As the convoy were driving north up the mountain roads, every 100 yards there is a sharp hairpin bend, unfortunately, the second car ahead of the convey lost control going round the bend and crashed head on into a transit van coming in the opposite direction. The road was partially blocked but the Furball contingent took control of the situation. One of the guys in our party, Greg, is a doctor; he grabbed his medical bag and attended to the lady driver of the 106 Peugeot who seemed pretty shaken. To be fair there is only so much you can do when you are an eye surgeon, still at least the medical presence helped. Three or four others put on high visibility jackets and controlled the traffic flow both ways. It took nearly an hour before the emergency services arrived. During that time the only hassle we had was with a coach load of Latvians who tried to pose beside the wreck. I asked him very politely to return to the coach, when he refused to due to his drunken state I gently persuaded him that it was in his interest to go now while he still could. The threat of a smack on the jaw in any language is easily understood after which we had no more trouble. Naturally, the French stuck in the que blamed the mad English in there fast cars but were soon re-educated by the girls in our group, and I wouldn’t want to argue with them plus the French Police thanked us for our efforts.

We continued on to take in some of the most breath taking roads I have ever driven on These roads had the most vivid red rock and the most lunatic twists. The pictures do not do it justice. We met up with the rest of the crew who managed to get through prior to the accident for lunch at Valberg. After lunch we made our way back down the other side of the mountain. The roads were a little wider and with the aid of walkie talkies the convoy knew exactly when to over take and when not to, this included overtaking on blind hairpin bends where you can’t see what’s coming. This obviously riled the local who spent their time blowing hooters etc.

Anyway off we headed for our final destination of the day Monaco. We were staying at the Mirabeau hotel which is just opposite the tunnel section of the Formula 1 circuit. Some of the guys stopped up for a photo session in Casino Square, the rest of us headed for the swimming pool in the hotel. The temperature was after all in the nineties. The local Monacco press turned up for an interview and a photo call was arranged on half a dozen cars in front of the hotel. Unfortunately, when it comes to Ferraris and Lambos the GTO doesn’t get a look in.

We were lucky again at this hotel for secure parking. The car was parked free in the underground car park, and we retired to our rooms to get ready for that evenings night out. At 7.30pm we were being collected by coach and being taken to dinner at one of Monaco’s finest restaurants, the Vista Palace at the top of the principality over looking the city. Everyone was dressed in black tie and evening suit with the ladies in their cocktail dresses and evening wear. Obviously it goes without saying the food was great. The coach returned at midnight to take us back to the Hotel, some retired for the evening others headed for the Casinos.

150 miles -. 1250 miles driven total. 86 Euros on Petrol

Monaco night time restaurant

Day 4 – Tuesday 11th July 2007 - The Italian Tunnel Run

Day 4 started like the three previous days, up at 7.45, jumped into the shower and down for a quick continental breakfast. What is it with these European’s? A Danish pastry, a croissant and coffee is not what I call a breakfast. Where’s the sausage, egg and bacon?

Anyhow everyone’s off and ready at about 9am. We start by doing a 25 car convey of the F1 Circuit, well it has to be done, doesn’t it. Police speed checks in the tunnel though. Seems strange when watching the F1 on TV of them going through the tunnel, you don’t see all the entrances into the hotel that are all blocked up during the race. Anyhow, we proceed out of Monaco on the A8 motorway towards Genova. The idea was to follow the A8 motorway onto the A10 to Genova then onto the A12 along the coast road towards La Spezia and then onto Pisa for lunch. From Monaco and for at least the next 100 odd miles there were over 140 tunnels, by which time even I was going deaf listen to the rumble of so many differing exhausts. I still think the two loudest are the TVR Cerebra and the Vauxhall Monarro.

The motorway driving to be fair was uneventful especially after the roads we had been driving over the last few days. Just before La Spezia whilst cruising along at about 90mph we spotted three of our cars parked up on the hard shoulder. A service station was spotted just a mile further on and a few phone calls later to the laid up party saw the three cars arrive at the service station with the Lotus Elise being towed in. It seems the supercharger had blown and taken with it a water pipe. The driver Darren had to ring the RAC to be recovered back to the UK. The car took I believe about two weeks to be shipped home. A hired car was arranged but Darren had to book into a local hotel whilst all this was being arranged and then had to travel back to Lyon to get a car. It took him 36 hours before he joined the pack again in his Ford Focus Diesel MPV. That night in our hotel when word got out that he was on his own in a hotel after having spent eight hours in the service station several of the guys offered to drive back the 150 miles to get him, such was the sprit of the Furballers.

Anyhow, after waiting with Darren for about an hour or so we continued on Pisa and joined up with a different convoy, these were the speed freak boys. The original plan was to cover Tuscany and the Apennine Mountains but due to time now running out this seemed less likely. I was sorry that we missed this as by all accounts they were beautiful.

It was funny how everyone seemed to merge into different groups as you got to know people. There were three distinct groups. Group 1 was the veterans who had all run the tour last year, Robin in the TVR, Colin in the silver 360 spider, James in the red 355, Stuart & Wendy in the Silver Skoda (who had rejoined the group at the hotel on day two after having returned to the UK after arriving in Calais), Darren in the Lotus Elise (now no longer running), John in the blue M3 and Phil the Boss man in the Lambo Espada. Group 2 consisted of the speed freaks; these were all lads, nice guys but seemed more interested in getting from point A to point B as quickly as possible and then out on the town. This group had two Porsches, Tristan & Charlie from Jersey in a convertible yellow 997 turbo, a black 993, Gary & Matt in the Audi RS4 and lastly the Right Said Fred boys, Nick & Paul in the Lotus Esprite. Group 3 was the rest of us which were all Virgin Furballers but more importantly a mixed group of guys and girls. Obviously with Wendy travelling with me this is the group we felt most comfortable in. This group mainly consisted of Harsh & Nancy in the red 360 spider, ourselves in the GTO, two Skoda Octavias, Roy & Elaine in the black one and James, Anna and Sam in the blue stickered Octavia and lastly a little Suzuki 660cc Cappuccino, a young lad called Jake driving on his own. The other two cars, a silver MX5 driven by the happy Irish lads William & Adrian and Richard’s black Vauxhall Monarro seemed to drift from one group to another.

We left the service station with the Lotus boys and met up with the rest of the Speed boys group in a little town outside Pisa, from there we were in convoy with them and they didn’t disappoint. We cruised from Pisa to Bologna at 120- 130 along the A11 and A1 motorways via Firenze. No surprise then that we were the first group to arrive at the hotel. Secured parking below the hotel checked in and grabbed a shower. My sunroof had now been taken out for the first time in four years so we were a little hot as you can imagine. Once everyone arrived everyone headed off to the local restaurant just up the road where we had proper spaghetti bolognaise. Never realised that Taggetelli comes from Bologna and spaghetti comes from Napoli. So Taggittelli it was then. After dinner we returned to the hotel ready for a big day tomorrow.

350 miles - 1600 miles cover in total - 185 Euros in Petrol

Day 5 – Wednesday 12th July 2007 - Supercar Valley & The Stelvio

A prompt start was required this morning as we had a 10 o’clock appointment at the Lamborghini factory and museum. A quick drive through the town and we were heading for Modena. The factory is located in Sant’ Agata Bolognese and we arrived promptly at 10 o’clock. All the cars drove in and were directed towards the car park except of course Phil in his Lambo Espada. Now Phil also owns a Lambo Diablo, but turning up in a classic 1979 Espada he was treated like royalty. He was asked to park up right out front of the main entrance and even the staff came out to photograph his car.

We were shown around the museum before being taken round the factory. The cars run along a conveyor belt with a time limit on each section, e.g., headlights, 45mins to fit then automatically moves on to the next station, for the dash board, 45mins etc, move wiring dashboard 45 mins etc. Then it moves to the next line, three hours to fit the engine. The engine is totally complete ready to fit etc. The UK is the third largest market for Lambos with 42% going to the USA, 12% to Germany, 8% to the UK 6% to Italy etc.

After the factory tour we headed off to Maranello to Ferrari for lunch. This is the Ferrari restaurant opposite the factory. Unfortunately, no factory tour but lunch was good.

After leaving Ferrari we headed north on the A1/A22 motorways towards Verona and Trento. This is where the terrain gets interesting; we left the motorway and headed up the SS043 towards Cles where we took the SS42 towards Ponte di Legno, climbing all the time. At this point we were heading up the Passo di Gavia towards our final destination of Passo del Stelvio. Our hotel is at the top of the mountain, 9000 feet above sea level. Now that’s high and the air is thin at that altitude. So now this is where the fun /paranoia sets in. 40 miles short of the top which is about 2000 feet and two hours driving everyone pulled over for a photo shoot. We had been driving hard to catch up the group as we got separated when I stopped in a service station along route for a half hour power nap as I was knackered. As we got out of the car we could hear what sounded like boiling water from under the bonnet. GREAT!! This is all I need. We lifted the bonnet and I released the pressure on the water cap, off course it started to boil and spill over. Everyone comes to my rescue with pure mineral water, only the best for my car so we top it up and continue. Strange thing is though; the gauge didn’t show that it was overheating. We pressed on regardless, and just short of a town called Bormio everyone stops up again. I take the opportunity to check my water, release the cap and yes it boiling over again. Ironically, we are parked up right beside a stream with pure mountain fresh ice cold water. I now realise that this was the worst thing I could have done and it could have led to a head gasket failure. Anyhow in ignorance we top up again and still the gauge doesn’t show that we are overheating. I put this down to faulty gauges that I had fitted new gauges just before I went. Now at this point we still had 37 miles to go, others that were ahead had rang to say that it was snowing further up the Stelvio, some of the roads were single tracked and if I got stuck I could be there all night. James P suggested that maybe I should book into a local hotel and sort it the next morning. Strange though, could find no leak and where am I going to get parts up the side of a mountain. Against maybe good advice Wendy, Bren and I decided to press on and continue on towards the hotel at the top. Well the next thirty five miles were the longest of my life. My car held together but the roads were lethal, no barriers, hairpins all the way in the dark, shitty GTO lights and snow. But we got there and still the gauge didn’t show us over heating. Funniest moment though was the Irish boys nearly ended up in the rear of the car ahead. Once we arrived at the hotel we emptied our bags and went down for dinner. It was after all ten o’clock and we had been on the go all day. We were cold and tired and hungry. After dinner just headed to bed and sort out the car tomorrow.

345 miles driven - 1945 in total – 94 Euros and 76 Swiss Francs on Petrol

Day 6 Thursday 12th July 2007 – The Swiss Alps & Zurich

There were several activities planned for the next morning, I’m afraid my heart was not in them. I didn’t get much sleep that night worrying about the car, lets face it where do you find parts to repair a GTO at the best of times but in a foreign country, language problems and at the top of a mountain?

Wendy got up at 4.30am to see the sun rise over the mountain top; by all accounts it was beautiful. I’ll wait to see the photos. She looked a strange sight as did most of the other girls heading out of the hotel at that time of the morning dressed in pyjama bottoms and wrapped up in jackets. The hotel was locked up for the night so they all had to climb out the window. (God know who was going to burgle this hotel so far away from the rest of civilization). At 7am there were a party heading back down the mountain to re-drive back up the route we travelled the night before but this time in the light, and lastly everyone was scheduled to leave at 9am for the next stage, “The Swiss Alps�.

As I lay in bed pondering what to do I remembered that we used to have a very technical member of the GTO Owners club called Roger based in Zurich. A phone call to a fellow member Mark Beales at 6.30am (thanks Mark) and I have this guy’s name & number, Roger Gurl. A quick look on the map shows that our route for the day would bring us within close proximity of Zurich so a diversion was planned. With heavy heart I went out to the car to check the water supply and would you believe it…. It’s still full. Another quick phone call to Mark back in the UK and we can now establish what the problem is…. The higher the altitude, the thinner the air, the thinner the air and therefore the higher the point that water boils at. As the car drives further up the mountain, the harder the engine is working hence the car is running hotter but not hot enough to over heat. I remember a couple of other members from the club stating the very same problem a couple of years back after taking a holiday in Switzerland. Off course every time I was releasing the water cap it was on a pressurised system of 1.3 bar and obviously when I opened the cap the water was bound to boil over. So with this new found information I was both relieved and elated.

The party that left at 7am to go down the mountain had run into a couple of mishaps. Four of the front runners were pulled over by the Police for speeding, but as a couple of them were Ferrari’s and knowing how they love the Ferrari in Italy they were let off with a warning. Unfortunately, Nicola, driving the Audi Quattro lost control on one of the many bends and hit the low wall, shattering the suspension and drivers side wing etc. The car was declared a write off and the RAC Euro division towed the car back down to the nearest town of Bormio. Most of the group stuck together to make sure they were all sorted then we eventually left heading down the Swiss side of the Stelvio. It took about six hours for the hired car to be delivered to Greg & Nicola who now were going to meet us at the next hotel that night. Most of the main party left between 9 and 10am. The rest that returned from seeing Greg & Nicola had now returned to the hotel and a late start was then had by us.

We descended the West face of the Stelvio and along the SS38 into Switzerland, From here we headed for the Ofenpass and Fluelapass to Davos. From Davos we headed north towards Klosters. At one point we even got a tunnel train below a river but I can’t seem to trace that on the map. At this point we left the five car convoy we were travelling with and headed off on the A3 motorway to see Roger in Zurich. During the whole journey I had driving with one eye on the temperature gauge and at no point we’re we over heating even though we were cruising at a ton.

We arrived at Rogers home and were welcomed with open arms. It was nice to meet him, this is a guy with immense knowledge of our make of car and owns two GTO’s himself. His daily runner is a blue1997 Mk2 3000Gt. His pride and joy is a 1993 Mk1 Red 3000Gt running at 650bhp, now bearing in mind that he built this car ten years ago we should respect what his ideas are. After plenty of assurance that the car was running fine we set off on a 277 mile journey to our hotel in Verbier, near Martigny. From Zurich to Bern on the A1 motorway where I got flashed by a speed camara at 120, I’m now just waiting to see if I get a ticket. From Bern down towards Lausanne, then down the A9 to Martigny and then the ski village of Verbier. We arrived at about 10.40pm and booked in to the hotel. It was lovely to see so many come out to welcome us assured that we had no more car trouble. After a quick burger and chips from the local café and a couple of beers we retired to bed as there was another big day ahead.

475 miles - 2420 Total Covered - 200 Swiss Francs on Petrol (About £80- 2.5 Frs to the £)

Day 7 - Friday 13th July – The French Alps & the Mount Blanc Tunnel

Friday was another hot morning. We had breakfast with the rest of the crew then headed down to the garage to load up the cars. Verbier is very much a skier’s town and I would imagine very busy in the snow season, but this morning it was quite but serene. We headed out in convoy to the surprise of all the locals, well its not every day twenty odd super cars roar off down the high street. As we had arrived late the previous night we were empty of petrol so had to fill up at the first gas station we came to and then we were playing catch up for the next twenty miles.

We headed towards Bourg – Ste – Pierre on the E27 to visit the St Bernard’s Pass, another beautiful area. From there we crossed back over the border into Italy on the E29 towards Aosta. From here we headed for the Mount Blanc tunnel. 32 Euro toll and 11 kilometres later we back in France.

From here we headed off to a beautiful town called Annecy for lunch. (Annecy is just below Geneve). I was absolutely amazed, of everywhere we had travelled in the last week this had to be the most beautiful town I had visited. It was like Venice in France, with a canal running through the centre of town, the canal surrounded by cobbled stone streets lined with café’s and everyone dining outside, alfresco style. We stopped here for an hours lunch but ended up stopping for three hours. Walking along the canal we were amazed at how clear the canal water was. The old building in the middle of the canal that looked like the stern of a ship was in fact the old jail house. But all goods things come to an end and we had to head of to Besancon to our hotel. This was about 200 miles north via Geneve and Dole. We arrived at our hotel about 8.30pm, checked in and everyone eventually met up by the pool for dinner. Surprisingly this was the first night most people stayed up late chatting and watching video footage shot over the last week. By 2am everyone had retired for the night ready for the last day.

280 miles – 2700 miles covered in Total – 220 Euros in Petrol

Day 8 – Saturday 14th July – Reim Grand Prix and the final Push Home

Struggled to get up this morning, but soon jumped into action when you hear the roar of engines starting up in the car park. Some of these guys never seem to sleep. A quick shower, and a quick coffee and croissants and like the others we are ready to go. It nearly 9.30am and we are ready to leave heading north west for Dijon on the A39 before changing motorways via E17 to Troyes. The E17 would take us all the way to Reims. It seemed bazaar and such a long time since we stopped here for lunch the previous Saturday. The idea of visiting Reims again was a historic one; we were visiting the old ruins of the French grand Prix circuit pits and grandstand. We arrived at Reims about 2.30pm and headed towards Gneux. The circuit is now part of the N31 road and the Grandstand is situated in the middle of a two mile straight. It hasn’t been used since the 1960’s and I believe it held 14 Grand Prix’s there.

After initially parking up and getting a feel of the place it was inevitable that we would want to experience driving down the straight in front of the grandstand. I have to admit I was one of the first to run it, drive down leisurely to the roundabout allow the traffic in front of you to get as far as possible ahead then nail it. The GTO responded as I expected she would and roared down the straight passing the grandstand at about 130mph. Awesome!!!!! You could feel the adrenaline flowing. After just about everyone had had run the gendarme turned up, it would seem our presence had caused a lot of local interest. Three bikers on Harley Davidsons, a couple of guys in a beach buggy and numerous cyclists and pedestrians headed our way parked up and watched our fun. One of the local explained that a local business man was trying to raise money to bring back the former pits and grandstands to their former glory. The pits in fact had all been painted in the last year. They have even arranged a race of some description on September 2nd where all the roads would be closed and the race run on the original circuit to try and raise funds for the grandstand. We spent nearly two hours here, time I thoroughly enjoyed before heading off on the final stage of our journey, Calais.

So it was back on the E17. Calais was about 180 miles further north. Our train was booked for 20.20. Everyone left together and for once more or less travelled the last leg together. Northern France is renowned for speed traps so we slowed down as we approached the last fifty miles to Calais. Unfortunately, Colin in the 360 didn’t and got caught 10 miles outside Calais for speeding. Through out the whole trip only three cars were caught speeding, the silver 360 Ferrari spider, the RS4 Audi heading south on the first day and the 1979 Lambo Espada mid week. Whether I get added to that list after being flashed in Switzerland, remains to be seen. At present I still haven’t heard anything.

We made the train with plenty of time to spare and in fact caught the 7.50 earlier train. It was party time on the train as we approached Dover. It was sad to part with friends that we had driven across Europe with for the last week. We left Dover headed back up the M20 to the M25 and back home to Bedford. What a fantastic week.

Would I do it again? Too right..

600 miles - 3300 miles Covered in Total - 170 Euros in Petrol

Brendan