I had the car to myself on this one, but was in a convoy with Simon and Rory. The plan was to drive over, via the tunnel, to the Spa circuit, in Belgium, watch some Can Am cars from the 70's and then do a short tour into Germany, France and then back home. The plan was also that whilst in Germany we'd make a trip to the Nurburgring and do a couple of laps, just to be able to say we'd done it. This changed slightly when we found out on the Saturday that the 'ring was going to be closed the following week for repairs. A quick change of plan saw us getting up far too early on the Sunday - 5am rings a bell, and heading over to Germany to get some time there. Unfortunately, the morning had dawned grey and damp and whilst not really raining, the was a nice damp layer over the track.
We got there quite early, around 7.00am, and had a welcome coffee in the Dorient Hotel. Mandy won't let me live down the fact that I never fail to point it out when the German F1 race is on the telly "I've had coffee in there.. look"
Suitably refreshed we made our way around to the old circuit entrance and paid out £5 for a lap. With the conditions as they were none of us pushed very hard, happy to just drive around and soak in some atmosphere. It really is a fantastic place, with no rest, every blind crest seemed to end in an abrupt change of direction. After our lap we decided there really wasn't much point in doing more laps as conditions were not up to pushing and enjoying the car and, besides, it was embarrassing being over taken by the circuit taxi Megane, however well they knew the track.
We made it back to Spa for the main races and even did a hike around the whole circuit. It's longer than it looks on telly, and a lot steeper!
On the Monday we headed back over to Germany for some sight-seeing and some great roads up in the Eiffel mountains, although it rains a lot.
Next we headed over to France, passing through Luxembourg. It was here that we drove into the biggest downpour we'd all seen. I had left my hood up (it was raining every night) as I thought it was cold when we left. I did not regret this decision. We came over a hill on a motorway section, and a huge black cloud was just sitting in the valley below. Visibility reduced instantly and the other guys had big problems. It wasn't comfortable having to crawl along the inside lane at around 30mph whilst large trucks and tankers seemingly hurtled by a couple of feet away. We ended up creeping along the hard shoulder to a service station where we could relax, I at least, in dry clothing. The rain moved on and so did we, to France where we watched a nice Thunder and Lighting storm in the evening before bed. On our trip back up to the tunnel we paid a visit to the Moet & Chandon to have a look around the cellars. Once back on the road we briefly stopped off to look at a monument to WW1 solders and then headed back to the tunnel an home.