Saturday 8th June 2024
500 Miles….and this is the car which I have driven ALL this way!
Evening, all! I am writing this blog from home in Cirencester having returned from Germany safely late last night.
On Friday night I stopped at Bacharach – photos above – and after a good breakfast I left the hotel fairly early to get on the road. I first drove half an hour up the road to Boppard-am-Rhein. 18 years ago Boppard was the first place in Germany I ever went to, and I have gone back often ever since!
The Rhein was still very high after the weekend’s flooding, with parts of Boppard even in the Rhein – it had clearly been up higher earlier in the week.
Getting on the road at 11am, I set the sat nav straight for Calais. With three stops between Boppard and Calais, I got to Calais about half an hour ahead of schedule at 17:30. The journey was mostly clear (just the Brussels Ring traffic to contend with). A moment of excitement; as I passed Bruges a 4×4 on an interesting numberplate shot past. I thought Israeli at first, then realised it looked more Arab, and didn’t have the Euro-style IL identification strip.
I saw the same 4×4 in Calais and realised it was a numberplate from Oman! They had written on the back of their vehicle “Oman to London” and the flags of all the countries they’d driven through. Impressive! If I had seen them again once through Passport Control I’d have had a chat to them, but as it happens, I didn’t see them after that.
Ferry was on time, and for the first time I was on one of P&O’s brand new ferries – very light and modern on board with outside decks front and rear which was simply amazing! Loved that!
Arriving in to Dover at around 20:00, I set the sat nav for home. Traffic jam on the M25 (they were in the process of putting a full motorway closure in place – traffic all forced in to one lane in preparation to come off the motorway; but they hadn’t completed the full closure yet, so with 5 minutes to go before 22:00 they were still letting cars continue on the motorway past the junction) – and a full closure on the M4 meaning I had to come off at Reading and take the back roads.
The good news is, after a drive of more 855km (531 miles) taking more than 12 hours, at 00:25 I arrived safely home in Cirencester.
Good night,
FH.
On the Car Stereo: SWR 1 Rheinland-Pfalz, WDR 2, NPO Radio 5, VRT Radio 2, RFM, BBC Radio 2, Absolute Radio Country, Magic, Classic FM.
Today’s Mileage: 531.27 miles (854.99 km)
Accumulative Mileage: 2383.16 miles (2990.60 km)
