Archive for the ‘Roadtrips’ Category
Einslife! (Part Two)
December 2009
Enter ins Deutschland. Home of leather shorts, big sausages and Radio Einslife. We arrived in the dark, having drank copious amounts of Blue Chimay and eaten dried apricots. Chris put up with us in the car on the way to St Josefsheim, where we walked in through the front door. Wilkommen ins Deutschland indeed. In the mostly enclosed courtyard, we could finally use our firewood. We found a little wheelbarrow and cooked sausages, onions, peppers and mushrooms. They were delicious.
Winch and Speed Do T’north – Dec 2008
Following the success of the Achtung Baby summer Eurotrip, myself and Speed decided to visit the north with our remaining annual leave, early in December. We planned a rough route taking in Inverkip Powerstation, some North Eastern Asylums, as well as the 28DL Manchester Meet. We intended to go with a full car, but we don’t have any friends. Boo hoo.
Of course the idea of ‘Doing’ the north of England is a daft one. Things change, and you could never see everything an area had to offer in a long weekend. We cherry picked the sites we wanted to see, and didn’t quite ‘do’ the north… Always time for a return trip…
Achtung Baby! (Part One) – Aug 2008
Writing retrospectively about my first Eurotrip isn’t so easy. I usually put pen to paper, fingers to keyboard within a few days of getting home, before the buzz wears off and the trip begins to fade into the memory.
It was a pretty hot night when I got to West Park. We’d agreed to meet in Guildford/Granton Ward, and as all of us could arrive at different times, some of us spent more time here waiting than others. As the last arriver I bought Calippos, and met an excitable Rooks doing some colouring in. Bless. This was also the first occasion I met Statler, who has been on many subsequent trips with me (but not this one)
Einslife! (Part One) – Dec 2009
Its sometimes the things that we don’t take photos of that we remember best. My first European adventure in August 2008 ended with us being requested to leave Berlin. One abiding memory of it was the farewells at the end when we went our separate ways, and the feeling is isolation sitting in my car on my own, after a week in the almost complete presence of my fellow explorers.
Memories of this trip that haven’t been captured on film or digital include being chased away from the Buchallee Weißensee Sauglings und Kinder Krankenhaus by a man who told us that you mustn’t run from dogs because they will chase you, and the dog will chase you because it lives there and it’s her land. The calls of ‘Einslife!’ after hearing it announced on the radio soon after arriving in Germany, the bitter cold of Beelitz and the hype of the early rise with the morning light.
I went to Belgium – Oct 2009
The 6 of us decided to go to Belgium, the main attraction being Chateau De Noisy, a gothic pile on top of a hill in the Ardennes. Being such a way away, we needed to fill the weekend with adventures and things to do, so I arranged some.
2 cars, a Land Rover and 6 people, one kerb-bash, one 2 hour delay in London, a trip round the perimeter of Cane Hill to see what’s left (nothing), and some nervous moments on the thunderous M25 eventually saw us arrive in Dover just in time for last check-in…