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| Day 1 - Rownhams rendezvous point, via Dover-Calais, to St Omer (200 miles) | ||||
| Early rendezvous at Rownhams on the M27 followed by a boring m-way blat all the way to Dover. A short respite courtesy of P&O followed by a quick blat down to St Omer (including complimentary tour of the local area on the way to the hotel - that'll teach me for trying to follow directions from some obscure website!) | ||||
 Rownhams Rendezvous |
 Calais |
 The perils of Aeroscreening |
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| Day 2 - St Omer to Adenau via Spa (300 miles) | ||||
| Another early start and yet more motorway as we headed towards Belgium. The legendary Ardennes weather didn't let us down, a huge thunderstorm awaited our arrival at Spa-Francorchamps. A quick tour of the pits (including a belated opportunity for the x-flow powered Luddites to celebrate their recent success at the Gurston Hillclimb School) and then onto Germany and our hotel in Adenau overlooking the Nordscleife. | ||||
 St Omer Hotel |
 Waiting for Skip to finish his Conf Call |
 Eau Rouge |
 Luddites Gurston Podium |
 Tucked Up for the night |
| Day 3- Exploring the vicinity plus the Nordschleife itself (130 miles) | ||||
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A leisurely start followed by a quick blat taking in some fantastic local roads and parts of the circuit (watching various manufacturers test yet to be released models on the circuit). Lunch at the GP circuit and a tour of the museum followed by a quick trip back to the hotel to dump our stuff ready for an evening session at the circuit. Everything was set, until Jason's car suddenly reported no oil pressure, various checks didn't turn up anything obvious, so therefore it was one of two options; a dodgy sender or a real problem. Only one way to find out, a quick lap of the circuit - top man! |
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 Morning Preparations |
 Local Roads |
 Overlooking Eschbach |
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 BMW X? |
 'ring Museum |
 'ring Museum |
 Circuit Entrance |
 Our Hotel |
| Day 4 - Adenau to Pommerloch, Luxembourg (160 miles) | ||||
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Heading west away from the 'ring looking for good roads, opinions divided between going back to Spa or doing more roads. In the end the decision was made for us, Jason's car wasn't looking particularly healthy and as we pulled into a hastily located hotel Jason's car began to do an impression of the Flying Scotsman. A small electrical problem for Skip earlier in the day turned out to be great for the rest of us as we got to drive a fantastic section of road not once, not twice, but three times! A big thumbs up for the owners of the hotel who not only were very helpful bridging the language barrier with the various recovery companies but also ran us into Bastogne for the evening and then picked us up later on. The hotel itself was fantastic and gets the Luddites seal of approval. The hotel website can be found at: http://www.hotelpommerloch.lu/ |
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 View from Hotel |
 En Route |
 Collecting Skip after his electrical gremlins |
 Hotel Pommerloch |
 ditto |
| Day 5 - Pommerloch to Fismes, nr Reims (180 miles) | ||||
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The concensus was that Jason's problems were terminal and the recovery truck was summoned (not before a quick trip into nearby Bastogne to look round the wartime musem). Amazingly the car began to behave itself and with the recovery firm not seeing anything wrong left Jason with no option but to head for home - the first time we've loast a car mid-trip but fortunately he made it home safely. Rather forlornly the remaining Luddites headed off in the direction of Reims, where the early evening was spent exporling what remains of the Grand Prix circuit pits and grandstands followed by a couple of 'brisk' runs up & down the main straight. Overnight stop a few miles away in Fismes. |
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 Jason's woes |
 Hood not enough |
 Reims |
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 Arty Farty |
| Day 6 - Fismes to Home (330 miles) | ||||
| Hometime and with the highs & lows of the week starting to take their toll the most direct route to Calais is taken followed by the M25 during rush hour on a Friday evening! (not forgetting the 30mins at Dover docks trying to work out what in the mass of spaghetti under Skip's dash was causing sparks and blown fuses). A split decision on the best way home saw a couple of us get lucky with very little traffic down the A3 and then over the Hogs Back whilst the others wiled away their evening on the with a few thousdand others going round in circles on the M25! | ||||