Ramrod On Tour

[warren t claim]

Haven't you got some writing to be getting on with? 

[eddyramrod]

Probably, but today's a driving day as we're heading north.  Before we check out of the V8 we are listening to a not-entirely-reliable internet radio feed from Cyprus, of a show by the Med's top Elvis tribute, who we've seen many times when we were over there.  So we won't be on the road until about midday.

Anyway, I'm both retired and on us 'olideez (as the lovely Jane says) so my time is mine, all mine (bwahahahahahaa)!  Go and write some more bailiff or Evil Warren stories while you wait.  For total clarity: I believe you tell them very well and I enjoy reading them.

[hairnet]

Is the 1:18 blue transporter still 300€ in the gift shop

I wimped and bought a 1:43 for 30

 

Currently heading to Bruxelles for auto related shenanigans

[hairnet]

Spot from Ieper last night

[eddyramrod]

See you in Liege on Tuesday night?

[warren t claim]

12 hours ago, eddyramrod said:

Probably, but today's a driving day as we're heading north.  Before we check out of the V8 we are listening to a not-entirely-reliable internet radio feed from Cyprus, of a show by the Med's top Elvis tribute, who we've seen many times when we were over there.  So we won't be on the road until about midday.

Anyway, I'm both retired and on us 'olideez (as the lovely Jane says) so my time is mine, all mine (bwahahahahahaa)!  Go and write some more bailiff or Evil Warren stories while you wait.  For total clarity: I believe you tell them very well and I enjoy reading them.

Don't try to flatter me. You're the half of the writing team with a gift for words!

[hairnet]

No back tomorrow

[eddyramrod]

10 hours ago, hairnet said:

Is the 1:18 blue transporter still 300€ in the gift shop

I wimped and bought a 1:43 for 30

It took me long enough to work out you meant the Mercedes museum shop!  And the answer is, I don't know.  I looked at the prices of some of the goods and beat a hasty retreat.

Did the same at Porsche.

Did the same at Disney.

In terms of souvenir-hunting, this has been a rubbish holiday.  But, it's not over yet, anything could happen.  Today was Sunday though: prime car-booting day, and I haven't seen so much as a hand-painted sign pointing to a field.

Although.... I did see something special today.  Pics tomorrow.

[eddyramrod]

Well that was an interesting 90 minutes...

Our car has just been backed into by another guest at the hotel.  We were up in our room, the receptionist came up and told us so I went down to see what was what.

We're in a Motability car.

We're Brits in Germany.

The other party is Polish.

He's driving a Polish-registered Peugeot.

Oh what fun!  He couldn't really go anywhere as he's staying here too, so we've done all the paperwork we can do, and nobody's hurt which is the important thing.  I think our car should be driveable; if not, Motability will be getting more calls!  Oskar's car seems fine apart from a broken light lens.  Have some arty night pics...

And one of his...

Of course what this means now is, I can show you today's pics from our drive between Stuttgart and Linden, which is where we are now.  So, starting as I pulled out of the underground parking at the V8 hotel...

Then a shot from a petrol station...

And the really special one!  After checking in we decided to drive around looking for somewhere to eat (not as easy on a Sunday as it might be!).  I spotted this in traffic and turned round to follow, hoping he wasn't going to Berlin or some such, but no, he was only going down the road.

It's a 1967 Cadillac Eldorado, that he's owned for 20 years.  I complimented him, obviously.

[NorthernMonkey]

Not teaching granny to suck eggs, @eddyramrod, but if I were you, I’d be very cautious of driving overseas with the damage. Motability are brilliant in such circumstances…I’d be on the phone to them first thing to get their take on it.
Personally, I’d expect them to sort you a hire car out straightaway and repatriate yours for repair. Other police forces don’t tend to be as relaxed about driving with body damage etc as ours.

[eddyramrod]

I'm grateful for the input!  This is my first experience of outside-UK damage.  I suspect that big chunks of tomorrow will be spent on the phone.  After breakfast I'll see if I can open the bonnet, and crucially, close it again, in the hope of assessing the under-the-skin damage; I'll most likely also drive it a few yards in the car park as a test.    It doesn't seem to have dropped any fluids on the floor, which I'm considering a good sign.  Point very much taken about the obvious deformity!

[danthecapriman]

Liked for the spots Eddy! (mostly that gorgeous Eldorado!)

 

That really is terrible luck getting your own car stoved in while on holiday though. Hopefully it can be sorted out easily and without any stress. 
If it evens the score at all though, I demolished one of those Peugeot’s with a Volvo 740 years back😆 bloody thing!

[eddyramrod]

Well I've looked under the bonnet now - which opens and closes fine - and tried to push the bumper back into shape a bit.  The outer top mounting of the headlight is broken, but I've pushed the headlight more or less into its proper place.  The lights all still work, and the car drives fine up and down the service road in front of the hotel.  I'm now waiting for Motability's insurance to call me before I go anywhere more significant.

[eddyramrod]

...And I'm still waiting.  Meanwhile we pushed on with our original plan for today and drove a total of 60-70kms.  The little car behaved itself, no shedding, no dramas.

[lesapandre]

I'd get some clear reinforced gaffer-tape - the kind with the webbing in - (to avoid the 'taped-together' look black would present) and run it over the gap, it might even pull the bumper in a bit - you could use it to align the headlight too - seems (seems...) very minor.

Sorry about the hassle - 'abroad' throws these things up don't I know!

So I'd keep on keeping on. Enjoying the thread here. Belgium is a fascinating country and somewhat overlooked IMHO.

[bunglebus]

Hope you enjoy yourself. I'm a few miles behind you, north of Paris for a drop-off tomorrow morning, before scuttling back to Blighty sharpish!

[red5]

Eddie I assume you sorted that form for taking it abroad? Apologies if I missed it/you have. 

[eddyramrod]

9 hours ago, red5 said:

Eddie I assume you sorted that form for taking it abroad? Apologies if I missed it/you have. 

The one that gives us authority to take what's effectively a rental car out of the country?  Oh yes!  Don't apologise, it's a major point and if I'd overlooked that I would have been a right idiot.

Which ok, I can be sometimes, but on this occasion, I remembered and did it  

@lesapandre  Good call on the tape, but I might not need it.  I've reshaped the bumper by hand, enough that the join where it meets the wing looks much more normal; and pushed the headlight back into place too.  The lower corner of the bumper still looks pushed-in, but not broken, and after driving it yesterday I'm pretty confident of getting it home.

[eddyramrod]

So, latest pics of Fingers...

It's all as back-in-place as I can get it by hand.

One single car-spot yesterday...

And these are from Bad Nauheim, where Elvis stayed when he was in the army.

Pretty, isn't it?  They have a gorgeous park in the middle of town too, we spent a chunk of the afternoon just sitting around enjoying the sun (and eating ice cream).

Today we drive to Liege.

[Back_For_More]

Great to see it hasn't caused any issues Eddy.... Some greaat spots along the way too. 

Enjoy Liege and the Ardennes. You'll probably be using the motorways but the smaller routes around there are just fantastic for both the drive and the scenery.... 

Liege is a bit hilly fella so some bits are a walking hell.....  But Parc Boviere (iirc) is gorgeous. The old convent brewery, Cathedral, eglise St Jacques, Citadelle and the museums are pretty good too. Riverside is pretty,  but the industrial part a proper mess too.... 

Keep on having a blast...... Enjoy!

EDIT - IF COMING IN FROM AACHEN SIDE ON E40 - WATCH OUT FOR THE SPEED CAMERA HALFWAY DOWN THE HILL COMING TO THE LIEGE BRIDGE....  at night sometimes it's like being in a disco as it catches a lot out flying down the long descent. 

[eddyramrod]

Liege is only a staging-post, I'm afraid, and will remain so.  It's murder to navigate, not least because they're tearing up vast swathes of it to install a tramway.  We know how to pick our times!

Thank you for the tips though.

Liege is, to our untrained eyes, very much like Edinburgh.  Which means lovely to look at, but grossly overpopulated, and worst of all for someone using crutches or a wheelchair: cobbled!

Tomorrow: back to Calais.

[eddyramrod]

So here we are in Calais, with a bit of time to waste...

Honda Civic was actually in Liege.  I tried to get another shot as I passed...

Um.  Yeah OK.  Have a Renault van instead...

And that concludes Liege.  So now, Calais.  What a gorgeous town hall!

Random Citroen on-street...

And a couple of Renaults...

Little Cinq is a workie's car, right around the corner from our hotel.

[bunglebus]

That looks like my old Campus, right down to the removed black trims on the lower body

[Spottedlaurel]

25 is a good find nowadays in France, I don't think I saw any on the road there last year.

[High Jetter]

J

2 hours ago, eddyramrod said:

So here we are in Calais, with a bit of time to waste...

Honda Civic was actually in Liege.  I tried to get another shot as I passed...

Um.  Yeah OK.  Have a Renault van instead...

And that concludes Liege.  So now, Calais.  What a gorgeous town hall!

Random Citroen on-street...

And a couple of Renaults...

Little Cinq is a workie's car, right around the corner from our hotel.

Civic doesn't look like we had here, strangely. Moar of a Mazda vibe. Have you learned not to sit out front at cafe's?

[Spiny Norman]

Pretty sure we got those Civics here in the late 70s.
Great thread Eddy, looks like you're having a blast. 😎

[eddyramrod]

7 hours ago, High Jetter said:

J

Civic doesn't look like we had here, strangely. Moar of a Mazda vibe. Have you learned not to sit out front at cafe's?

I think that was the second Civic body we got in the UK.

As for the cafes: we lived nearly four years in Cyprus!  Sit out front and you might as well just go and buy your own cigarettes, at the rate of 60 a day.  Not how I want to treat my lungs!

[RickRirai]

On 6/3/2023 at 10:30 PM, eddyramrod said:

And back to our hotel.

(I used to drive one of these for work, many years ago.  It was.... an experience.  SKD 428T)

Just returned to AS after a few years away and was enjoying reading your post when I saw the V8 hotel, it's about a mile from where I work at Mercedes-Benz Sindelfingen!

Gutted I didn't log in a few days earlier so missed the opportunity to meet a shiter in the wild 😕

The museums and Autoworld around the hotel are cool, if you're ever back in the area it's deffo worth booking a works tour in the massive Sindlefingen works. It's well impressive.

However, if you or anyone else is in this region this place is an absolute shiters paradise http://www.fahrzeugmuseum-marxzell.de/bilder.html

It's rammed full of all kinds of shite and absolutely astounding.

[High Jetter]

5 hours ago, eddyramrod said:

I think that was the second Civic body we got in the UK.

As for the cafes: we lived nearly four years in Cyprus!  Sit out front and you might as well just go and buy your own cigarettes, at the rate of 60 a day.  Not how I want to treat my lungs!

You are correct re Civic, not sure what I was thinking of, it was late. Often found prices cheaper inside than when sitting out, abroad.

[eddyramrod]

9 hours ago, RickRirai said:

Just returned to AS after a few years away and was enjoying reading your post when I saw the V8 hotel, it's about a mile from where I work at Mercedes-Benz Sindelfingen!

Gutted I didn't log in a few days earlier so missed the opportunity to meet a shiter in the wild 😕

 

Aw bugger!  Yeah, it would have been great to have a meet up!  While I've been on this trip, 3 or 4 other Shiters have been the same side of the Channel, but we haven't managed to cross paths.  Thanks for the tips though, in case we're ever back there.

Never mind.  We are now at Dartford for tonight.  Walsall tomorrow.