Delighted to be re-united with Bob and excited to be heading into Europe, we set about getting organised to leave the UK.  Our first objective on reaching Europe was to attend the annual Abenteur & Allrad show at Bad Kissingen, Germany and had Bob arrived as per schedule we would have had plenty of time to get sorted out and make the 750km drive from Calais to the exhibition.  As things turned out we collected Bob in Southampton on the Monday which left us with three days to get over to Germany and in time for the first day of the show which started on the Thursday.  Ordinarily this would have been relatively straightforward but as the UK is no longer part of the EU and is now dealing with the implementation of new border controls, the paperwork for Leroy was quite involved and necessitated an Animal Health Certificate before he could travel.  The AHC replaces the previously, easily available, pet passport and is a multi-page document issued for any dogs, cats and ferrets entering Europe from the UK.  The inclusion of ferrets is a bit of a mystery, especially considering that the sport of ferret-legging is no longer.  Ferret-legging??  I hear you ask.  Well….

In the same vein as the Gloucester Cheese Rolling event, the hardy men up in the north of England had their own noble sport to determine courage, willpower and mental fortitude.  A simple contest whereby live ferrets were shoved down the front of their pants, the winner being the man who could tolerate the ferrets’ teeth and claws the longest.  Unlike the cheese rolling however, there were a few rules to standardise the competition.  The pants had to be roomy enough for the ferret to move from ankle to ankle freely and tied at the ankle to prevent the ferret escaping.  The ferret was required to have all of it’s 34 teeth and a full set of claws and neither the ferret nor the contestant could be under the influence of alcohol or drugged in any way.  Lastly, and obviously, no underwear was to be worn.  The current record for ferret-legging stands at five and a half hours.  Want to know more?  “King of the Ferret Leggers” by Donald Katz 2001!

…..maybe the sport is still going strong in certain quarters and there are a host of willing contestants on both sides of the Channel eager to test their manhood in this strange manner and therefore requiring of an AHC.

The AHC is a relatively new bit of legislature and, as we discovered, there are not many vets qualified to offer the service and we were told it would take up to three weeks to secure an appointment and subsequent certificate.  We must have contacted over a dozen vets before we struck lucky, finding a very helpful female vet in Romsey, just 10 miles outside Southampton.  We left the docks and drove straight over to the practice where we produced Leroy’s rabies certificate and had his microchip number verified.  On our side of things, that was it – no animal inspection, nothing.  We were then asked to return in 1-2 hours as this is how long it would take to fill in the required paperwork in order to issue the certificate.  This was just one example of the difficulties that the UK is having to deal with after Brexit and whilst the whole import and export side of things seems to be driving everyone mad, there is a general optimism that this will all be sorted out despite the fact that the UK has still not totally implemented full import checks whereas Europe introduced full customs requirements at the beginning of 2021. 

With Leroy sorted that just left Bob.  We were keen to get a full service done given his 10 weeks of inaction and we also needed new brake pads (and disks as it turned out).  Trying to get the car into a mechanics at such short notice was near impossible but, leading with our story so far, we managed to persuade the guys at New Forest Garage Services to shuffle a few other people around and get us in.  Of course it helps that Bob is a little unusual and anyone with an interest in Landy’s is usually keen to have a closer look.  Bob is now running better than ever so a big thank you to ‘Muddy Bottom’ and the team. 

By Wednesday morning we were ready to leave Southampton and drive the two and a half hours to Felixstowe and the EuroShuttle.  When we left UK in 1995, the Channel tunnel had only been operating for a year and any visits to France prior had been via the overnight car ferry, which we both separately recall as an horrendous journey that started with the inevitable excitement of travelling abroad and ended with prostrate bodies on every available flat surface and the loos covered in sick and worse.  The choppy crossing is only 21 miles wide between Dover and Calais and has a history of numerous and innovative crossings.  The fastest verified swim across is held by an Australian with a time of 6 hours, 55 minutes, impressively faster than the two-man pedalo which took 8 hours, 6 minutes. 

Taking the slip road towards the shuttle terminus we were slightly daunted by the sight of hundreds of trucks lined up over a distance of a few kilometres waiting to gain access to the loading area – no doubt slowed down by all the checking of paperwork.  Our lane, however, was virtually empty and we were able to drive straight up to the entry barriers where we collected our tickets that had been paid for online on the drive over and from where we were guided to the pet section for document inspection.  20 minutes later we were called for departure and 35 minutes after that we were in France!!

Driving off the shuttle and out of the port was weird in that there were no vehicles around apart from the handful or so that had made the crossing with us but, like all things, this soon changed as we joined the motorways heading towards Brussels.  We were snapped out of any lazy driving as we jostled for position amongst the fastest and heaviest traffic that either of us had ever experienced.  Throw in a passenger side mirror (on a right-hand drive vehicle) that we hadn’t got around to fixing and was only capable of showing a horizontal view of the road and ‘Welcome to Europe!” 

We arrived at Bad Kissingen at midday on Thursday and were directed to Camp 3 where we drove around amongst a motley assortment of overlanding vehicles to find a suitable camping spot.  There were 4 camps in total providing basic facilities for the hordes of people attending this huge 4x4 and overlanding festival.  The atmosphere was great with everyone very much at ease and more than ready to talk about their vehicle kit-outs, equipment and travel experiences.  There were over 300 exhibitors at the event and it would have been difficult not to find your overlanding vehicle of choice from the most compact to the luxury houses on wheels and everything in-between, but by far the best represented vehicle amongst the attendees was, you guessed it, the great British Land Rover.  In 2017 a new world record was set at the exhibition for the longest unbroken line of Land Rovers, taking the previous title of 516 Landys that was set in Portugal in 2014.  The German parade stretched over 7.4 km with 632 vehicles ranging from 1940s Series 1 80s to Range Rover Evoque convertibles, but what was quite remarkable is that over 80% of the vehicles were Series or Defenders.  Over 1500 Land Rover enthusiasts came from all over Europe to participate in the parade which was certified by the Guinness Book of Records on the spot.  How cool would it have been to take part in such an amazing event?

The Show finished on the Sunday with a mass exodus of vehicles from the various camping areas.  You can’t help but wonder where they all came from and where they were all going to?  We were heading towards the Austrian border via the Romantic Road / Romantistrasse, a popular route than runs 460km between Wurzburg (near Frankfurt) in the north and Fussen in the south.  The route wends its way through numerous picturesque medieval towns and villages typical of the Romanesque architecture that was utilised in the very early middle ages.  We saw many, many, many examples of original town walls, cobbled streets, half-timbered houses, castles and other impressive buildings that were unquestionably awesome given their age and state of preservation but rather sombre and a bit claustrophobic.   As we approached the border the atmosphere lightened and we were surrounded by the most beautiful alpine scenery complete with bell-ringing doey-eyed cows and, the icing on the cake, King Ludwig II ‘Disney’ castle!  Neuschwanstein Castle sits amid heavily forested sloping hills overlooking the beautiful Alpsee lake and it is easy to see how Walt Disney was inspired by its dream-like, fairy-tale qualities.  This castle is just one of Ludwig’s magnificent creations, an architectural and artistic legacy left by an introverted Bavarian king who succeeded to the throne, at the age of nineteen, in 1864.  Eccentric, mad and a dreamer are often words used to describe Ludwig who was known to be more than a little obsessed with Wagner, evidenced in the many nods to the composer contained within the castle, not least the grotto with coloured lighting, man-made waterfall and rocks, all straight out of a scene from the opera Taunhauser. 

Germany is the 6th largest country in Europe, one and a half times the size of the UK, with one of the longest highway systems in the world.  Although our preference is for the slow, more scenic routes, there have been occasions when we have joined the faster paced Autobahn which is a German experience like no other.  Around 70% of the Autobahn has a recommended speed limit of 130 kph but the reality is that there is no speed too fast (provided you are under 3.5 t) and whilst we were occupied with encouraging Bob to maintain a top speed of 90/100 kph in amongst the trucks on the far-right lane, cars were often just a blur as they whizzed past in the left lanes.  The fastest measured speed on the Autobahn, under everyday conditions, was a Porsche in 2010 that achieved 380 kph (236 mph), although if everything on YouTube is true, in 2021 a Czech businessman in his Bugatti Chiron posted videos of a virtual speedo showing a speed of 417 kph (259m mph).  Fortunately, the German love of precision is evident in their driving and the system works as it was designed to do with rigid protocols in place.  Undertaking, changing lanes without indicating or staying in a left lane other than to overtake is just not done and unless you want to incur the wrath of an uptight BMW driver, best avoided. 

German couple of the Autobahn.  He drives, she wakes up after a nap and
asks him “Why are you going 180kph?” 
“Because the road looks slippery.”

 In general we found the Germans to be super polite, law-abiding and tidy but maybe a little lacking in frivolity.  There is little or no rubbish strewn around and they are currently the best in the world at recycling, things tend to run on time and the quality of produce particularly charcuterie, bread and patisseries is excellent.  Weirdly, they still operate to a large extent with cash and many shops do not take credit cards, most of the supermarkets we went into only had one till open with an uncomplaining line of shoppers almost reaching to the back of the store.  They are friendly enough and do make eye contact but are sometimes a bit slow to smile or laugh – this, of course, may be due to their fall from 7th (2021) to 14th (2022) on the World Happiness ranking.   Many showed an interest in Bob which initiated exchanges that might otherwise not have taken place and we never felt uncomfortable even when camping in the middle of areas where people were walking their dogs. 

One thing we hadn’t expected was for Germany to be so beautiful.  Much of the country is covered with vast swathes of lush green forests, crystal clear alpine lakes, imposing mountain ranges and centuries-old, enchanting architecture.  Given that wild camping is banned, we weren’t too optimistic about being able to find free camping spots but we couldn’t have been more wrong.  Parking spaces within the forests have no restriction on overnight stays and provide a great space to park up for the night with the bonus of being right next to a hiking trail ready to be explored after breakfast the following morning and it was a recurring theme that once the day walkers had departed we had the forest to ourselves.

Having reached the Austrian border but not wanting to travel further south just yet, we drove to Lake Constance, the largest lake in Germany, and through the Black Forest. We were driving along a quiet alpine road, pretty much in the middle of nowhere, when we passed what appeared to be dozens of Landy’s parked at the side of the road, It took us a few moments to compute what we had seen before we stopped, turned around and went back for a closer look. As luck would have it we had happened upon Landypoint, Europe’s largest restorer of Land Rovers. There were Landy’s everywhere dating back to the 1940’s, some perfectly restored and others in various states of repair. What an excellent opportunity to sort out our wing mirrors once and for all, regardless of the fact that we now had quite an effective system for pulling out which involved Ian sticking his head out of the window to see what was coming before shouting instructions to me as to when to go and how fast to get on with it. Thirty minutes later we were back on the road with functioning mirrors, definitely safer but without the fun factor. We followed the River Danube for a short while along the most picturesque gorge road before crossing over the Rhine and over to Colmar in eastern France.  How amazing after 25 years living in Australia to be nipping from one country into another!  Colmar is at the southern end of the Alsace Wine Route and is a stunning part of France.  Being so close to the German border the Alsatians have spent considerable time under German rule over the years and, as such, are an unusual culture – not quite German but not quite French, although I did hear a mum say “Ooh La La to her small child so I’m thinking maybe more French?!  Colmar is at the southern end of the 170 km Alsace Wine Route that finishes close to Strasbourg.  The region sits between the west bank of the Rhine and the Vosges mountain range which is a stunning natural environment of waterfalls, mountain lakes, thick fir forests and castles (more than 500 in various states of disrepair) and forms a back-drop to the many vineyards, charming towns and villages that the area is famed for.  We dawdled through this lovely area enjoying the slightly softer and lighter atmosphere on the French side of the Rhine, culminating with a visit to Strasbourg before crossing back into Germany in order to follow the Rhine further north.

We hadn’t expected to enjoy Germany quite so much which was probably helped by the lack of tourists milling around.  Despite being the middle of summer, most of the people we saw on holiday were Germans with just a smattering of other nationalities.  Even the honeypot sites were uncrowded making parking and getting around really straight-forward.  What a great time to be exploring Europe as it would seem that international travel is still a long way away from getting back to a pre-pandemic normal.